About Us

What We Believe

Trinity Lutheran Church is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As a Reconciling in Christ Congregation, we intentionally welcome the LGBTQ+. We believe that God loves all people, regardless of skin color, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other factor. The only thing not welcome here is intolerance.

As our name suggests, we believe in the triune God, traditionally named Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and known by many other metaphors.

We believe Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh, through whom all things exist, and whose teaching, life, death, and resurrection are the good news by which God frees us to love God and our neighbors.

We believe the proclamation of God’s message to us as both Law and Gospel is the Word of God, revealing judgment and mercy through word and deed, beginning with the Word of creation, continuing in the history of Israel, and centering in all its fullness in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the written Word of God. They are inspired by God speaking through human authors, and they record and announce God’s revelation centering in Jesus. The Holy Spirit speaks to us through Scripture today to create and sustain Christian faith and fellowship for service in the world.

We believe that God does not need our good works in order to love us and save us, but our neighbors need our good works in order to live.

Trinity Lutheran Church of Valparaiso A.D. 1934

A Brief History

Trinity Lutheran Church of Valparaiso, Indiana, was founded on Trinity Sunday, May 27, 1934, in the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Schlundt at 257 Michigan Avenue. The worship service and organizational proceedings were conducted by the Rev. George Schutes. Following the service, a group of individuals met with Pastor Schutes to form a new congregation, which they called Trinity Lutheran Church. There were approximately 148 charter members, many of whom were former members of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Valparaiso.

Within two weeks, Mr. John F. Sievers, of Sievers Drug Store, a member of the new congregation, initiated the purchase of a large 80-year-old house, known as “the old Vincent place,” to be used as a church. The address was 201 Washington Street, at the corner of Washington and Chicago Streets, where the current church now stands. On June 10, 1934, they held their first worship service in this house. Pastor Schutes led the worship while standing on a box and using a music stand to hold his Bible and sermon notes. The members began remodeling the house to make it suitable as a church building and when it was dedicated on December 9, 1934, it had a worship area that could seat 200 people, an assembly room, a pastor’s study, a church office, and a kitchen, all on the first floor. In addition, it housed a five-room apartment on the second floor that was used as the parsonage. The congregation worshipped in the renovated house-church for the next 18 years.

ELCA – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America