About us Ministries Contact us Doctrine Online Library Home

Sunday Worship Services

Worship Time: 10:00 am

A Confessional Lutheran Worship Service
based upon God's Word.

Worship Location

Please call 803-361-2739 for information
on our current worship location

Contact Info

Pastor Glenn Oster

Phone: 803-361-2739
Email: goster@CLClutheran.com

Mailing Address

Gift of God Lutheran Church
5907 Steamboat Landing Ct.
Burke, Virginia  22015

Our Purpose

Gift of God's purpose is to preach Christ as the Savior for all mankind.

We strive, by the grace of the Redeemer, to maintain the true Scripture doctrine and confessions which our Lord restored to the church through Martin Luther 500 years ago (See Doctrine).
HOME | LIBRARY | DOCTRINE | ABOUT US

Gift of God Lutheran Church - CLC
- Our History -
 
 

40 Years of God's Grace

November 1983
to
November 2023

In 1982, Pastor Stephen Kurtzahn of Living Word Lutheran Church (Hendersonville, NC) was asked to visit a small group of confessional Lutherans in the Greater Metro D.C. area.  Having moved to the area from California, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, this group had two things in common - they all had previously been members of CLC (Church of the Lutheran Confession) congregations, and were frustrated by the lack of confessional Lutheranism in the Metro D.C. area. 

In December 1983, this small group of dedicated Christians organized as Gift of God Lutheran Church, and applied for membership with the Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC).  Supported by the CLC, Pastor Paul F. Nolting was called to be Gift of God's full-time pastor.

For the first ten years, Gift of God Lutheran Church worshiped in the Everly Chapel, Fairfax, VA.  In 1992 the congregation moved into their current worship facility at the Fairfax Old Town Hall.

In 1995, Gift of God and Living Word (Hendersonville, NC) formed a joint parish, with Pastor Terrel Kesterson conducting services two Sundays a month, with lay services the other Sundays.

In 1998, Living Word Lutheran Church (Hendersonville, NC) disbanded, and Gift of God  found itself unable to financially support a pastor by themselves.  They called retired pastor Glenn Oster (Columbia, SC) to serve them on a monthly basis.  The congregation conducted lay services the other Sundays of the month.  This arrangement has worked well for the last twenty-five years, with Pastor Oster continuing to fly into Dulles Airport once a month for visitations and Worship Services.

Although Gift of God  remains small membership-wise, we have been able to comfort and encourage with God's Word many dozens of confessional Lutherans over the years who have temporarily lived and worked in the Metro D.C. area.  We have strived to always be a "Gift of God" to those who are looking for the comfort and encouragement that only comes from the pure Word of God.
 
Please read the article below about the experience of a soldier visiting our congregation.
 
Article from Women in Fellowship, Issue # 30, Spring 1995
 
        I am a soldier in the U.S. Army and with this chosen profession I am afforded the opportunity to live in many different cities and countries.  Some years ago, I was assigned to the Washington D.C. area.  After searching upon arrival there, I found a small congregation which met at the Old Town Hall in Fairfax, Virginia, with Michael Wilke for its pastor.  Now I realize this was the first gift; opportunity to worship regularly with others.
        As I approached the Old Town Hall, I saw a family waiting outside the building . . . . the Wilkes.  I thought it strange that the pastor did not have access to the church.  It was locked.  Before long, someone with a key opened the building.  When I had entered the hall, I discovered it was only a big empty room:  no altar, no pews, no organ, no pulpit.  Soon the pastor and his wife, Gloria, began transforming the space.  They set up chairs for pews, a table became an altar, a podium became a pulpit, and a desk awaited the arrival of a portable keyboard, the organ.  In a few minutes, several people arrived, each with a gift of their church: flowers for the altar, the organ, words of welcome and introductions.
        The service began, and I cried as I prayed.  I realized this unique group did not have much, but when everything was put together, this turned out to be a wonderful place to worship.  All the essentials were present: the Word of God and believers.  I knew for sure this church was a gift.
        Since then, Pastor Wilke has moved on and the men of the congregation took on the responsibiliity of conducting services.  Pastor Paul Nolting flew from Rochester, NY to conduct the monthly Lord's Supper service.  What gifts the Lord was providing.
        More blessings followed.  I recall my first Christmas there.  We planned a Christmas Eve service at the hall and set up extra chairs hoping passersby would join us.  To our surprise, most of the chairs were filled that night.  It was the best gift I received that Christmas.
        That winter I was blessed with the gift of a child.  At the time of his baptism, my family flew in from Minnesota, Pastor Nolting came, and the Loop family opened their cozy home for the service because the hall was always cold in February.  The friendly surroundings and the food and fellowship after the service deeply moved my family.  This was truly a special group of people.
        Over the years, the members of the congregation grew very dear to me.  They did not realize the gifts they had given each time we gathered:  the gift of strengthening our faith, the Bible Class, the singing of hymns to Bonnie Reedy's organ music, the gift of hearing the sermon read by one of the elders, the gift of praying together.
        In time, I know I would be needing to leave this group and that I would no longer have these gifts to guide me.  But I can guarantee to anyone passing through or visiting the area that this small group of believers at the Old Town Hall will be setting up the makeshift church and singing praises to our Lord.
        One day I hope to return to Washington D.C. to find a permanent pastor and permanent church with pews, an altar and an organ.  There will be a sign at the entrance which simply reads, "THE GIFT OF GOD".
Kayla Schauman Nason