Christ The King Lutheran Church

From Alyson Usher... It was a great Holy Week! I was exhausted yesterday, but so glad I participated in all the activities. It gave me a totally different perspective on everything that I’ve never experienced before. All I can say is WOW! From Lee Segrest... Pastor , I just couldn’t wait to tell you how much I enjoyed the Good Friday service! I watched it today and it was so moving. The youth did a great job and Alicia brought me to tears!  I so miss being there in person, but am thankful it is made available to watch from home. ❤️🤗❤️ From Rachel Garrett... Hi Pastor,...I cherish Christ the King. After our Maundy Thursday service I sent the following to several friends and I thought you and Amanda might also like to know what that service meant to me. My text to some friends: “I wish you could’ve gone with me to my Lutheran Church Thursday night. It’s much different, much smaller than North Shelby. I think you would have liked the service. The Seder meal was in the Fellowship Hall and then we moved to the sanctuary for the service. The Pastor spoke only several minutes. Scriptures were read about Passover, the Lord’s Supper, and the washing of feet, then the congregation participated in foot washing, then congregational prayers ending with the Lord‘s Prayer, then Communion. The final act in the service was the stripping of the altar in preparation for the celebration of the Resurrection on Sunday. Everything that represents and was used during the 40 days of Lent (all the purple banners, flags, stoles, etc) and the wine cup, Bible, candles, actually everything, is removed from the altar as the congregation watches silently. On Easter Sunday everything that was purple will be replaced with white and everything else is new, all to represent new life. The stripping was done this way – several people gathered at the back of the sanctuary and one person at a time walked up the center aisle to the front, paused with bowed head for a moment, then stepped up to the altar and picked up one item and took it from the altar out of the sanctuary, then went back and got in line again. They rotated until everything had been removed, silently, reverently, one candle, one cup, one piece of cloth, at a time. That in itself is moving, but last night while that was happening, all of a sudden the organist began playing “Gethsemane”, the song from Jesus Christ Superstar that Jesus agonizingly sang before his crucifixion where he asked God why he had to die. Shocked, I recognized the song immediately. Then even more shocking (since the musicians are in the back of the sanctuary and you don’t know what’s happening unless you’re sitting back there) a soloist began to sing, matching the same intense, agonizing emotion that the Jesus in the production had had back in 1971. Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s words to the entire song were printed in the bulletin and the soloist performed it perfectly. The only thing he wasn’t able to replicate was Jesus’s heart-wrenching scream at the beginning of one of the phrases. (Of course the Jesus back then was Ian Gillan who at the time was the singer for the band Deep Purple and he had a range that few people could match on a good day!) Oh my gosh I cried. My mind’s eye was reliving the vivid memory of sitting in Boutwell Auditorium in total darkness, with just one backlight illuminating three crosses, and offstage the horrible echoing sound of the hammering of the nails being driven into Jesus‘s hands and feet. The service last night ended with only one single light left in the sanctuary as the Pastor carried the last remaining thing, the crucifix draped in purple cloth with a black hood covering Jesus’s body, down the center aisle to the back of the sanctuary, and as he stood there with the crucifix the congregation filed out silently on either side of him. No music, no benediction. Oh my gosh. The symbolism. The reverence. It made Jesus‘s last days feel so real.

When I was in the process of moving from Texas to Birmingham, I visited Christ the King Lutheran church. Pastor Chris met me outside in front of the church and he was very welcoming. After services everyone was very kind and friendly. That was over 2 years ago and I'm still attending Christ the King. I have never been to another church in Birmingham. Come by, you'll see. Look me up when you visit.

I’ve only come here to help out with the camps for the youth groups. The pastor and people here are so very loving and welcoming. A great community.

The Christ-centered, disciple-minded, servant- hearted, biblically oriented nature of this church is palpable. If you want to be surrounded by a true ambodiment of Christ' loving nature, come to CTK. I personally am not a member here, but find myself inside these doors several nights out of the week to fellowship and enjoy community.

I have had my 2 children, now 3 and 5 at Christ the King preschool since both were infants and there is no where else I would rather have them. The teachers and the administrators are the best and there is a loving Christ filled atmosphere. I would reccomend anyone who is looking for child care to use them.