News
St. John's U.C.C. Community
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EMMAUS CONGREGATION CELEBRATES 150 YEARS
St. John’s United Church of Christ in Emmaus will celebrate 150 years of faith, service, and community in a special Anniversary Sunday worship service at 10:30 a.m. May 3.
“Whether you’ve been part of St. John’s for years, or you have not been here for years, or you’re visiting for the first time—we would love to welcome you,” said Dr. Paul Knappenberger, the church’s pastor.
There will be only one service that Sunday. It will include “special guests, special music, and a spirit of gratitude as we honor our past and recommit to the future,” said Pastor Knappenberger.
St. John’s is observing the 150th anniversary of the founding of the church, initially a German Reformed congregation, throughout 2026.
Holy Communion will be served during the Anniversary Sunday worship service and all Christians are welcome to receive it. An hour of fellowship, with refreshments, immediately will follow the service in St. John’s Fellowship Hall.
The church is at 139 N. Fourth St. in Emmaus and has a parking lot.
Organized in 1876, St. John’s was the second non-Moravian congregation in Emmaus.
It started on Jan. 1, 1876, with about 60 people of the German Reformed faith and tradition. That first service was held in the Moravian Church of Emmaus. The new congregation was allowed to keep meeting in the Moravian Church for six years.
In 1882, the Reformed and Lutheran congregations that had been worshipping in the Moravian Church dedicated their own union church on the corner of North Third and Green streets. That building still stands and now is the home of Unity of Lehigh Valley.
In May 1924, the Reformed congregation dedicated its own new church building, at Third, Fourth and North streets — now St. John’s United Church of Christ. The congregation celebrated the 100th anniversary of its current church building two years go.
In 1934, the church’s name was changed from St. John’s Reformed Church to St. John’s Evangelical and Reformed Church. In 1957, it became St. John’s United Church of Christ.
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UCC’S 50-DAY FOOD CHALLENGE
A “50 Days of Easter Food Challenge” has been issued to all 512 UCC churches across Pennsylvania by the United Church of Christ’s new Keystone Conference state office.
The challenge is for churches to help fight hunger by donating non-perishable foods to their local food banks during the 50 days between Easter — April 5— and Pentecost — May 24.
Our missional church will participate in this challenge. St. John’s already has a good head start because members of our congregation already regularly donate food to the Emmaus food pantry by the beginning of every month. This time we’ll just collect food for the full 50 days and deliver it to the pantry in late May.
“We certainly are blessed to have your church support the Groceries PLUS food pantry on a regular basis and now with this special food challenge,” said Patti Sell, acquisition/delivery coordinator at the food pantry.
The Keystone Conference is asking each participating church to report the quantities of their total donations, using specific categories, at the end of the challenge. A conference-wide total will be revealed during its first annual meeting on June 5-7.
“Having churches donate locally will allow you to serve the communities in which you live, work and minister,” explained conference officials. “We want to avoid hauling donations across the commonwealth to a single location when we know the need exists everywhere.”
While this statewide challenge apparently is not a competition among UCC churches, we hope members of our congregation will be eager to help do St. John’s proud. We can fill our shopping cart to overflowing during those 50 days — and will place additional food receptacles around the cart in the narthex if needed because of a generous response from our members.
The Emmaus food pantry does not need everything in the 14-category Keystone food list, for two reasons. It already gets much of what is on that list from the regional Second Harvest Food Bank of the Lehigh Valley. And the Emmaus post office will be collecting other items on that list when it participates in a nationwide post office food drive on May 9.
The items requested from St. John’s for the 50-day challenge are rarely, if ever, provided by Second Harvest, so the food pantry’s operators usually have to buy them.
Here is what they are requesting from our church for this food drive:
*Canned fruit, especially with low or no sugar, in 20-24-ounce containers.
*Canned corn in 15-ounce containers.
*Canned meat, such as Spam, Hormel and canned ham, in 12.5-ounce containers (no canned chicken).
*Ketchup in 14-20-ounce plastic containers.
*Mustard in 14-ounce plastic containers.
