Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church (gallery) in Johnstown, PA, has bible class at 8:00am and worship at 9:00am. The pastor, Rev. Kenneth Kelly, Jr., also preaches at 4:30pm in Center City, PA, near Philadelphia. That makes my commutes look sane.
Holy Cross Exterior
Holy Cross is a member of the SELC district of the LCMS. It was founded as a Slovak church that was brought into the LCMS along with other Slovak congregations. Last week they had an ethnic festival, and it sounded like they had a lot of fun.
We began a Discipleship series in Bible Study. The Bible implies different things about discipleship in different parts of the New Testament, and that may lend itself to some of the confusion about discipleship today. Matthew 10:24 and 13:52 speak of discipleship as a relationship between teacher and student, while Matthew 16:24 and Mark 8:34 speak of it as a way of life. Acts 14:21 speaks of disciples as people who were preached to.
The first thing that struck me upon arriving at the church was that all the doors were open. I would have thought more doors would have been closed given the urban location. It was cool that they could do it.
The Divine Service was TLH p. 15. Incense wisped lightly from a bowl on the altar, but the scent was quite strong. The open windows made the incense tolerable, but they also meant that sound didn’t bounce back to the congregation. We had to sing out. Thankfully my voice was with me this morning. They had church bells that announced the beginning of service.
I liked the fact that more communion hymns were on the list than were actually sung. I like this as a contingency, rather than the congregation running out of hymns to sing during communion. I don’t like sitting while someone else sings. 
