ST. JOHN'S - OUR  MISSION

LOVE  God

LOVE  one another

make a difference

We are an evangelical Lutheran congregation with German roots.

A significant focus of our ministry program is to support an established German-speaking community in evangelical congregational life in the South-East of Melbourne.  We aim to give Germans living in Melbourne (either temporarily or permanently) an opportunity to access German church traditions (including in the German language) and enabling Christianity to be a relevant aspect in their daily experiences.

Although Australia is predominantly an English-speaking nation, St. John’s lies within the Greater Dandenong precinct – one of the most diverse multicultural cities worldwide.  It has more than two hundred different communities of language, faith, culture and heritage.  It is a more common occurrence that Germans in our community live in mixed-marriages with partners whose mother-tongue is English.  Their children grow up in the Australian context and generally prefer to form English-speaking relationships and connections.  Experience shows that third-generation German immigrants are considered to be well assimilated to such an extent, that German has become more of a foreign language to them and no longer a “language of the heart”. 

In recognition of the shift in significance of the German language in its community, St. John’s offers a wide range of ministry programs in both languages, occasionally simultaneously in bi-lingual services, to enable all family members and generations to access the evangelical Christian faith in a German Lutheran context.  However, preserving and passing on significant German cultural traditions to future generations remains a vital aspect of our congregational life as well.

We’d be very pleased to welcome you to our Christian family, regardless of whether you speak German or English or both.