Quick Links

• Our Church
• Our Core Values
• Our Logo Design & Symbolism
• Church History
• Frequently Asked Questions

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Our Church

Traditional Worship with a Progressive Message

Go in peace, serve the Lord!

The most important thing Grace does is gather for worship. In the sanctuary we generate energy which transforms each of us into disciples and the congregation into a center for mission. Our worship service takes place on Sundays at 10:00 a.m. Prior to service we gather for refreshments and fellowship beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the Parable Chapel.

We are a congregation that is diverse in membership and welcoming in our ministry. At Grace you will find singles and couples, children and the retired, gay and straight, the churched and marginally churched, artists and business owners, engineers and teachers, lawyers and librarians, those unemployed and those looking for a better opportunity. When you come to Grace, you will find people who have been members of this congregation since birth and those who have just become new members.

We are a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with about 4 million members. As members of the ELCA our faith and focus is the good news of Jesus Christ which gives us the freedom and the courage to work, wonder, discover, and boldly participate in what God is up to in the world.

Visit ELCA Website

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Our Core Values

Grace for All

God’s grace extends to all people without exception. As a community of faith claimed by Jesus, we ask how to live in this world that God so boundlessly loves. We welcome all to worship with us in the presence of God’s mercy and grace.

Restoring Creation

God, who is Creator of all, wishes us to care for the web of creation that sustains life. We trust the broad consensus of climate scientists that human action and patterns of consumption have harmed our ecosystem. We seek an ecological spirituality rooted in the Creator which actively mends the harm done to creation and desires the goods of the earth to be shared fairly with all people.

Arts Celebrated

God the Creator made human beings in God’s own image and called us to creative work in the arts. We celebrate the profound beauty created by visual and musical artists as they reflect the splendor of divine creativity. We also look to the arts to articulate our lament to God for all that is broken in our lives.

Children and Youth Loved

Jesus welcomed children, declaring that God’s kingdom comes to such as these. We love the children and youth who come among us as family, even as we enjoy our extended biological family members. We support organizations that help in the development and growth of young people who hold a special place in our hearts.

Education for Life

Even as we support our younger members in their growth in wisdom and in years, we understand that learning is a lifelong pursuit. We provide educational opportunities which acknowledge that God welcomes our questions about life’s most perplexing challenges. Faith does not stop our thinking but inspires us to think more deeply and complexly about the world we inhabit.

Serving Our Neighbors

God came in Christ not to be served but to serve. We are called to follow in Christ’s ways. We support community partners who work with the most vulnerable among us. We volunteer with local organizations that provide direct relief and advocate with governmental leaders on behalf of those most at risk. We support global work responding to disasters and injustice. We do God’s work with our own hands.

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Our Logo Design & Symbolism

Central to our logo is a circle, an ancient symbol for wholeness, completeness, and even eternity. Within Christianity, the Trinity has been described as a circle dance, whose loving movement opens up the dance of the Creator, Redeemer, and Comforter to all of creation. God’s wholeness offers wholeness to the world. The logo’s circle of divine grace holds images of God’s good creation: water, sky, green growth. At the base of the circle is water, invoking both the waters of baptism and the rivers that nourish Eau Claire. In the moment of our baptism, God claims us as God’s own; God then puts us in particular places like our city where we are to live faithfully. These waters, both baptismal and ecological, make life and growth possible. The waters in the image are flowing, witnessing to the movement of the living God.

Yet, God’s good creation is marked by the cross. The space of the cross makes clear that while God so loves the world, still that world is profoundly broken. As a community of faith, we commit ourselves to mending the brokenness of the world within and around us. Renewed in Jesus Christ, we serve the cause of the poor, the planet, and peace. We act to restore creation for the sake of our children and grandchild as an inheritance from God for them to tend.

