Our Story

Bethel has been in the Lake Highlands community since 1953.    It has always been a ministry of the good news of Jesus, offering worship, growth, and care in the name of Jesus. Daycare has been a ministry since 1965, when the present facility was built, and we have offered many other ministries to our community over the years.  Bethel is a Lutheran church, meaning we find our historical roots in the Protestant Reformation  of the 1500’s in Germany, as well as from Lutheran immigrants to this country in the 1840’s.  Our forbears settled first in Missouri; thus we are associated with a group called the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS for short).  We honor our past, but are firmly in the present, offering an opportunity for people to encounter God and to help shape their lives around His Word, as well as being a church that knows God has put us in this community at this location for a reason.

Bethel is a Lutheran church. Lutheran followers of Jesus trace their roots to Martin Luther, who lived in the 1500’s in Germany, and started a reformation in the church to bring it back to the good news of Jesus and the teaching of the Bible. Bethel is a member of the Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod, (LCMS), so called because settlers from Germany came to the USA for religious freedom in the 1800’s, landed at New Orleans, and came up the Mississippi River to settle in Missouri. Synod is simply a word that means a group of like-minded people. Lutherans are what is considered a main line denomination. Emphasis on salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and reliance on God’s Word alone to direct our teaching and living are hallmarks of Lutherans.

Basic beliefs include belief in the Trinity, that God has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, acceptance of creeds such as the Apostles’ creed and Nicene creed, the use of two sacraments, Baptism and Holy Communion, and above all, that we are saved by grace through Jesus Christ and all He has done for us.

 

 

Bethel honors its past while looking ahead to our future. These are some significant milestones in the life of Bethel.

 
  • First worship service in 1952

  • First building on Peavy Rd.,  1953

  • Education:  Day care begun in 1965

  • Current building on Northwest Highway dedicated in 1965

  • Gym dedicated in 1980

  • Contemporary worship begun in 1994

  • Narthex and music suite dedicated in 1998

  • Highland Meadows Elem. mentoring program begun in 2014

  • Worship in Spanish begun in 2017

  • Worship in Kinyarwanda begun in 2019