ABOUT US
Morning Star's Mission: As imperfect disciples, we walk together to embody Christ's perfect love in the community.
Morning Star's Vision: To Empower People to Practice Discipleship at Home and in the Community.
Morning Star Core Values
Christ-Centered
We acknowledge our imperfections, accept each other's humanity, and love each other in grace. Our relationships with Christ grow through weekly worship and celebration of the Lutheran Liturgy and Sacraments.
Faith Affirming
We nurture a lifelong journey of faith through prayer, worship, generosity, and spiritual friendships.
Accepting
Discipleship
We build caring, authentic relationships across all generations. Our church home has an open door for programs that change lives and strengthen our community.
We reflect Christ's love by being reliable partners in service to our community, as well as to each other through shared experiences and interests.
Land Acknowledgement
Morning Star Lutheran Church is located on the original and ancestral land of the Catawba Nation, “Yę iswą” (the people of the river). We acknowledge our indigenous siblings as the first to love, pray, grow, celebrate, drum and sing upon this land we now occupy. We honor the Catawba Nation, their ancestors and descendants, uniting with them in unending song to the Creator. We are grateful for the beauty of the sunsets, the power of the trees, the change of the seasons, the sustenance of the water, the smell of the air, the life in the soil and the comfort of the home this place provides. We open our hearts to the work of healing
and justice for all indigenous peoples.
Morning Star Through the Years
Our founders were German Lutherans who had migrated from Pennsylvania south along the Great Philadelphia Wagon Road. They found support together in clusters, often on the edges of established Scotch-Irish settlements. They couldn’t write down their mission plan as many of them simply could not read or write.
However, it is believed that they founded our congregation in 1775, making it the oldest Lutheran church in Mecklenburg County and one of the oldest in North Carolina, calling their faith community Crooked Creek Church.
In 1815 the church was enrolled in the Synod and, by this time, the name had become Morning Star Lutheran Church. From 1775 to 1902, the church was served by circuit-riding ministers from Concord and Salisbury. Services were typically only held twice a year.
It wasn’t until 1902 that regular services started to be held at Morning Star and even then it was every other week as Morning Star formed a two-church parish with St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Monroe. The Reverend M.Q. Boland served both congregations, alternating Sundays between the two churches. The church had a total of 50 communing members.
The white-framed wood chapel was built in 1906 to replace a log building on the same site which had burned down. The church was built by members. Church member Ron Stinson built the church using lumber milled by his grandfather while other members made the bricks used to support the building.
The congregation remained painfully small with only a dozen people attending service. There was talk of closing the church but a few steadfast members, including Mrs. Ruth Rice Teeter, fought to keep it open. Their passion brought new life to the church and in 1955 Morning Star became a single-church parish with its first full-time pastor, Reverend Robert B. Lineberger.
By 1960 the members of Morning Star started building on the property where we worship today – with additions built in 1975, 1983, 2000, and 2012.
Two hundred and forty-one years after a group of settlers began worshipping in a log building, we have been blessed to build and make use of a Family Life Center, expanded Christian Education space, a wonderful Music Center, and a Worship Center that is the heartbeat of our community of faith. Since the year 2000, we have had hundreds of new members join our community of faith and our ministry has broadened in a multitude of ways.
Now, though, we hear the call from God to prepare ourselves to go beyond our walls and make a difference in this community and around the world. As disciples of Christ, we are commanded to love and serve the least of these, even if they never come through our doors.
Going beyond our walls has become a theme for our ministry: we regularly host Room in the Inn, a powerful hospitality ministry in the homeless community. Morning Star opens up the building daily for groups outside of this family of faith to use, including Scouts, 4H, four weekly AA meetings, senior groups, use by the local high school, and more. We are connecting more and more with our school neighbors; Mint Hill Middle School and Lebanon Road Elementary School. We are one of the strongest local supports of the Matthews Help Center with monthly offerings of food for hungry families that often go unseen. Yearly mission trips to Chichicastanengo, Guatemala have been happening for more than 15 years. Morning Star Lutheran Church is making a difference in the community far and wide and you are invited to join us.