Church Services | St. John's Lutheran Church Of Vesta MN

Your Place to Connect With God

St. John’s Lutheran Church is a member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.

All are welcome to our weekly church service in Vesta at 9:00 a.m. with Pastor Manian. Holy Communion is celebrated the last Sunday of the month. Sunday School begins at 10:10 a.m. until 11:10 a.m., every Sunday following the church service.

Pastor Manian also serves the Peace congregation in Echo with a weekly church service at 10:30 a.m.. Holy Communion is celebrated at Peace the first Sunday of every month.

Our Beliefs:

1. We believe that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23 NIV) What does that mean? It means that God has requirements for each one of us. He calls us to be parents and children, students and teachers, employers and employees etc. When we don’t carry out the responsibilities that he gives to us, or when we do them half-heartedly we fail in the responsibilities that he has given us. The result of that failure is sin. Sin causes us to fall short of God’s glory, it causes us to fall short of God’s demands for us. The result is that we deserve to be punished for our sins. This is God’s law.

2. But all “are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came through Jesus Christ.” (Romans 3:24 NIV) What does that mean? It means that the punishment that we deserve for our sins has been taken upon Jesus for our sakes. Rather than punishing us for the wrong that we did, God sent Jesus to earth to take our place on the cross to bear our punishment. Through Jesus death our sins are forgiven. Through Jesus perfect life we are given holiness. All who believe in Jesus have their sins forgiven and have his perfect life placed upon them. We are saved because God loved us enough to send his son to be our savior. All who believe in him will be saved. This is God’s gospel.

3. Therefore “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) What does this mean? It means that God’s love changes our hearts. Faith in Jesus changes our lives. We are motivated by God’s love for us to love God and others. Therefore we are going to live our lives in a way that puts God first, others second and ourselves after that. The 10 Commandments serve as an excellent guide for Christian living. We obey these commandments out of love for God to show our thankfulness for his forgiveness. This is God’s will for our lives.

4. We believe “the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:15-17 NIV) What does this mean? These and all other teachings are found in the Bible. The Bible is our only source of salvation and church teachings. We believe that the Bible is inspired (written by God through humans so that every word is the very word of God) and true. The Bible is without error, reliable and sufficient. God has revealed everything that we need to know for salvation in the Bible so that we can be saved and live thankful lives as a result of our salvation. This is God’s message to us.

For more information on what we believe, teach, and confess please visit our church, speak to our pastor, or visit our Synod website Wels.net.

We believe and confess the three ecumenical creeds, the Apostles, Nicene and Athenasian Creeds. We also confess that the Lutheran confessions as compiled in the Book of Concord of 1580 are a true and accurate confession of our faith because they teach what Scripture teaches. Historically this was called a quia subscription to the confessions.