St. Johns Lutheran Church on Lake Murray is 184 years old. 
And still focused on its mission of serving God’s people. 
Over the years their membership, like with many older churches, has dropped due to senior members passing away and younger ones leaving the area for college and careers elsewhere.
Right now, it is a nice family size church, but it has greater potential as it reaches out to a growing population. 
Pastor John Stirewalt was called nearly 2 years ago to help grow the church again. 
He had planted a church in Austin, TX, led other growing churches and was looking for another challenge. 
To say he is excited about St. John’s is an understatement. But there will be some challenges.
For one, many modern Christians don’t regularly attend church. The reasons are many and varied.
 “Churches need to completely understand the needs and wants of people seeking a church home,” Stirewalt said.
“We have to be sensitive to local Christians as we seek new members.” He has several ideas, but the best one was having lakeside services like Jesus did on the Sea of Galilee.
One way to make the services more meaningful is to incorporate new ideas into traditional services. They will put that to the test on Christmas Eve this month. 
There will be a special service on Dec. 24. They are calling it Christmas Eve Candlelight Lessons and Carols. 
The purpose is to bring people together in a warm fellowship of believers. They will have candlelight stories for children, seasonal music, traditional carols and communion. 
All are invited, regardless of denomination or church affiliation. So, put it on your calendar. Look for their ad in the chronicle and Fish Wrapper.

Do you have a ministry that you want to talk about? Contact me by phone at 803-957-5755 or email at 
Chuck.lexchron@gmail.com