The circle rests upon the word GRACE, the gift of God lovingly offered to all. The font chosen for “GRACE” indicates that God’s gift is contemporary and open, speaking to our own time and place of the joy and freedom God gives us. Beneath that word, we name our Lutheran identity and the richness of its confession of grace as central to God’s mission in the world. We are a church, a community of people who are called, gathered, enlightened, and made holy through the grace that God provides in Jesus Christ for the sake of the world.

While this description gives guidance to the meaning of our logo, we trust that God may speak to you through this art of things beyond what these words indicate but that you need to hear.

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Church History

Grace has been a part of Eau Claire for over 100 years. A strong faith in God and courage: the early church organizers were filled with both when they gathered on a bitterly cold January night in 1910 to organize Grace English Lutheran Church. There were 137 charter members.
After purchasing property at Second and Grand in 1912, it was another three years until the cornerstone was laid in September 1915.

Before the church construction was complete, services were held at the West Side Church and the North Side Church alternately. Pastor H.M. Thompson was the first pastor and conducted the Rites and Sacraments of the church for Grace’s young congregation. The church building was completed in 1916 and the Grace family had a permanent home.

Grace was the first Lutheran Church in Eau Claire to hold worship in English in the 1910s, provide radio a ministry in the 1940s, call an African American pastor in the 1960s, welcome a woman pastor in the 1970s, and proved a TV ministry in the 1980s. However, the story of Grace is not just 100 years of facts. It is the story of its people, the redemptive and restorative message of Christ and the progressive mission to engage with ministry within the church and mission outside the church.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where are you located?
We are located in the heart of Eau Claire, across the street from the Eau Claire County Courthouse. Our physical address is, 202 West Grand Avenue. Please join us for a worship service, text study and/or a special event. We’re excited to meet you!

Where do we park?
Parking is available on the street or in a lot on the west side of the church off of Oxford Street.
If you’re visiting the church during office hours, park on the street and use the Second Street entrance.

What time is worship?
For members of Grace Lutheran Church, worship is at the center of our life of faith. Worship starts at 10:00 a.m. on Sundays in the Sanctuary.

What time is fellowship hour?
Fellowship with refreshments begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Chapel.

What are worship services like?
Our worship is traditional with a progressive message. We believe Christian worship and community should be joyful and represent the highlight of each week for all people of all ages.

Visitors are not asked to stand or to introduce themselves during the service.

Who are we affiliated with?
We are a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with about four-million members in nearly ten thousand congregations across the United States.

Who can take Communion?
God’s word, water, bread, and prayer nurtures our faith and unites us in celebration. Central to our worship life is the presence of God through word and sacrament, Holy Communion. Communion is served every Sunday and all are welcome, including children who can receive Communion at the discretion of their parents. Gluten-free bread is offered as well as both wine and grape juice.

What can my children expect?
Children may stay with parents throughout the service. There are play bags available outside of the sanctuary doors containing books, puzzles and other quiet activities. There is a nursery down the hall from the sanctuary where parents may take to their child to soothe them.

Twice a month from September through May, children are invited to attend Sunday School during service. Children’s Time is also held every week during the service. During that time, the pastor invites children of all ages to come to the front of the church. Parents can feel free to join their children, should they wish.

How do I know what is happening during the worship service?
Each person receives a church bulletin from an usher. In it you will find the order of service with page numbers (example, p. 100) for items in the front of the hymnal like prayers, liturgy, and congregational responses. The bulletin will also list hymn numbers (example, #100) which are found toward the back of the Lutheran hymnal. Copies of hymnals and bibles are located on a shelf under each pew. If not, ushers will provide you with a copy when you are seated.

Are physical accommodations available?
Hearing assists may be requested from the ushers and the Sanctuary is handicap accessible from the 2nd Avenue entrance. Restrooms are also accessible.

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Coffee and refreshments are available prior to worship at 9:30 a.m. in the Parable Chapel near the Sanctuary. We look forward to seeing you soon!

If you have further questions, please contact us. Also, ushers will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.