About Worship
Worship at All Saints might look and feel a little different. We carefully and prayerfully select a worship theme each season, and we choose songs and liturgical elements that help communicate that theme and bring us closer to God and to one another.
All Saints Lutheran Church is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and participates in the Synod Authorized Ministry (SAM) program offered by the Southeastern Iowa Synod. Bishop Amy Current has authorized Wanda Barber, Matthew Reece, and Julie Schoville to be Synod Authorized Ministers able to preside over all worship services and offer pastoral care. The Synod provides training and instruction throughout the year and fully supports this program.
Lent Seasonal Theme Write-Up
Written by the Director of Music Ministries
Called to be disciples; led by the light
For the season of Lent, the worship theme “Called to be disciples; led by the light” invites us into a journey of deepening faith and intentional following. Lent is a time to listen again for Jesus’ call: spoken beside the waters of baptism and echoed in every moment of repentance and renewal. As we walk with Christ through scripture, prayer, and worship, we encounter Jesus as the source of living water, meeting human thirst with grace that cannot be earned and love that does not run dry. In this season of honest reflection, we are reminded that discipleship is not about spiritual perfection but about trusting the promise of God’s mercy and allowing faith to shape how we live.
Led by the light of the world, we follow Jesus’ example of preaching good news, teaching with compassion, healing the broken, and drawing others into life-giving community. The light that guides us through Lent also exposes what needs healing within us and among us, calling us to lives marked by humility, courage, and hope. As disciples formed by grace, we are sent not only to believe but to embody Christ’s love: bearing light into places of shadow and offering living water to a thirsty world. This season prepares us to proclaim, with renewed clarity, that we are called, forgiven, and sent, led always by the light of Christ.
Altarscape
Thank you for creating the beautiful altarscape to emphasize the theme for the season Julie.
Color for the season
Lent: Purple is typically associated with Lent, suggesting repentance and solemnity.
Lent Information
Holy Week is the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. If you have never gone through Holy Week, you may be wondering: “Why is this week different from all other weeks?”
During Holy Week, the church journeys with Jesus through the final moments of his life, his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the grave. Holy Week invites each one of us to go on pilgrimage: to journey with Jesus through the gates of Jerusalem, to eat with him and hear his commandment to love one another, to stay and watch with him in the garden, to accompany him on the way to Calvary, to be present at his death, and to dance for joy at his resurrection.
Let this Holy Week be your invitation to set your countenance on Jerusalem and, like Jesus, to journey to the Passover feast. Let us experience the remembrance of God’s saving deeds and encounter firsthand the power of the crucified and risen Christ to save and heal us.
Excerpt taken from https://www.trinitysa.org/blog/2023/3/30/what-is-holy-week
Maundy Thursday Worship
There will be a Maundy Thursday Worship Service on Thursday, April 2nd at 7 pm. This worship service will include Holy Communion, Laying on of Hands, and the stripping of the altar.
From the resource Sundays & Seasons – Our Lenten observance comes to an end, and we gather with Christians around the world to celebrate the Three Days of Jesus’ death and resurrection. On Maundy Thursday, we remember Christ’s last meal with his disciples, but the central focus is his commandment that we live out the promise embodied in this meal. As Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, so we are called to give and receive love in humble service to one another. Formed into a new body in Christ through this holy meal, we are transformed by the mercy we have received and carry it into the world. Departing worship in solemn silence, we anticipate the coming days.
This link will open the congregational text for the Maundy Thursday Worship service (04.02.2026).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_DUC2x3S7ETEZ_pIXH-0gO6PwemSIjVI/view?usp=sharing
Good Friday Worship
There will be a Good Friday Worship Service on Friday, April 3rd at 7 pm. This is a continuation of the Maundy Thursday Worship Service.
From the resource Sundays & Seasons – Life and death stand side by side as we enter into Good Friday. In John’s passion account, Jesus reveals the power and glory of God, even as he is put on trial and sentenced to death. Standing with the disciples at the foot of the cross, we pray for the whole world in the ancient bidding prayer, as Christ’s death offers life to all. We gather in solemn devotion, but always with the promise that the tree around which we assemble is indeed a tree of life. We depart silently, and we anticipate the culmination of the Three Days.
