ABOUT US
WHO WE ARE
Founded in 1866, St. Paul Berea, ELCA is a place where you will always be welcomed. By serving through relationships and love, St. Paul Berea is a space where everyone can grow spiritually.
WHAT WE DO
Our mission is “To know and serve Christ by reaching out in love to all” and we believe in the importance of involving and experiencing God in all areas of your life. There are countless ways to grow in your involvement and your faith at St. Paul; regardless of where you are in your journey, there is a place for you here.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Members and first time guests alike, we invite you to get connected to the community. Whether you're attending service on a Sunday, dropping in on a small group meeting, or stopping by to chat with Pastor Dan, you can anticipate a positive, encouraging experience.
Our Staff
Photo Gallery
Rev. Daniel Skillman - Senior Pastor
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Dale Hukill - Director of Music Ministry
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Richard Shirey - Assistant Organist
Susan Moore - Director of Children's Ministry
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Barbara Tibbitts - Worship Leader
Linda Forster - Children/Cherub Choirs
Sherrill Crawford and Dean Firing
Main Office
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Lynnette Ozanich - Bookkeeper
Gail Brandt - Nursery Care Provider
PASTOR SKILLMAN
"We love the God we cannot see by loving and serving our neighbor, who we can see."
A Sermon by the 2nd Continental Congress, July 4, 1776
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary
for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them,
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires
that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are
Life,
Liberty,
and the pursuit of Happiness.
-That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men,
deriving their powers from the consent of the governed,
-That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it,
and to institute new Government,
laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form,
as to them shall seem most likely to affect
their Safety
and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established
should not be changed for light and transient causes;
and accordingly all experience hath shewn,
that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,
than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of
abuses
and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism,
it is their right,
it is their duty,
to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
-Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies;
and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of
repeated injuries
and usurpations,
all having in direct object the establishment of
an absolute Tyranny over these States.
To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance,
unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained;
and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them…
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States;
for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners;
refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither,
and raising the conditions of new Appropriation of Lands…
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices…
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power…
He has abdicated Government here,
by declaring us out of his Protection
and waging War against us…
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us…
In every state of these Oppressions
We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms:
Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.
A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant,
is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren.
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature
to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us
We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here.
We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity,
and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations,
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation,
and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled,
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions,
do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies,
solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be
Free and Independent States;
that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown,
and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain,
is and ought to be totally dissolved…
And for the support of this Declaration,
with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence,
we mutually pledge to each other
our Lives,
our Fortunes
and our sacred Honor.