Office Hours
8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. Monday - Friday

At Nokomis Heights, our ministries are not the work of our pastors alone, but of all of us as we are able.  These include: 

• Feeding the hungry:  Our congregation participates in delivering hot meals to persons in our community who are homebound, by providing drivers for Meals on Wheels for a full week of meal deliveries, once every six weeks.  From time to time, we serve as volunteers to pack meals for shipment to developing nations, at Feed My Starving Children.  Regularly, we collect and deliver food items and cash contributions to Community Emergency Services, a local food shelf and social service organization.  Many of these activities are organized by our Christian Action committee.
• Clothing the naked:  We help make it possible for Our Saviour’s Shelter in South Minneapolis to provide housing for the homeless by serving meals at the shelter about once a month.  Every summer, we help build affordable housing in the Twin Cities by participating with other churches in our neighborhood as the Nokomis Builds team of volunteers for Habitat for Humanity.  Throughout the year, those of our members who enjoy quilting assemble beautiful and warm covers for donation to people overseas and gifts to children newly baptized in our church.
• Welcoming the stranger:  As a partner congregation with Trinity Riverside Lutheran congregation near downtown Minneapolis, we welcome immigrants to our community from Ethiopia, Somalia, and other regions of East Africa.  We provide financial support to this unique congregation without walls.  From time to time, as a congregation we have helped individual refugees resettle in our community, working with Lutheran Social Services.  A Welcoming Group within our congregation is working to find ways to welcome those who have been excluded or have felt excluded from our church community, in particular gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and their families.
• Visiting the sick:  Pastoral visits are made to hospitalized or homebound members of our congregation, and our prayer chain supports members in need with our prayers.

“And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  Micah 6:8b 

• Doing justice:  From time to time, our congregation provides an Offering of Letters, writing letters to our government representatives to advocate on behalf of the poor or hungry in the United States and worldwide for legislation regarding policies supported by Bread for the World.  Donations collected during our Sunday morning coffee hours (after worship in the summer, or during the Adult forum between worship services in the fall, winter and spring) are used to provide partial support of Dr. Mamy Ranaivoson in Nairobi, Kenya.  Dr. Ranaivoson is the Program Assistant for Health Ministries of the ELCA Global Ministries and the Africa Regional Coordinator of HIV and AIDS for the Lutheran World Federation.   Members of our congregation support the development of young women in Ethiopia by sponsoring their education at a school in Hosanna, Ethiopia, and other schools, through R.E.A.L. (Resources for the Enrichment of African Lives).  The coffee served during these coffee hours is Fair Trade coffee.  For the convenience of those coming to our church building, Fair Trade coffee obtained as part of the Lutheran World Relief Coffee Project is available for sale at cost, in our building’s courtyard.
• Loving kindness:  We provide support and friendship to each other in a variety of small groups.  The Friends in Christ group provides seasonal social opportunities for adults, while the New Heights group provides field trips and other activities geared especially for older adults and retirees.  Various women’s circles within our congregation provide opportunities for Bible study, fellowship, and service.  The Ladies Fingers group cares for persons celebrating weddings or grieving at funerals by serving food for receptions.
• Walking humbly with our God:  Throughout the fall, winter, and spring, we seek to learn more about the Bible, contemporary issues, and our faith during our Adult Forum hour each Sunday morning.  In the seasons of Advent and Lent, we enjoy time together as the family of God through soup suppers and worship on Wednesday evenings.

We also strive to support children and family life, and the daily lives of parents, in the following ways: 

• Parents’ Morning Out:  To help parents in our community manage their busy lives, we provide drop-in child care in our building’s nursery on Monday and Friday mornings.
• Vacation Bible School:  Each August, scores of children not only from our congregation but also the surrounding neighborhood enjoy a week’s worth of creative Bible story-telling and activities.  Our building is specially decorated for the occasion, according to the theme for the season.
• FLIGHT (Families Learning in God’s House Together):  A few times each season, our Adult Forum and Sunday school hour are utilized instead for a combined learning session involving parents and children together.
• Family Camp at Lake Wapogasset Lutheran Bible Camp:  Each August, couples and families make the short trek to western Wisconsin for a weekend of “roughing it” in air-conditioned lodges, to go boating, play board games, enjoy sports and crafts, and worship together by the lakeside campfire.
• Youth activities:  The middle school and high school-aged youth of our congregation meet several times a year for service and social activities, and typically make an out-of town trip during the summer for a week’s worth of community service and Christian living together at such venues as YouthWorks, or national Lutheran youth gatherings.    We seek to provide a safe environment for our young adults to discuss matters of faith, sexuality, and contemporary issues.
• Confirmation classes:  During the fall, winter and spring, middle school-aged children of our congregation receive more formal education in the Bible, Christianity, and the Lutheran faith. 
• Sunday school:  is provided during the fall, winter and spring each Sunday from 9:15 to 10:15 am, for children aged two through high school, in age-appropriate settings.
• Nursery: is provided during fall, winter and spring during the 10:30 am Sunday worship service for children from infancy through kindergarten.

Finally, we enjoy “making a joyful noise.”  Music is good for the souls of both those who sing and enjoy the fellowship of rehearsals, and those who hear and worship along in their hearts. 

• Adult choir:  Our adult choir is open to all, from teens through 100, and meets each Wednesday evening for rehearsal, typically at 7:00 p.m.
• Children and youth music events:  While we seek a staff person to serve as a children’s choir director, we plan to organize specific musical performance occasions for our youth to contribute to our worship a few times each season.  The participants will be recruited on an event-by-event basis, and will learn music and rehearse together a few times before the event.  This is a chance for busy youth (and their parents) to participate in music without having to make a year-long commitment.

Our Ministries