Desert Hills Lutheran Church is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Our current membership is 1,428 members, which consists of 1,079 full-time and 349 part-time. Desert Hills is in the retirement community of Green Valley, Arizona. Desert Hills Lutheran Church was founded in 1984 by a visionary group of people who shared a dream: to build a church that preached the gospel, welcomed all who love the Lord, and believed in the awesome grace of God. Learn more about DHLC here

The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with nearly 3.3 million members in more than 8,900 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Learn more about the ELCA here.

 

OUR MISSION

At Desert Hills Lutheran Church, our mission is to:

 

Celebrate Grace

Every weekend we gather for worship at five different services. We gather to offer thanks and praise to God for loving, forgiving, and redeeming us so that we can make a difference in the world. We have different styles of worship, but we gather as one Lutheran body. At every worship we recite our mission to celebrate grace, make disciples and make a difference. It is part of our ritual and it has changed our lives.

 

Make Disciples

Making disciples, starting with ourselves, is part of our three-fold mission, and adding one more and inviting people to come and see are two of our core values. Jesus invited us to make disciples; actually, he commanded us to make disciples just before his ascension, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19) We continue to grow our Sermon-Based Small Groups, expand our Stephen Ministry, and host the Global Leadership Summit in August as part of growing our faith and influence. Every weekend we are given an assignment to help change the world one person at a time.

 

Make a Difference

Our faith encourages us to be active in love. We are invited and called by God to make a difference, to do good, seek justice, and walk humbly with our God as the prophet Micah told us. We gave away over $200,000 to God’s mission in the world and for the needy. We gave a special gift of over $30,000 to a young couple in medical crisis. Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest honored us with the Servant of Christ Award in 2018 for making a difference.

Servant of Christ Award

 

OUR CORE VALUES

We live daily by our core values:

1. Christ Centered

We are a gathering of Christians centered around Christ. He is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. If we move away from this core, we stop being Christians.

2. We Stand Level at the Foot of the Cross

As a community we are aware that all people stand level at the foot of the cross in need of forgiveness. There are no groups or individuals standing on higher ground above others. We all need the redemption of Christ crucified.

3. Excellent Mistakes Happen

As a community we are aware that because we are sinful, mistakes will happen. When we learn from them, they become Excellent Mistakes for they help us find our way forward.

4. Laughter Liberates

As a community we love to laugh and do so as often as possible.

5. Passion on Purpose

As a community we have a passion to reach as many people as we can with the gospel of Jesus Christ and to make the biggest difference for good in our community. Time is short, so we have passion for mission on purpose.

6. One More

We always want one more person to join our group. If we are a community called Desert Hills Lutheran, we will be happy only if at the end of a day, one more person has been invited or helped.

7. Come and See

In the Gospel of John, Jesus invites potential disciples to come and see. Our job as disciples of Jesus is to invite people to come and see worship and come and see our lives. We are not in charge of what they do, but we are told to invite.

 


OUR HISTORY

Desert Hills Lutheran Church held our first service on December 4, 1984. When the congregation was officially organized in March 1986, there were ninety-eight Charter Members. To find out more about Desert Hills Lutheran Church, click on our history.

 

Desert Hills Lutheran Church's History