Category: Uncategorized

About Us

A Message from Pastor Holsten:

Welcome to our website. St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Closter, New Jersey is glad you’re visiting us online. If you’re in the Closter, New Jersey area, please stop by to say hello during the week.

My name is Pastor Robert Holsten. I’ve been serving as Pastor here at St. Paul’s since 1990. My office hours are Tuesday through Friday, from 9 AM to 12 PM. Other hours are by appointment. St. Paul’s address is: 171 Closter Dock Road, Closter, New Jersey, 07624.

You’re most welcome to join us for worship on Sundays at 8:30 and 10 AM. Our Sunday School meets each Sunday morning at 9 AM. Bible class begins at 9 AM.

It is our prayer that you will be blessed in God’s Word, by the power of His Holy Spirit, as you explore this website. Our goal as a church is to share the Good News of God’s love in Jesus with as many people as possible.

In Christ,
Pastor Robert Holsten

Statement of Belief

Luther's Seal

The Lutheran Church is a church that believes God speaks to us through the Bible. In the Bible, we meet a God who made the whole world with His own Word. When that world fell into sin, God spoke a word of judgment. Yet, at the same time, God promised He would send a Savior. The whole Old Testament, the first part of the Bible, tells the story of God preparing His people and His world for the Savior to come. The New Testament, the second part of the Bible, tells the story of how God sent His only beloved Son, Jesus, into our world.

Jesus, God’s Son, took on our flesh and bone. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born to a human mother, Mary. He was like us in every way, except that He did not sin. When He was about thirty years old, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River. After that, Jesus was tempted by the devil. When the forty days of His temptation were over, Jesus gathered twelve disciples about Himself. Then Jesus preached, taught and healed people where they hurt most for three years of His life.

When the time came, Jesus was betrayed by one of His own disciples into the hands of His enemies. Jesus’ enemies arrested Him, put Him on trial, and handed Him over to the Roman Governor, who allowed Jesus to be crucified.

We believe that on the cross, God allowed Jesus to suffer the punishment for all the sins the whole world has ever committed, or will commit. Jesus died on the cross, and his body was laid in a new tomb nearby. On the Sunday morning following His death, God raised Jesus to life again. Through Jesus, God forgives our sins, gives us new life, and the sure hope of heaven.

God’s Holy Spirit works in our hearts, through God’s Word, and through what we call the Sacraments. In one Sacrament, Holy Baptism, God washes away our sins, pours His Holy Spirit into our hearts, and works faith in our hearts to believe all His promises. In the other Sacrament, Holy Communion, God gives us the very body and blood of Jesus, present in the bread and wine as Jesus’ own Word promises.

God will one day end the world, and Jesus Himself will judge the world, too. Yet for all who put their hope in Jesus, even the end of the world cannot separate from the love of God in Jesus, His Son. We believe that on the Last Day, God will raise our bodies up new, and whole, and without sin. We look forward to a reunion with all who have gone before us in the faith. We look forward to seeing God face to face. God has promised to wipe every tear from our eyes.

We gather for worship in the Lutheran Church weekly to be strengthened in this hope. God’s Word gives us guidance, encouragement, and hope in dealing with the many problems and struggles we face living in a broken world. At St. Paul’s, our worship times are Sundays at 8:30 and 10 AM. We also meet for special worship times on Thanksgiving, Christmas, during the time before Easter called Lent, and for what we call Holy Week.

Holy Week includes Palm Sunday, the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Holy Week includes Maundy Thursday, the night Jesus first celebrated the Lord’s Supper. On Maundy Thursday evening also, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and was betrayed by Judas into the hands of His enemies. On Good Friday, we remember that Jesus suffered and died on the cross for us. On Easter, we gladly proclaim that God raised Jesus from the dead. Because Jesus lives, God’s promise is that we shall live, also.

We take time out each week to teach the basic truths of the Bible to our children in Sunday School. Sunday School meets each Sunday morning from September to the end of May at 9 AM.. Special confirmation classes are offered for 7th and 8th Graders. Whenever requested, A ten session course called God For Us is offered for adults interested in the teachings of the Lutheran Church. God For Us is our current Bible Class study.

The Lutheran Church is named after Dr. Martin Luther. He was a teacher of the church, who called the church back to the teachings of the Bible. God used Martin Luther’s teaching and writing and bold confession to restore the truth of the Gospel to the church. We cannot save ourselves from sin or death. God sent Jesus to redeem us, to buy us back, and to give us the sure hope of heaven. Our hope is sure, because what Jesus has done in our place us is finished and complete.

