Welcome to Peace Lutheran Church and the Peace Community Center!!
I hope these pages reveal to you how God is working through the people and ministries at Peace! We’re an urban congregation in the heart of the beautiful Hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma, Washington. In May 2009 we celebrate 100 years as a worshiping community at our location, S. 21st and Cushman!
Our mission: Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church is a diverse people of faith who extend God’s word in our neighborhood and larger community. We preach and teach the Gospel; we invite and welcome all people; and we serve God’s children as Jesus did.
Peace Lutheran Church seeks to be a place of welcome and peace.
Welcome
The colorful mural by Dimitri Kadiev on this page graces the alcove leading to the sanctuary at Peace Lutheran Church. Its inspiration is the theme, “All Are Welcome at the Feast.” Peace Lutheran Church and Peace Community Center in Tacoma, Washington, are a place where all are welcome at the feast, where the variety of people and gifts of our Hilltop neighborhood and larger community are shared and celebrated. We are rich in spiritual, ethnic, cultural, and generational gifts, to name a few. The Peace community is people! We are God’s children—created, gifted, redeemed by God. The meal we share together is one of spice, laughter, and love in Jesus’ presence. We gather every Sunday to be nourished by God’s Word, the meal of Holy Communion, and the support of the faith community. We grow in faith in Bible study and small groups. We give of ourselves to serve God by serving one another and the world.
Peace
Peace Lutheran Church is committed to extending peace in our neighborhood and larger world. True peace is grounded in God. We believe in an incarnational God. In Christ, God lives and acts in us and among us in the world. I love how The Message translates John 1:14, “The Word (Jesus) took on flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.” We are broken and our community is broken, but we believe Jesus is at work in our neighborhood, bringing restoration and peace. We are his instruments of peace, his body in this world.
The Hebrew word shalom best expresses this vision of peace, which is much more than the absence of violence and bloodshed. It’s the presence of community, wholeness, health, reconciliation, God’s justice. It’s said, “Peace begins when the hungry are fed.” We seek to follow God’s call to extend the feast to all people. We provide free hot meals and clothing, short-term lodging through Tacoma’s Phoenix (Homeless) Housing network, emergency assistance, a community gathering place, and many ministries with children and youth that help them develop holistically (physically, emotionally, academically, and spiritually). These are some of the ways we seek to live out God’s call to charity and justice expressed by the prophet Micah, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8) We’re here to help everybody know God’s deep love for them, realize their God-given potential, and find a place to use their gifts to serve.
Peace Community Center is Peace Lutheran Church’s primary outreach ministry in the Hilltop neighborhood.
You are welcome to share in the feast and to be part of Peace Lutheran Church’s peace-making work of extending the feast to all. With your presence and gifts, our community will be richer.
God’s peace and joy to you! Pastor John