*Salt in 26-ounce containers.
*Pepper in 1.5-3-ounce containers.
*Garlic powder in 3-5-ounces containers.
*Onion powder in 3-5-ounce containers.
*Oregano in .5-ounce containers.
*Jelly in 20-ounce plastic containers.
*Boxed potatoes (scalloped, au gratin) in 4-5-ounce containers.
*Raisins in 12-ounce-containers.
*Animal crackers in 10-16-ounce containers.
*Graham crackers in 14-ounce containers.
By requesting large quantities of specific items, the pantry has enough to distribute to the 140 local families it serves each month, explained Patti.
She also requests specific items and sizes to make stocking the pantry’s shelves easier. It does not ask for “family-size” products because they take up more space. “We accommodate large families by allowing them to take more of the smaller-sized items,” explained Patti. They also do not want any breakable glass containers.
The food we collect during this 50-day challenge will be delivered to the food pantry in nearby Bethel Bible Fellowship Church after our worship services on May 24, Pentecost Sunday.
Please help us make this challenge a success.
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MEALS ON WHEELS ROLLING INTO ST. JOHN’S
Beginning July 7, St. John’s United Church of Christ will become a new pick-up location for volunteer delivery drivers from Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley.
On weekday mornings, six volunteer drivers will pick up hot and cold meals in our church atrium and deliver them to Meals on Wheels clients in the Emmaus area.
On May 13, our church consistory unanimously approved a request to use St. John’s as the Emmaus distribution point for Meals On Wheels, as part of our mission to serve our community.
St. John’s will become the organization’s ninth pick-up location. Previously it did not have one in southern Lehigh County.
Using our church gives Meals on Wheels the opportunity to better serve its clients in the Emmaus area. About 75 people will get meals delivered every weekday from St. John’s.
“With more people receiving Meals on Wheels in and around Emmaus, a pick-up site in the borough has been a long-standing need,” said Dawn Stillwagen, the non-profit’s director of volunteer services. “Thanks to St. John's, we are now better able to serve area residents while expanding opportunities for future growth. We are grateful to join with a church known for its focus on the community and dedicated to improving the lives of those in need.”
“Meals on Wheels continues Jesus’ ministry of feeding the hungry,” said Dr. Paul Knappenberger, our church pastor. “Having Meals on Wheels at St. John’s continues our mission and ministry to the people of Emmaus and beyond. We use our wonderful facility to bring all kinds of missions and ministries together.”
Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley provides home-delivered meals to homebound senior citizens and adults with disabilities. It helps nearly 1,500 people every day in Lehigh and Northampton counties, as well as in southern Carbon County.
Nick Nonnemacher, long-time director of food services at Meals on Wheels, will speak to our congregation about the organization’s varied work during our 9:15 a.m. worship service on June 22. He’ll talk about how homebound members of our congregation can benefit from Meals on Wheels as well as how we can become volunteer delivery drivers for the organization.
Clients have a choice of a cold meal, a hot meal, or both delivered every weekday morning. On Thursdays, Meals on Wheels delivers extra meals for weekend use. It also deliveries extra meals before holidays or when bad weather is in the forecast.
Around 9:30 am on weekdays, except major holidays, a Meals on Wheels vehicle will deliver coolers containing cold meals and soft-sided red bags containing hot meals to our church atrium. (Those meals are prepared by Nonnemacher and his crew at Meals on Wheels’ main office in Allentown.)
Within the next 30 minutes, volunteer drivers, some accompanied by friends or spouses who also volunteer, will pick up the coolers and bags to make their deliveries. Each driver will deliver to about 12 households.
After the drivers complete their deliveries, they will return the empty bags and coolers to the church. Those empty containers will be picked up by Meals on Wheels around noon that day or the following morning.
Unless you stop by St. John’s on a weekday morning, the only evidence you may see of Meals on Wheels will be a tall wheeled metal rack that holds empty food coolers and bags in the atrium.
Meals on Wheels has been serving people in the Lehigh Valley since 1971. Seventy percent of its clients live on less than $16,000 a year.
