About — Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church

About Us

Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We are a Christian community dedicated to growing the personal faith of our members, strengthening the support and connection between our members and becoming a religious resource in our urban neighborhood surroundings. GA thrives through a foundation of service to Christ and a commitment to spiritual development and outreach.

Who We Are

Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church was founded in 1865 by a group of Swedish immigrants, and quickly became a haven for Scandinavian Lutherans. Following World World I additional services began to be held in English. Today, GA holds services in English and ministers to a diverse community. We are rooted in our proud Swedish Lutheran heritage, while seeking to welcome and spread the message of God’s grace to all.

GA is a member of the The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with nearly 3.3 million members in more than 8,900 worshiping communities. The ELCA is in Full Communion with the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ, the Moravian Church, and the Reformed Church in America.

What We Believe

GA is a community of people of all different faith backgrounds and journeys, while as a congregation we are rooted in our Lutheran identity. Lutherans believe that the central message of Christianity is that God’s love and grace are freely given to all people through Jesus Christ. We understand to be Lutheran is to be ecumenical – committed to the oneness to which God calls the world in the saving gift of Jesus Christ, recognizing the brokenness of the church in history and the call of God to heal this disunity.

This statement is read before each service at GA: “At Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church we welcome all who are seeking God’s love and grace. We welcome all because God welcomes all. This welcome includes all races or cultures, sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, or relationship status. We welcome all without regard to addictions, physical or mental health, imprisonment, socio-economic circumstances, or anything that too often divides us. Our unity is in Christ.”
We have an Open Table at GA, which means that everyone without exception is invited to receive the bread and wine at communion. This is Christ's table and Christ welcomes all.
At GA you’re going to hear a lot about grace. Grace is a free gift given to someone who did nothing to earn it. We believe that our relationship to God is determined not by our striving up to God, but by the free gift of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Grace is the crucified love of God. At GA you will hear an unrelenting confession of grace for all— for us and for our enemies.
Although all of us are the chosen people of God who are redeemed in God’s infinite mercy and love, we remain broken in a broken world and are always in need of the grace of Christ. We are all both fully sinner and fully saint. Our identity is grounded in the recognition that we simultaneously fall short of God’s love and receive it continually as a gift that has no bounds.
Lutheran Theology highlights a distinction of Law and Gospel. The Law acts to reveal our need for God’s grace, and the Gospel gives us the balm of God’s grace that we all so deeply need. Through the Law/Gospel dialectic we are reminded that we are consistently both sinners and saints, who are constantly reliant on God’s grace.
GA is a welcoming and affirming congregation meaning that we see LGBTQ+ identities as gifts of God’s diverse creation. We seek to celebrate and affirm God’s LGBTQ+ children and their relationships.
The ELCA recognizes Same-Sex Marriage, and GA is affirming in our stance in supporting Same-Sex Marriage.
As church we are called to confess the sin of racism, condemn the ideology of white supremacy and strive for racial justice and peace. Beyond statements and prayers, we are also called to act and respond to injustices. We invite you to commit to anti-racist actions at ELCA.org/RacialJusticePledge

Rev. Chris Chantelau

Consulting Pastor

Pastor Chantelau has 28 years of experience as a Pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (“ELCA”). He holds a B.A. in Music from Gettysburg College, a master’s in Divinity from Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary, completed two years at Fordham University School of Law and has served four other Lutheran congregations in Pennsylvania, New York, and most recently in Towson, Maryland.