Ministries & Organizations

You are heartily invited to participate in these active ministries at St. Timothy’s!

At St. Timothy’s we boldly (and bravely) say that we are all “ministers.” In other words, we believe that there is work to be done, ways to help, things to do—and that we all have hands and hearts to serve. And then through our service, we build community. In these pages you’ll find information about our standing ministries and ways you can both be involved and find support. This is where we try, in some practical way, “to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves.”

Ready to get Started?

  • Explore St. Timothy’s ministries below.
  • Search for opportunites that speak to your internal “minister.”
  • Survey your interests and talents.
  • Contact St. Timothy’s office to get involved!

Christian Formation provides learning opportunities for people of all ages to better understand and live into our callings as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Liturgy & Music assists with many areas of our worship.

Pastoral Ministries offer support and encouragement to those who are hurting as they experience life’s bumps as well as to those who are experiencing a joyous life-changing event.

Parish Life sponsors events and activities that are primarily social and are aimed at building fellowship within our Christian community.

Administration is led by the Executive Team of the Vestry who oversee the operations of the parish including the finances, the physical plant and all other material resources. This team works closely with the clergy and lay leadership to provide a safe and inviting environment for the community.

Feeding Ministries @ St. Timothy’s

Since we consider this to be at the core of what we do here, we have a number of ways to participate in feeding ministries.  They are:

The Faith & Food Fund: As part of our Christmas letter, we encourage people to give to this fund.  It’s a pool of money we use to help neighbors in immediate need of food.  It can take the form of cash or something like a Hy-Vee gift card.

Canned/Boxed Food Donations:  We encourage our parishioners and guests to bring canned/boxed food each week for donation to local food pantries.  At the time the offering is brought forward on Sundays, the children who participate in our Children’s Ark program will bring their own offerings of food forward.  In previous years, we have held a “food drive” during Lent to support DMARC.  We used their list of most needed items.

Faith & Grace Garden: What started as a little plot of land with a few plants to a food pantry garden.  Volunteers sow, plant, fertilize, weed and harvest a garden each year that has produced as much as 16,000lbs. of food for local food pantries.  Volunteers are from the church, the local community – including schools & neighbors – and Bhutanese neighbors that come through Lutheran Services in Iowa.

Casseroles: For years, St. Timothy’s has been involved with putting together Salvation Army Casseroles for use by the Salvation Army’s local mobile canteen.  In addition, pasta casseroles are created by parish volunteers for distribution to local food pantries, the domestic violence shelter and Hope Ministries.

Friendly Freezer: Another opportunity to feed our neighbors is through our friendly freezer.  Parishioners can cook up soups, casseroles, or other one-pot meals to supplement those in immediate need of food.  This could be run along-side the Faith & Food Fund as a supplementary program or stand-alone.

Restaurant/Grocery Store Partners: This is a ministry that has beginnings with FreeStore volunteers and has mushroomed into more.  Volunteers will pick up leftovers from restaurants and pastries/bread from grocery stores and take them to local food pantries, shelters, and other places who have shown need.  Some leftovers are repackaged and given to FreeStore clients for their first night in their new home.  This is really a win-win-win-win for everyone involved.

Backpack Ministry:

This ministry began as part of our connection with the Youth Justice Initiative Study Table Program.  In working with the kids and families connected to the program, a family was identified as “food insecure.”  What manifested is our Backpack Ministry.  Each week, a large backpack is filled with groceries.  Many times, it comes with a number of other bags of groceries, including perishables and non-perishables.  Church families rotate the responsibility of filling the backpack.  The family receives the food from the backpack and it is returned for re-filling the following week.

First Sunday Breakfast Cooks:

Each 1st Sunday of the month, the men of St. Timothy’s (or at least a lot of them!) will cook a breakfast for the parish to enjoy.  For years, they used the free-will donation that was gathered to benefit local food pantries.  Recently, we have moved to using this offering to support our 2nd Offering partners each month (see below).  Our partners will come in and give us a brief talk on how their ministry works and how our help is both crucial and appreciated.

 Second Offering:

This is a program that stemmed from meetings on year-round stewardship efforts.  Each year, program staff revisit a listing of past partners and future prospects that we would like to support.  We then create a calendar where each selection has a month where they are featured.  We have 2nd Offering baggies that are in our bulletins each month, our 1st Sunday Breakfast that gives them an opportunity to speak about their work and how we can help, and our bulletin insert and weekly e-news feature Calls To Action – practical ways we can get involved.  In some cases, partners have given the sermon on one weekend during their month.  The free-will offerings at the 1st Sunday Breakfasts also benefit these groups.  What we’ve found is that by tying all of these pieces together, we are seeing a marked increase in our outreach monies AND engagement with ministries that were previously known to only small groups of parishioners.