St. John's Church

09/03/2026

In this week’s Grace & Peace, Pastor Tom reflects on his many years of offering the invocation at the Walworth County Fair and the joys of sharing the fair experience with family.

In this year's opening ceremony, Pastor Tom's prayer draws on this year’s fair theme and the words of poet Wendell Berry, reflecting on how God beholds us and how we can behold him in the everyday wonder of community, harvest, and creation.

📖 Read this week's full Grace & Peace here: https://mailchi.mp/fa1db9189e24/st-johns-8497393

🎪 Join us this Sunday at the Walworth County Fair! St. John's is leading worship at Peggy's Park Stage at 10:00 a.m. with a message featuring Pastor Eric and Mya Haskins. (Our 8:30 a.m. service will still be held at St. John’s and available online.)

If you'd like to receive Grace & Peace each week, sign up at: stjohnselkhorn.com/connect

May you behold God everyday moments this week, trusting that you are beheld by Him. ✝️

08/28/2026

This week's Grace & Peace, Pastor Tom shares about meeting poet and Anglican priest Malcolm Guite while in London for his doctoral studies — and the insight he hasn't stopped thinking about since.

Guite's point was this: often it is the imagination that wakes first to the presence of God, and the intellect that follows. Before we can explain a doctrine, we feel God in a melody. Pastor Tom reflects on how the same is true of serving — that volunteering isn't what we do once we've found God, but one of the places we find him.

📖 Read this week's full Grace & Peace here: https://mailchi.mp/77200c5ff0ea/st-johns-8497288

🙌 THIS Sunday — Volunteer Sunday! Join us in the café area after each service to explore opportunities and talk with staff about where your gifts might fit.

✏️ Also included: Malcolm Guite's sonnet "O Sapientia."

If you'd like to receive Grace & Peace each week, sign up at: stjohnselkhorn.com/connect

May you find God this week in a place you hadn't thought to look — and may that discovery lead you to serve.

08/21/2026

🧹 MORE Workday is Saturday (TOMORROW)! 🧹

📅 THIS Saturday, August 22

🕗 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

We're getting the church ready for our Fall programs, and we'd love for you to be part of it! There's plenty to do — cleaning, organizing storage areas, and setting up furniture in our newly renovated Fellowship Hall (sneak peek in the photo🫣). ✨

☕ Food and coffee will be provided, so come hungry and come ready to work alongside your church family. Bring your friends, bring your kids, bring anyone who wants to lend a hand! 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

No sign-up needed — just show up with a can-do attitude. 💪

Whether you can stay the whole morning or just an hour, every bit helps.

See you tomorrow! 🙌

08/21/2026

This weekend is Kenya Sunday, and Pastor Eric is looking back on his own 2018 mission trip and how being out his comfort zone was deeply formational.

He shares three lessons that trip taught him and invites us to consider what God might want to teach us through our brothers and sisters around the world.

📖 Read this week's full Grace & Peace here: https://mailchi.mp/0ba2127c0e8c/st-johns-8497097

🌍 Join us for Kenya Sunday this weekend as we learn more about the work of our mission partners Good News Kenya and the Okoth Family

If you'd like to receive Grace & Peace each week, sign up at: stjohnselkhorn.com/connect

May we open our eyes, hearts, and lives to learn from others and grow in our understanding of the Body of Christ. ✝️

08/19/2026

Wow! We had a great weekend celebrating with all of you on Sunday during Worship in the Park and Annual Church Picnic. Baptism, backpacks, bounce houses, food, fun, and great teaching and stories – we couldn’t have asked for a better day. A special shout out and thank you WolfPack M.C. Kenosha, WI for partnering with us for their annual backpack giveaway! We’re so thankful for all of you and can’t wait for you to join us for all that’s in store this fall!

08/16/2026

Miss church? Catch up on the message "Come Up For Air" here:

Welcome to St. John's! If you're local, we invite you to join us in...

08/13/2026

This week's Grace & Peace, Pastor Eric shares a story about a joyful reunion between two three-year-old friends — and how it parallels the kind of community St. John's is called to be.

He reflects on volunteering as a joy-filled response to what God is already doing in our lives, and asks: what would it look like to bring that same anticipation and welcome into our Sunday mornings?

📖 Read this week's full Grace & Peace here: https://mailchi.mp/bacff6636396/st-johns-8496935

🙋 Sunday, August 30 — Explore ministry team opportunities at in the café area after the service

🧺 THIS Sunday — Annual Church Picnic! 10am service at the Sunset Park bandshell, featuring a backpack blessing, baptism, and followed by food and FUN!

If you'd like to receive Grace & Peace each week, sign up at: stjohnselkhorn.com/connect

May you be a friend like Gabriella's for someone this week — full of joy, anticipation, and welcome. ✝️

08/06/2026

This week's Grace & Peace is a little different — Pastor Eric shares something unexpected he discovered on his silent retreat.

He went in with a very specific plan for what he thought God would do. That plan didn't happen. Instead, in a quieter, more whimsical way, he found himself simply present with God and inspired to write.

Pastor Eric invites you to consider where you've stumbled into God's presence when you least expected it and what it might look like to stop planning long enough to notice.

📖 Read this week's full Grace & Peace here: https://mailchi.mp/150dad7831be/st-johns-8496798

If you'd like to receive Grace & Peace each week, sign up at: stjohnselkhorn.com/connect

May these simple poems spur you on to find God in unexpected places — leading to grace, peace, and even greater joy. ✝️

07/30/2026

This week's Grace & Peace tells the story of St. John's old altar, pulpit, and baptismal font and where they ended up.

Pastor Tom shares how member Al Balk took the retired wood and gave it new purpose. Using that imagery, he invites us to look at our own lives to explore what is being made new.
It's a picture worth sitting with: What feels old, worn out, or tossed aside in your own life right now, and what might God be shaping it into?

📖 Read this week's full Grace & Peace here: https://mailchi.mp/982a1830896c/st-johns-8496666

If you'd like to receive Grace & Peace each week, sign up at: stjohnselkhorn.com/connect

May you notice how God is renewing and remaking things in you, in others, and in the world around you.✝️

07/24/2026

This week's Grace & Peace opens at the door of a high school youth group, with an awkward teenager, a promised can of soda🥤, and an adult who made a bet he intended to lose.

Pastor Tom tells the story of the first time someone at church remembered his name -- and how that small moment became part of the beginning of a lifelong walk with Jesus.

If you've ever wondered where you might serve at St. John's, this one is worth a read. 💛 We are praying and planning for the year ahead in St. John's KIDS! + Students, and there's a place for you in it.

📖Read this week's full Grace & Peace here: https://mailchi.mp/539f8a2a7284/st-johns-8496410

📬Want it in your inbox each week? Sign up at stjohnselkhorn.com/connect

Worship this Sunday at 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. And mark your calendar 🗓️ St. John's KIDS! + Students officially kids off Sunday, September 13.