Love God. Love People. Make Disciples.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:36-39
Information about St. John’s – Vilmar and Pastor Keen
Brief Synopsis
St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Vilmar is a country church located roughly halfway between Allison and Greene, at a location formerly known as Vilmar. The church property is located in the heartland of a very rural, farming/agricultural community. The congregation has a strong German history and, by the grace of God, the church has flourished for the past 144 years. The church values and finds richness in traditional liturgical worship services each week. The members of the church are a close-knit, family-oriented congregation, who are supportive of each other and their pastor. They are a congregation that loves Jesus and wants to share that love with the community. The primary goals of the congregation are ministry, mission and outreach, stewardship, and education.
Statement of Purpose
The members of St. John’s – Vilmar are hearers of the Gospel. They are a people, called and sent by God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to be a community of faith, hope, and love; who witness to Christ and His coming Kingdom before all the world. For more information, click here to see the church’s constitution.
Worship Services
• Everyone is welcome to attend services and events at St. John’s – Vilmar. St. John’s worships on Sunday mornings. The services are very traditional, and are held at 10 a.m. from September to May, with Sunday School classes from 8:45-9:45 a.m. before the service. During the summer months (June, July, and August), worship is held at 9 a.m., and there is no Sunday School. Weekly activities can be found through the worship calendar link on the website.
• The liturgy for worship is from the Lutheran Book of Worship, Setting One. The church also has two other hymnals (With One Voice and Sing To the Lord) that are used for hymn selections.
• Holy Communion is observed twice a month on the first and third Sundays. All are welcome to receive the Lord’s Body and Blood who are baptized and believe that Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is truly present in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine in this sacrament for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. The first Sunday communion is distributed at the rail; on the third Sunday, communion is processional.
• The church also has an active senior choir that provides special music during the services from September through Easter. The Sunday school choir and other guests/groups provide special music on occasion as well.
• During Lent, mid-week evening Lenten Services are held on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Volunteers serve a light meal before the services (5:30-6:40 p.m.).
• Special services that are held at Vilmar include: Maundy Thursday, Thursday at 7 p.m.; Good Friday, Friday at 7 p.m.; Easter Sunrise Service, Easter Sunday at 7 a.m. (this is a special service held by the Luther Leaguers); Easter Morning Regular Service, Easter Sunday, 9 or 9:15 a.m., varies from year to year (this is the regular service that the pastor will lead) *there is an Easter Dawn Breakfast that is served by the Luther Leaguers in-between the services; Thanksgiving Eve Service, Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Christmas Eve, Dec. 24 at 6:30 p.m. (this is a combination service of the Sunday School youth program followed by a candlelight service led by the pastor); Christmas Day Service, Dec. 25 at 9 a.m.
• Other special services that vary from year to year: Sunday in the Park (random summer Sunday with a worship service at Wilder Park in Allison, followed by a potluck in the shelter house); Gospel Sunday (usually the first Sunday after Labor Day where we invite a gospel group to come and lead the morning worship service)
• Sunday Morning Fellowship of coffee, lemonade, and goodies was served by volunteers in the fellowship hall following the service.
• Each Service at Vilmar is live-streamed on our Facebook Page for those who cannot attend, or are not comfortable returning to worship with the pandemic yet. The service is also linked to our website for a month, with the archive of all the videos available on the church’s Facebook Page. Live-streaming will continue for all services into the future. The services are also broadcast on the local Dumont Cable Vision, channel 1005, throughout the week.
Location and Communities
St. John’s is truly a country church. The property is located one mile on a gravel road off a state highway, in a very rural, farming/agricultural community. There is a small town (Allison, pop. 1,100) located 5 miles south of the church, and another small town (Greene, pop. 1,000) located 5 miles north of the property. There are a handful of other small towns [Bristow (pop. 150); Aredale (pop. 46); Clarksville (pop. 1,350); Parkersburg (pop. 1,940); and Dumont (pop. 600)] located within a 20-25 mile radius of the church. The members come from all of these towns, plus a few more larger towns located a bit farther from the church, such as Hampton (pop. 4,200), Waverly (pop. 10,000), and Charles City (pop. 7,400).
NALC Congregation
St. John’s is a congregation of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). The NALC is a new Lutheran church for confessing Lutherans looking for a church that is faithful in its preaching and practice to the Holy Bible and to the teachings of the Lutheran Confessions. In keeping with the Lutheran Confessions, the NALC believes all doctrines should and must be judged by the teaching of scripture. For more information about the church’s confession of faith, click here to be linked to the constitution.