Markup: HTML Tags and Formatting

Headings

Header one

Header two

Header three

Header four

Header five
Header six

Blockquotes

Single line blockquote:

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

Multi line blockquote with a cite reference:

The HTML <blockquote> Element (or HTML Block Quotation Element) indicates that the enclosed text is an extended quotation. Usually, this is rendered visually by indentation (see Notes for how to change it). A URL for the source of the quotation may be given using the cite attribute, while a text representation of the source can be given using the <cite> element.

multiple contributors – MDN HTML element reference – blockquote

Tables

Employee Salary
John Doe $1 Because that’s all Steve Jobs needed for a salary.
Jane Doe $100K For all the blogging she does.
Fred Bloggs $100M Pictures are worth a thousand words, right? So Jane x 1,000.
Jane Bloggs $100B With hair like that?! Enough said…

Definition Lists

Definition List Title
Definition list division.
Startup
A startup company or startup is a company or temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.
#dowork
Coined by Rob Dyrdek and his personal body guard Christopher “Big Black” Boykins, “Do Work” works as a self motivator, to motivating your friends.
Do It Live
I’ll let Bill O’Reilly will explain this one.

Unordered Lists (Nested)

  • List item one
    • List item one
      • List item one
      • List item two
      • List item three
      • List item four
    • List item two
    • List item three
    • List item four
  • List item two
  • List item three
  • List item four

Ordered List (Nested)

  1. List item one -start at 8
    1. List item one
      1. List item one -reversed attribute
      2. List item two
      3. List item three
      4. List item four
    2. List item two
    3. List item three
    4. List item four
  2. List item two
  3. List item three
  4. List item four

HTML Tags

These supported tags come from the WordPress.com code FAQ.

Address Tag

1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
United States

Anchor Tag (aka. Link)

This is an example of a link.

Abbreviation Tag

The abbreviation srsly stands for “seriously”.

Acronym Tag (deprecated in HTML5)

The acronym ftw stands for “for the win”.

Big Tag (deprecated in HTML5)

These tests are a big deal, but this tag is no longer supported in HTML5.

Cite Tag

“Code is poetry.” —Automattic

Code Tag

This tag styles blocks of code.
.post-title {
margin: 0 0 5px;
font-weight: bold;
font-size: 38px;
line-height: 1.2;
and here's a line of some really, really, really, really long text, just to see how it is handled and to find out how it overflows;
}
You will learn later on in these tests that word-wrap: break-word;will be your best friend.

Delete Tag

This tag will let you strike out text, but this tag is recommended supported in HTML5 (use the <s> instead).

Emphasize Tag

The emphasize tag should italicize text.

Horizontal Rule Tag

This sentence is following a <hr /> tag.

Insert Tag

This tag should denote inserted text.

Keyboard Tag

This scarcely known tag emulates keyboard text, which is usually styled like the <code> tag.

Preformatted Tag

This tag is for preserving whitespace as typed, such as in poetry or ASCII art.

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost


  Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
  And sorry I could not travel both          (\_/)
  And be one traveler, long I stood         (='.'=)
  And looked down one as far as I could     (")_(")
  To where it bent in the undergrowth;

  Then took the other, as just as fair,
  And having perhaps the better claim,          |\_/|
  Because it was grassy and wanted wear;       / @ @ \
  Though as for that the passing there        ( > º < )
  Had worn them really about the same,         `>>x<<´
                                               /  O  \
  And both that morning equally lay
  In leaves no step had trodden black.
  Oh, I kept the first for another day!
  Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
  I doubted if I should ever come back.

  I shall be telling this with a sigh
  Somewhere ages and ages hence:
  Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
  I took the one less traveled by,
  And that has made all the difference.


  and here's a line of some really, really, really, really long text, just to see how it is handled and to find out how it overflows;

Quote Tag for short, inline quotes

Developers, developers, developers... --Steve Ballmer

Strike Tag (deprecated in HTML5) and S Tag

This tag shows strike-through text.

Small Tag

This tag shows smaller text.

Strong Tag

This tag shows bold text.

Subscript Tag

Getting our science styling on with H2O, which should push the "2" down.

Superscript Tag

Still sticking with science and Albert Einstein's E = MC2, which should lift the 2 up.

Teletype Tag (obsolete in HTML5)

This rarely used tag emulates teletype text, which is usually styled like the <code> tag.

Underline Tag deprecated in HTML 4, re-introduced in HTML5 with other semantics

This tag shows underlined text.

Variable Tag

This allows you to denote variables.

Markup: Image Alignment

Welcome to image alignment! The best way to demonstrate the ebb and flow of the various image positioning options is to nestle them snuggly among an ocean of words. Grab a paddle and let’s get started.

On the topic of alignment, it should be noted that users can choose from the options of None, Left, Right, and Center. In addition, they also get the options of Thumbnail, Medium, Large & Fullsize.

Image Alignment 580x300

The image above happens to be centered.

Image Alignment 150x150The rest of this paragraph is filler for the sake of seeing the text wrap around the 150×150 image, which is left aligned.

As you can see the should be some space above, below, and to the right of the image. The text should not be creeping on the image. Creeping is just not right. Images need breathing room too. Let them speak like you words. Let them do their jobs without any hassle from the text. In about one more sentence here, we’ll see that the text moves from the right of the image down below the image in seamless transition. Again, letting the do it’s thang. Mission accomplished!

And now for a massively large image. It also has no alignment.

Image Alignment 1200x400

The image above, though 1200px wide, should not overflow the content area. It should remain contained with no visible disruption to the flow of content.

