During the summer of 1956, Dr. W. Felston Christopher and his wife, Susie, met with Earl and LaRita Johannes at the latter's home in Kansas City North to consider possible locations for a new Presbyterian Church in the Northland area.
Out of this meeting and meetings of the Pan-Presbyterian Council, a site was selected and purchased by the Presbytery of Kansas City at 4301 N.E. Vivion Road. The site consisted of ten acres of land, a large two-story house, and a garage.

The original meeting place at 4301 N.E. Vivion Road

Later that fall, a group of local people under the leadership of the Rev. J. Wallace Carlson, head of new church development for the Presbytery, met at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bixler to organize a steering committee for the new church. This group consisted of:

Mr. and Mrs. John Crabb
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bixler
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Plath
Mr. and Mrs. James Fredman
Mr. and Mrs. Glen Schooley
Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Matthews
Mr. and Mrs. H. Earl Johannes

A goal was set to have the first worship service on Sunday, February 3, 1957.

After much planning and working we prepared for a congregation of about 40 people in the living room of the house. A total of 116 persons showed up.

The next week the steering committee, with help of others, went to the basement of the house, partitioned off the furnace, whitewashed the basement walls, and services were held there until the completions of the Chapel.

Also, 100 folding chairs were purchased on faith and paid for in 60 days.
The Sunday Church School was started on Sunday, March 17, 1957.

That summer a floor was laid in the garage and it was partitioned into two classrooms, as all available rooms in the house were being used.

At least 100 persons must sign the Charter roll before the group can be organized as a Presbyterian Church.

On August 25, 1957, it was announced that 100 persons had signed the Charter roll and that we could now petition the Presbytery of Kansas City to organize St. Luke as a Presbyterian congregation. This was done, and the formal organization was on Sunday, September 22, 1957, at 4 p.m. The service of organization was under the leadership of the Rev. Harry Dale Collier, moderator of the Presbytery.

The pulpit nominating committee prevailed upon the Rev. J. Wallace Carlson, our organizing minister, to leave his Presbytery position and become our permanent pastor. Rev. Carlson was installed as our minister on Sunday, March 2, 1958, at 3:30 p.m., under the auspices of the Presbytery of Kansas City.

On Sunday, May 11, 1958, a general building committee was elected by the congregation, and the following Sunday the committee selected James Fredman as its chairman.

On Sunday, August 10, 1958, the congregation approved the employment of the Fund Raising Council of the Board of National Missions to help us in raising our building fund.

The firm of Conrad and Mantel was hired as architects for our new Chapel, Fellowship Hall and Education Building.

On the first Sunday in May, 1959, ground was broken and dedicated for our new Chapel and Fellowship Hall. Dr. Glen Moore from the General Assembly officiated at this service.

On the first Sunday in May, 1962, ground was broken and dedicated for new Education Building. The ground was broken by an old one-horse plow pulled by members of the congregation.

A church event on the lawn in 1963

On the first Sunday in May, 1963, the new building was dedicated to the honor and glory of God. Dr. John G. Marvin was the dedicatory speaker.

On Sunday, July 12,1970, at 10:30 a.m., a congregational meeting was held to consider dissolving the pastoral relationship between our pastor, J. Wallace Carlson, the Presbytery, and the congregation, in order that he might be free to accept a position with the General Assembly as a campaign director. The church accepted Rev. Carlson's resignation with regrets.

A farewell reception was held for Rev. Carlson as our pastor on Sunday, August 20, 1970, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Dr. Henry Brockman was hired as our interim pastor and served the church well from Sunday, September 6, 1970, until Sunday, January 17, 1971, when our new pastor, Rev. Melvin B. Roblee, assumed his duties as our new permanent pastor.

The service of installation was held on Sunday, February 14, 1971, at 4:30 p.m.

The old parish house was torn down with regrets in the first week of December 1970. Many members salvaged mementos before the building was demolished.

Construction was started on the third building, which was to contain administrative offices and additional classrooms as well as a library. This building was dedicated on Sunday, June 20, 1971, following the morning worship and congregational meeting.

The congregation accepted the resignation of Rev. Roblee on August 10, 1986, and Kay Laine was hired as the interim pastor on November 1, 1986, and served until the new pastor was called. The Rev. Dr. Joseph N. Pallikkathayil was called as the third pastor of St. Luke on June 7, 1987, and his installation service was celebrated on July 5, 1987.

A rare gathering of the three pastors who have served St. Luke: (from left), Joe Pallikkathayil, Mel Roblee and Wally Carlson.

The church initiated a fourth building program, connecting the education building with the rest of the buildings in June, 1990, and the new two story building was completed and dedicated on January 13, 1991. A remodeling program for the fellowship hall, offices, bathrooms, and narthex area was started in January and completed in April 2000.

At the JOY Church, we seek to have God's Holy Word, the Bible, be our authority in all of life's situations. Our aim is to experience God's truth through inspirational worship and be a growing church, creatively fulfilling the Great Commission as led by the Holy Spirit.

The words "JOY To The World" were placed on our church building for a Christmas display. After that Christmas, the display and other words were removed. But, the word "JOY" got stuck on the building. It could not be removed without damaging the bricks. Hence, the decision was made to leave the word "JOY" on the building. Thus our church came to be know as the "JOY CHURCH" in the Kansas City Northland.

Present
Currently we are a congregation of 266 members, governed by a session composed of 12 Elders and served by a deacon board composed of 12 deacons. They divide their workload into four committees: Worship committee, Education committee, Church Life and Evangelism committee, and Facilities and Stewardship committee. Each committee is composed of three elders, three deacons and four to nine members from the congregation. .

Future
Our goal is to keep on growing the members of our church in deeper and stronger faith. Their love for the Lord will open up the hearts of others to know and love Jesus, welcoming Him as their Lord and Savior.

One of our great commitments is to develop a marvelous children's ministry, blessing the babies and children to enjoy the love of Jesus through us. Our next commitment is to keep on growing our youth ministry, bringing a lot of youth to the Lord and enabling them to grow in Him. We want to develop a Marriage Joy Ministry, preparing people to get married in the best way and growing in married life in such a way as to be inspirational for all marriages and families.

Our prayer is for the Lord to utilize us in His own glorious way to build up his kingdom. We pray that the Lord may call a number of people from our church to the mission field, both in short-term and long-term service. Our prayer is to become a 1,000-member church sending forth 100 missionaries.