The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod was formed by German immigrants from Saxony (present day Germany) in the late 1830’s to escape religious persecution by the authorities. Upon arriving in the United States, they traveled up the Mississippi River and settled for the most part in rural Missouri (Perry County).  That’s how we get the “Missouri” in the name. Not all these individuals, however, decided to settle in the rural Midwest. Some elected to stay in the southern port cities where they first docked including New Orleans, Louisiana.

Grace Lutheran Church sits in the heart of Mobile, Alabama and has a rich history of Lutheranism in the south. We are the first and oldest Lutheran Congregation in the State of Alabama. On October 6, 1867, Grace held its first service at The Seamen’s Bethel on Church Street which is now located on the campus of the University of South Alabama. On October 20, 1867, Grace was formally organized as the “Free German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Mobile”. Rev. Theodore Heischmann, a Lutheran Minister not yet affiliated with any Lutheran Church, advertised in a local newspaper that a German Lutheran Service will be held October 6, 1867 and more than 150 years later, we’re still here. The congregation voted to join the Missouri Synod in 1897.

Other Lutheran congregations established in Mobile and Baldwin counties have some roots at Grace including St. Mark’s in Elberta (1908), St. Paul’s in Foley (1912), Redeemer in Fairhope (1949), Holy Cross in Mobile (1959), Our Savior in Mobile (1964) and Ascension in Daphne (1980).