At St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, we believe every person’s story matters because every person is created in the image of God and deeply loved by God.
As the Episcopal presence in Claremore, St. Paul’s seeks to reflect the best of the Anglican tradition: a faith rooted in Scripture, nourished through worship, formed in community, and lived out in compassionate service. Guided by the promises of the Baptismal Covenant, we strive to seek and serve Christ in all persons, respect the dignity of every human being, and proclaim the Good News of God’s love not only with our words, but through the way we live. We believe these promises call us to listen deeply to every story, walk alongside one another in faith, and bear witness to the life-changing love of God.
Our calling is not simply to open our doors on Sunday morning. Our calling is to recognize where God is already at work in the lives of our neighbors and to join in that work with compassion, humility, and hope.
We believe ministry begins with a simple invitation:
“Tell me your story.”
When people know they are heard, relationships begin to grow. When relationships grow, trust is formed. Within those relationships, people often begin to recognize that God has never stopped walking beside them.
Our ministries are rooted in the promise that nothing can separate us from the love of God. That promise shapes how we worship, how we serve, how we welcome others, and how we engage our community.
Why We Exist
St. Paul’s exists to be a place where people find community, share fellowship, walk alongside one another on their spiritual journey, and experience the life-changing love of God.
For some, that journey begins in Sunday worship.
For others, it begins over a shared meal, through a conversation, while volunteering together, receiving food during a difficult season, attending a movie night, joining a campus discussion, or simply meeting someone who genuinely cares.
Every journey is different.
Every story is unique.
We believe God is already present in each one.
Helping People Recognize God’s Presence
At St. Paul’s, we believe God is already at work in every person’s life.
Many people carry the burden of believing they have been abandoned by God or that their story has placed them beyond God’s love. Others simply struggle to recognize the ways God continues to meet them in everyday moments of grace, hope, compassion, and unexpected community.
Our calling is not to bring God where God is absent, but to help people recognize the God who has been walking beside them all along.
That is why we begin by listening.
As people share their stories, we listen for the places where God’s grace has already been present. Together, we seek to notice the “God moments” that may have gone unseen—the unexpected kindness, the faithful friend, the open door, the quiet strength to endure, the glimpse of hope that arrived just when it was needed.
We pray that through these conversations people will discover they have never been forgotten, never been abandoned, and never been beyond the reach of God’s love.
Our deepest hope is that every person who encounters St. Paul’s comes to recognize that God is still with them, still active in their life, and still inviting them into a deeper relationship marked by hope, healing, and love.
Our Philosophy of Ministry
We believe God is already at work throughout Claremore—in schools, neighborhoods, community organizations, families, and the lives of our neighbors.
Our role is not to bring God into our community, but to recognize where the Holy Spirit is already moving and faithfully join that work.
We begin by listening because we believe Christ is already present in every person we meet. Every conversation is an opportunity to discover how God has been working in someone’s life long before they ever cross the threshold of St. Paul’s.
Before we create programs, we build relationships.
Before we offer solutions, we seek understanding.
Before we ask people to become part of our church, we strive to become part of their story.
We believe hospitality is more than opening a door. Hospitality is making room in our lives for another person’s story.
To seek and serve Christ in all persons requires first seeing the person before us—not as a project to complete or a problem to solve, but as a beloved child of God whose story deserves to be heard with compassion and respect.
We believe God often calls us into ministry through invitations as much as ideas. Sometimes those invitations come from individuals seeking community. Sometimes they come from partner organizations working for the good of Claremore. We seek to respond with openness, humility, and a willingness to walk alongside others in service to our neighbors.
Faith That Becomes Action
Listening always leads somewhere.
As we have listened to our neighbors, we have discovered both joys and struggles, hopes and fears, needs and opportunities. Those conversations continue to shape the ministries of St. Paul’s.
Community Food Shelf
The Community Food Shelf was established by Claremore Pride as a community outreach effort to help address food insecurity in Claremore. When the organization lost the location that housed the shelf, St. Paul’s was invited to provide a new home and become a co-sponsor of this important community resource.
We gladly accepted that invitation because it reflected our commitment to listening, building partnerships, and serving our neighbors together.
Today, the Community Food Shelf continues to serve anyone in need. As this partnership grows, we hope to strengthen not only access to food, but also the relationships that are formed through caring for one another and working together for the good of our community.
Community Gatherings
Shared meals, movie nights, and other community events create spaces where friendships develop naturally. These gatherings are often someone’s first experience of St. Paul’s—not as an institution, but as a community seeking to proclaim God’s love through authentic relationships, generous hospitality, and joyful fellowship.
Campus Ministry
College students often find themselves asking profound questions about identity, purpose, vocation, and faith. Through our relationship with Rogers State University, we seek to create places where students can ask honest questions, build authentic friendships, and discover companions for the journey of faith.
Emerging Ministry: Parents of LGBTQ+ Support Group
As we have listened to parents in our community, many have shared stories of fear, confusion, grief, and isolation after a child came out as LGBTQ+. Those conversations have revealed the need for a safe, compassionate place where parents can ask questions, share experiences, and receive encouragement from others walking a similar path.
In partnership with Free Mom Hugs and local volunteers, St. Paul’s hopes to respond by creating a support group grounded in listening, mutual encouragement, prayer, and hope.
Emerging Ministry: Dinner Church
Many people have shared that work schedules, family responsibilities, or previous experiences have made Sunday morning worship difficult or impossible.
Rather than expecting everyone to come to church in the same way, we are exploring a twice-monthly Dinner Church where people gather around a shared meal, prayer, conversation, Scripture, and Holy Communion. Around the table, we hope people will discover that worship and fellowship belong together and that there is always room for another chair.
This ministry grows directly from conversations with neighbors who long for Christian community but need a different pathway into it.
What Success Looks Like
We will not measure our ministry solely by attendance, budgets, or the number of programs we offer.
Those things have value, but they are not our ultimate measure of faithfulness.
Success looks like relationships.
Success looks like neighbors becoming friends.
Success looks like people discovering they are not alone.
Success looks like someone saying,
“Those people genuinely cared about me.”
Most of all, success looks like someone who had given up on church finding the courage to say,
“Maybe God hasn’t given up on me.”
If that becomes their story, then we believe we have faithfully proclaimed the Good News—not only with our words, but with our lives.
Our Prayer
We pray that St. Paul’s will always be known as a place where people are heard before they are judged.
Where friendships are formed before expectations are placed upon anyone.
Where questions are welcomed.
Where stories are honored.
Where Christ is encountered.
Where lives are changed.
Where neighbors become friends.
Where people discover they were never walking alone.
We cannot meet every need.
We cannot solve every problem.
But we can listen.
We can love.
We can walk alongside one another.
And we can trust that God is already doing more than we can see.
May St. Paul’s always be the Episcopal presence in Claremore—a community rooted in Scripture, nourished by worship, shaped by the Baptismal Covenant, and known for reflecting the love of Christ with humility, compassion, and hope.
May every person who encounters this community come to know they are seen, valued, and loved by God.
And may they leave with the quiet assurance that God has never abandoned them and never will.
We do not know every ministry that lies ahead.
But we know how we intend to begin.
By listening.
By loving.
By walking alongside one another.
One story at a time.
“Tell me your story.”