This link will open the congregational text for the Good Friday Worship service (04.03.2026).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cVu8BnzPqmnMEAiQmCBU9ZZtnF5WKtAU/view?usp=sharing
Easter Season (04.05.2026 – 05.17.2026)
Theme & Write-up
Written by the Director of Music Ministries
Jesus is the Way: Opening the Gate to New Life
In the radiant season of Easter, we gather as a community anchored in the resurrection hope that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. As the risen gate-opener, Jesus does not merely point us toward new life — he is the passage through which we walk from death into abundant living. This truth sustains us especially in seasons of adversity, when the path forward feels uncertain or the weight of the world presses heavily upon us. It is precisely in those moments of struggle and doubt that our faith is refined and deepened, and we discover anew that the risen Christ has already gone before us, holding the gate open with nail-scarred hands. Easter does not promise a life free from hardship; it promises a Savior who walks through every hardship with us.
As we journey through this Easter season together, we are invited to experience the renewal that only Christ can offer — a renewal that is not a single moment but a continual, daily unfolding. The love of Jesus is not seasonal or conditional; it is the same yesterday, today, and forever, a constant and unwavering presence that calls us by name and refuses to let us go. The Holy Spirit, our Advocate and guide, moves among us and within us, illuminating the way when we cannot see it clearly, breathing courage into weary hearts, and drawing us ever more deeply into the community of the resurrection. Together, as an Easter people, we are called to walk through the open gate — not alone, but carried by grace, guided by the Spirit, and bound to one another in the unending love of the risen Christ.
Color for the season of Easter
White – the symbol of light, typifies innocence and purity, joy of the resurrection, and glory.
Sunday, April 5th – Easter Sunday
Easter Breakfast & Egg Hunt
On Easter Sunday, April 5th there will be an Easter Breakfast (8:30 – 9:45 am) and an Easter Egg Hunt for the children.
Ardor (Worship Musicians)
The musicians rehearse from 9:00 to 9:45 am every Sunday morning. You are invited to join us in leading music during the worship service. The musicians for worship can find the service orders and music in the crate on the back pew in the sanctuary for each week. Contact the Director of Music Ministries or the church office if you plan to help lead worship.
Worship Information
The Sunday morning Worship Service will be at 10 am in the sanctuary.
This link will open the congregational text for the Sunday worship service (04.05.2026).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ok2FQPzUUNR1CCG0IjcbIkxDOl48oO-z/view?usp=sharing
Introduction
Sunday is the day the Lord has made! Christ is risen, and through him all creation is made new! Indeed, “God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34): Christ’s resurrection truly brings life to everyone. We sing hymns of praise, gather around sacred words, and proclaim God’s faithfulness, power, and love in the feast of holy communion. With the women at the tomb, we are astonished, elated, and grateful. We depart with joy to proclaim the good news of God’s endless love.
Prayer of the Day
O God, you gave your only Son to suffer death on the cross for our redemption, and by his glorious resurrection you delivered us from the power of death. Make us die every day to sin, that we may live with him forever in the joy of the resurrection, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Scripture
Acts 10:34-43
God raised Jesus on the third day
Peter’s sermon, delivered at the home of Cornelius, a Roman army officer, is a summary of the essential message of Christianity: Everyone who believes in Jesus, whose life, death, and resurrection fulfilled the words of the prophets, “receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Ps. 118:24)
Colossians 3:1-4
Raised with Christ to seek the higher things
Easter means new life for us as it first meant new life for Christ. His resurrection reshapes the entire focus and motivation for our lives since we are now hidden with the risen Christ in God.
John 20:1-18
Seeing the risen Christ
John’s gospel describes the confusion and excitement of the first Easter: the stone is moved, disciples race back and forth, and angels speak to a weeping woman. Then, Jesus himself appears.
Fellowship Time
After worship there is time for refreshments and fellowship in the gathering space.