From post World War II America to the present day, Gloria Dei has fostered an entrepreneurial spirit and an abiding desire to be conduits of God’s love. For over 70 years this community of faith has continually imagined beyond our corner of northwest Rochester and reached out to the world.
Gloria Dei’s first members generously provided the gift of community decades later— for people they would never meet. That same ability to dream God-sized dreams and creatively imagine possibilities remains in our life-blood in 2024. In recent years:
We navigated a global pandemic and emerged on the other side with increased energy and growth in each of our worship services, Sunday school, and our one-of-a-kind contemplative practices ministry.
We have seen an increase in our Sustenance Fund ministry which addresses housing and food insecurity issues. In fact, we are regularly one of the top givers to Lutheran World Relief in the whole country!
Organizations and nonprofits serving the broader Rochester community are now meeting in our building as they seek to serve people in crisis.
In a time when many churches are declining, we are thriving.
We live in exciting times.
We communicate our mission of welcome and love of neighbor in many ways. The mission comes alive whenever…
A volunteer stocks the mini pantry outside our building to help feed our hungry neighbors.
A Sunday School teacher prepares an exciting and creative lesson on Saturday afternoon.
A person walks through our doors for the very first time and is warmly welcomed into the community.
A Rochester nonprofit agency utilizes our building as a base of operations to care for our neighbors.
We also concretely communicate our mission through our building. Over the past year we have identified ways to improve our building - without adding an inch to our space - so that our welcome and love can be clearly communicated. Take a look at the following pages to see what we have come up with.
