About Us

 University Lutheran  Church is a liturgical congregation in the Lutheran tradition. We  gather weekly around the gifts of Word and Sacrament. Christ  receives us in God's Kingdom through His Gospel call and the gifts of  Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We, in turn, aspire to embody our  Christ-given identity through worship and service.

Whether you’re  passing through or have made Tuscaloosa into your home, for a time or  for good, please join us as a fellow member of the Body of Christ for  the Divine Service at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings.

 University  Lutheran Church was established in 1961 as a congregation of faithful  Christians serving the communities of the city of Tuscaloosa and the  University of Alabama. 

 University Lutheran is currently pastored by the Rev. Dr. Piotr J. Małysz.  Pastor Małysz, who holds a doctorate from Harvard University, also  serves as a professor of divinity at Samford University in Birmingham,  where he teaches the history of the Christian tradition. His research  interests focus in particular on Martin Luther and various figures in  the rich history of Lutheranism. Pastor Małysz can be reached at pmalysz  AT samford.edu.

 As St. Paul puts it, “just  as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the  body, though many, are one body—so it is with Christ. For in the one  Spirit we were all baptized into one body … and we were all made to  drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many” (1 Corinthians 12).

Accordingly, University Lutheran brings together a diverse community of people of all ages, welcoming  families, students, children and older folk—people who bring a  diversity of gifts and talents to bless the Body of Christ with. We  rejoice in this diversity and the opportunities for blessing one another  that it gives rise to. At the same time, we find unity in the  promise and call of our Lord, in the Table He sets before us, and in His  peace that reigns among us despite a diversity of backgrounds,  temperaments and outlooks. As we depart from the altar, we find a common  purpose in serving one another and our larger communities.

 University  Lutheran Church is a liturgical congregation that celebrates the rich  heritage of Lutheranism through the Divine Service, in hymn and song,  through the study of Scripture, and in vocational service. We are guided  by the voice of the Lord in Scripture and by the unambiguous and  uncompromising witness of the Lutheran Confessions to the Gospel of  Jesus Christ.

 As Martin Luther puts it, “The gospel is a story about Christ, God’s and David’s Son, who died and was raised  and is established as Lord. This is the gospel in a nutshell. … The  chief article and foundation of the gospel is that before you take  Christ as an example, you accept and recognize him as a gift, as a  present that God has given you and that is your own. This means that  when you see or hear of Christ doing or suffering something, you do not  doubt that Christ himself, with his deeds and suffering, belongs to you.  On this you may depend as surely as if you had done it yourself; indeed  as if you were Christ himself.” — University Lutheran is a place where Christ comes to all the gathered to have and to hold.

 To find out more about how we gather in worship, click the link below.