On June 30^th, 1963 Pastor Sergei Kolberg was commissioned as missionary-at-large for the San Ramon area. On July 7^th of that same year twenty-six people gathered in the new chapel of St. Philip Lutheran Church located at 8850 Davona Drive, Dublin, CA. Through the years God has most certainly been with the faithful of St. Philip providing workers for the church. St. Philip has always been an active, mobile church and there isn’t a day that we do not have visitors moving into the area look for a new church home.

In 1981, St. Philip joined with four other Lutheran congregations in the valley to form Valley Lutheran Education Association to operate a parochial school on the campus of Trinity Lutheran Church in Walnut Creek. In 1984 a second campus was opened at St. Philip with 51 students; later a campus was also opened at First Lutheran Church in Concord. In 1992 the Association voted to disband due to financial reasons, but St. Philip voted to make the school on our campus a permanent part of our ministry. Several years ago it expanded to add a middle school.

In 2007 Pastor Kolberg retired after 45 years of faithful service here at St. Philip. After a couple of years with Joel Schruhl serving as interim pastor, the congregation called Pastor Travis Guse to be their new pastor in 2009. Under Pastor Travis’ leadership, St. Philip has been seeking the Lord’s direction and guidance in developing a new vision for our ministry here in the Tri-Valley.

What’s In A Name?

Our ministry, St. Philip Lutheran Church & School, was named after St. Philip the Evangelist. Philip appears several times in the Book of Acts. He was one of the seven deacons chosen to care for the poor of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. Philip’s example in his life and ministry inspires our sense of calling and purpose as a ministry today. He was a man of faith who knew the promises of Jesus and sought to grow spiritually in that faith (Up). Philip sought to share that love relationally within the community of faith as he served those in need within the ministry (In). God also used Philip missionally as he not only crossed cultural barriers to share the Good News of Jesus with Simon in Samaria, but he even crossed ethnic barriers as he shared the Gospel with the Ethiopian eunuch and many others (Out). We live that example of St. Philip as a ministry as we seek to grow spiritually in Christ (Up), relationally with each other as a community of faith (In) and as we seek to make an impact missionally in relevant and transformative ways here in the Tri-Valley area and beyond. (Out)