Jesus Christ through worship, teaching the Word, Christian nurture, and ministry in and to the world. As Christ’s ministers, we are striving to build a community of God’s love, justice, and mercy, trusting God to lead us into faithfulness.

Celebrating our bicentennial in 2016, St. John is a congregation inspired by its past, growing in its present, and looking towards the future. We trace our history to the founders of New Albany, the Scribners, who saw the importance of faith as they established a community in the frontier. We also trace our history through Second Presbyterian Church, who courageously helped operate the southern stop of the Underground Railroad out of its church basement. Today, we continue that witness through a sisterhood being formed with the church with whom we share this history, Second Baptist, a primarily African-American congregation.

We are an urban church, often welcoming and ministering to persons experiencing homelessness and/or struggling with addictions. We are neither a conservative nor liberal church, though we have members from both ends of the spectrum. Instead, we try to be a church united in our shared love of Christ and desire to share his love, regardless of what differences we may have.

We are a community church, hosting the Retired Senior Volunteer Program and a free tax preparation service. Every Fall, we co-host a neighborhood street fair. On Mondays, we host MyClub, a unique program offered for youth and families of inmates. On Wednesdays (Oct-May), we offer Wednesday Night Live, featuring dinner, crafts, games and a brief lesson for families in our neighborhood. We also offer a community garden for members of both community and church to grow fresh produce.

We are the home of the Southern Indiana Great Banquet, a Cursillo-model weekend, during which participants go through a “short course on Christianity” which for most is a life changing experience of loving community, Word, Sacrament, and spiritual renewal.

Our worship is casually traditional, preceded by Study Groups for all ages. We have active handbell choirs for youth and adults, as well as vocal choirs and ensembles, under the direction of our talented music director.

We are blessed to be a church that has outgained its losses over seven years, and we hope to be a church family in which any person might find her or his place. As Pastor Allen likes to say, “we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we take Jesus very seriously.”