Pastor Jay Grave

Thank you so much for considering St. John Lutheran Church. 


I am Pastor Jay Grave. I have been the Pastor here since the Spring of 2022. I grew up in a small farming town in Iowa and the first congregation I served was here in Texas. Since then, I have served congregations in Missouri, Minnesota, and Louisiana before returning to Texas. Bellville reminds me of my hometown and I am excited to raise my own family here. 


I am married to my wonderful wife,  Elizabeth, a native Texan, and we have three children. A daughter in her 20’s, a teenage daughter, and a pre-school-age son! As you can guess, we stay pretty busy! We love to visit new places and meet new people and listen to live music. I love to be on the water in a boat or under the water doing scuba. 


I believe that God has uniquely gifted every person, that God’s grace is a free gift to all and that our salvation has been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. In response to this freely given new life, we are called to partner with God and all of God’s creation to make the world a better place. At St. John, we do this in many ways. We worship together, we serve the community together, we fellowship and sing, and sometimes dance together. We study scripture and pray, encourage and console each other.


I am excited that you are here and I look forward to meeting you as we continue Learning, Living, and Leading in Love Through God’s grace!


In Christ, 

Pastor Jay


email: rev.jgrave@stjohn-bellville.org

Pastor Diane Roth

Type the content for this section here. This is just example text to show you what it will look like when you enter text content into this section. Your unique, authentic, and appropriate text will be filled into this section. Once you click into this section, you will see the filler text disappear, and you can begin typing your real content. We’ve simply put in filler text in this area. No need to get caught up in the actual content of this body text, we just typed a bunch of meaningless sentences. If you get anything from this text, please understand that this is just example text to give you a feeling for what your real text might look like.

Joy Seidel

Joy has been a member of St. John Lutheran since 1963 and has been an employee of St. John Lutheran for over 15 years! Joy now serves as our Assistant Office Administrator.  We love to have Joys bright and shining personality as the first thing our members and their families see as they walk into the office. Joy is also a member of the Games Day crew and is always ready to lend a helping hand. 

Sheila Richard

Sheila serves as our church office and worship administrative assistant here at St. John. She is also a member of the Bell Choir and Gospel Group and you can usually find her at the Saturday services orchestrating the worship assistants and choir groups before service. Drop by the office during business hours and you will be greeted by her sweet and friendly smile. 

ASHLIN GORDON

Howdy! 


I am Ashlin Gordon and I am our Youth Engagement Leader here at St. John! I have been a member here since 2023 and I was blessed to accept a position here in August of 2025. Just a few of the kids and families that I have met here in the short time that I have been a member, have shown  me the love of this small town and this welcoming congregation. I am thrilled to be able to combine my passion for the Lord and for working with kids. And I thank you for your continuing love, prayers and support. 


I am an Aggie (WHOOP) class of 25' and I think my time in Aggieland has given me the proper skills to Learn, Live and Lead in Love here at SJLC. I have been truly blessed and have seen the work of the Lord in my personal life as well as here at St. John and I look forward to many years of blessings to come. 


God bless and GIG EM AGS!


Contact Info:

ashlin@stjohn-bellville.org

979-865-2081 ext.12