Image Alignment 300x200

And now we’re going to shift things to the right align. Again, there should be plenty of room above, below, and to the left of the image. Just look at him there… Hey guy! Way to rock that right side. I don’t care what the left aligned image says, you look great. Don’t let anyone else tell you differently.

In just a bit here, you should see the text start to wrap below the right aligned image and settle in nicely. There should still be plenty of room and everything should be sitting pretty. Yeah… Just like that. It never felt so good to be right.

And just when you thought we were done, we’re going to do them all over again with captions!

Image Alignment 580x300
Look at 580×300 getting some caption love.

The image above happens to be centered. The caption also has a link in it, just to see if it does anything funky.

Image Alignment 150x150
Itty-bitty caption.

The rest of this paragraph is filler for the sake of seeing the text wrap around the 150×150 image, which is left aligned.

As you can see the should be some space above, below, and to the right of the image. The text should not be creeping on the image. Creeping is just not right. Images need breathing room too. Let them speak like you words. Let them do their jobs without any hassle from the text. In about one more sentence here, we’ll see that the text moves from the right of the image down below the image in seamless transition. Again, letting the do it’s thang. Mission accomplished!

And now for a massively large image. It also has no alignment.

Image Alignment 1200x400
Massive image comment for your eyeballs.

The image above, though 1200px wide, should not overflow the content area. It should remain contained with no visible disruption to the flow of content.

Image Alignment 300x200
Feels good to be right all the time.

And now we’re going to shift things to the right align. Again, there should be plenty of room above, below, and to the left of the image. Just look at him there… Hey guy! Way to rock that right side. I don’t care what the left aligned image says, you look great. Don’t let anyone else tell you differently.

In just a bit here, you should see the text start to wrap below the right aligned image and settle in nicely. There should still be plenty of room and everything should be sitting pretty. Yeah… Just like that. It never felt so good to be right.

And that’s a wrap, yo! You survived the tumultuous waters of alignment. Image alignment achievement unlocked! One last thing: The last item in this post’s content is a thumbnail floated right. Make sure any elements after the content are clearing properly.

Markup: Text Alignment

Default

This is a paragraph. It should not have any alignment of any kind. It should just flow like you would normally expect. Nothing fancy. Just straight up text, free flowing, with love. Completely neutral and not picking a side or sitting on the fence. It just is. It just freaking is. It likes where it is. It does not feel compelled to pick a side. Leave him be. It will just be better that way. Trust me.

Left Align

This is a paragraph. It is left aligned. Because of this, it is a bit more liberal in it’s views. It’s favorite color is green. Left align tends to be more eco-friendly, but it provides no concrete evidence that it really is. Even though it likes share the wealth evenly, it leaves the equal distribution up to justified alignment.

Center Align

This is a paragraph. It is center aligned. Center is, but nature, a fence sitter. A flip flopper. It has a difficult time making up its mind. It wants to pick a side. Really, it does. It has the best intentions, but it tends to complicate matters more than help. The best you can do is try to win it over and hope for the best. I hear center align does take bribes.

Right Align

This is a paragraph. It is right aligned. It is a bit more conservative in it’s views. It’s prefers to not be told what to do or how to do it. Right align totally owns a slew of guns and loves to head to the range for some practice. Which is cool and all. I mean, it’s a pretty good shot from at least four or five football fields away. Dead on. So boss.

Justify Align

This is a paragraph. It is justify aligned. It gets really mad when people associate it with Justin Timberlake. Typically, justified is pretty straight laced. It likes everything to be in it’s place and not all cattywampus like the rest of the aligns. I am not saying that makes it better than the rest of the aligns, but it does tend to put off more of an elitist attitude.

Markup: Title With Special Characters ~`!@#$%^&*()-_=+{}[]/\;:'”?,.>

Putting special characters in the title should have no adverse effect on the layout or functionality.

Special characters in the post title have been known to cause issues with JavaScript when it is minified, especially in the admin when editing the post itself (ie. issues with metaboxes, media upload, etc.).

Latin Character Tests

This is a test to see if the fonts used in this theme support basic Latin characters.

! “ # $ % & ‘ ( ) *
+ , – . / 0 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 : ; > = <
? @ A B C D E F G H
I J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z [ \
] ^ _ ` a b c d e f
g h i j k l m n o p
q r s t u v w x y z
{ | } ~

Markup: Title With Special Characters ~`!@#$%^&*()-_=+{}[]/\;:'”?,.>

Putting special characters in the title should have no adverse effect on the layout or functionality.

Special characters in the post title have been known to cause issues with JavaScript when it is minified, especially in the admin when editing the post itself (ie. issues with metaboxes, media upload, etc.).

Latin Character Tests

This is a test to see if the fonts used in this theme support basic Latin characters.

! “ # $ % & ‘ ( ) *
+ , – . / 0 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 : ; > = <
? @ A B C D E F G H
I J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z [ \
] ^ _ ` a b c d e f
g h i j k l m n o p
q r s t u v w x y z
{ | } ~