Showing 108 results

Luther Memorial was organized as Zion’s English Evangelical Lutheran Church by Reverend E.G. Lund on June 7, 1891. In 1892 the present site was purchased for $3,500 and a building was erected at a cost of $1,000 and dedicated in August of 1893.The congregation was admitted to the Evangelical Synod of the Northwest in August of 1893, and on September 1, 1901, the congregation withdrew its membership from the Synod of the Northwest to help form the Pacific Synod.

A new church was erected in 1909. On August 16, 1932, the congregation was merged with Our Savior’s Lutheran Church and the name of Luther Memorial was adopted. Since the newly merged congregations belonged to different synods, it was decided that the new congregation would remain independent. Not all of the members went into the merger, so Our Savior’s Lutheran Church also existed as a congregation in Tacoma. In 1937, Luther Memorial joined the Northwest District of the American Lutheran Church. The church voted to dissolve on November 14, 2004.

Saint James Lutheran Church’s history traces back to 1921, when Pastor Frederick Weisenborn founded a Lutheran Church and Sunday school in the White Center area of Seattle. At first, there was no actual church building, and services were held in local halls and the houses of members, such as Esther Hilborn’s, where the Church’s first Eucharist was held. The church struggled to eke out an existence during its nascent years, but was prospering by 1928, when the congregation was renewed under Pastor P.E. Blaiser. Full-time pastor Kolbein Simundsson arrived in 1928 and served until retiring in 1958.

In 1947, a new church building was finished and received a dedication service. At its peak, Saint James Lutheran Church grew to support 600 attendees in its church and 400 children in its Sunday school. The numbers dwindled with time, however, and eventually the Church serviced a moderately sized group, whose average age increased over the years. The Church increased outreach programs to the community, such as teaching English to immigrants and creating programs to find jobs for them. Projects such as Alcoholics Anonymous, the Girl Scouts and Nutrition Programs were also supported in this time. The church building was consistently renovated over time.

Saint James closed after Easter in 2005, because church attendance had dropped dramatically. The Easter service contained 50 attendees; on average it served 25, most of which were retirees.

This congregation was established in 1955 by the Mission Board of the American Lutheran Church. Holy Trinity Lutheran in nearby Ephrata was a sister congregation, as several members of Faith were from that congregation. In 1956 the ALC gave a $25,000 loan for the construction of a church. Building began on April 20 of that year. Soap Lake was a boom town in the 1950s, and population is now half of what it was at that time.

In 1953 the Board of Missions of the ELC purchased a building site and called Eugene W. Nilsen as pastor. In October of 1954, construction began for a church which was completed in April of 1955. By July, when the charter membership rolls were closed, there were 500 baptized members. By 1966 the Sunday School enrollment had grown to 360 students.

In 2011 they merged with Good Shepherd, and became Advent Lutheran Church of Spokane Valley, Washington.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd was organized on Sunday, March 1, 1953, at the 11:00 A.M. worship service, with Dr. Henry J. Hokenson in charge, aided by Mr. Charles H. Gustafson.

In 1954 their church building was dedicated. In 1957 land was purchased to build a new sanctuary. In 1959 the congregation went off Mission Aid, and the new building was dedicated. A parsonage was also built and later sold to one of their pastors. They used Central Valley High School for some of their Sunday school classes. An addition was built to remedy this problem in 1987.

The congregation worked on ecumenical relations with the Episcopalian and Catholic Church, and had a covenant with Holy Spirit Episcopalian & St. Mary’s Catholic Church. They also had joint confirmation with Holy Trinity Lutheran and Peace Lutheran.

They merged with Christ Lutheran in 2011, and changed the name to Advent Lutheran Church.

Immanuel Lutheran Church was founded in 1905 by Pastor Frisk. They shared pastors with Bethel after Bethel was established, and voted to dissolve in 1942 after talking about a merger with Bethel. This makes many of their records overlap.

On March 11, 1914 a meeting was held to consider the formation of a new congregation. The chosen name was “Svenska Lutherska Bethel Forsamlingen”. A lot was purchased in April, and at a June 1st meeting it was proposed to build a church at the total cost of $2,809.14. The congregation formally organized on July 13, 1914 with eight couples signing the charter.

From 1924-1942, Bethel of Tacoma and Messiah of Auburn joined as one parish. In 1939, in preparation for the 25th Anniversary, the sanctuary was renovated. All labor and materials were donated. In 1947 Bethel became self-supporting and began to plan for building. Service was held in the basement until the dedication in September of 1948. An educational unit was added in 1959. The sanctuary was renovated and remodeled for the golden anniversary, a new organ was installed in 1981, and new pews in 1982. In 1998 they merged with Mt Zion & Gethsemane of Tacoma, Washington, becoming United Lutheran Church.

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church was founded in 1957, and arose out Lutheran services that had previously existed in Richland. During World War II, many Lutheran families went into temporary wartime communities throughout America, with no local churches available. Out of this arose the National Lutheran Council (NLC), acting as a missionary arm to satisfy the needs of various Lutherans throughout America for church services during the war, continuing to maintain services thereafter.

In 1943, construction began on the first plutonium reactors in Hanford, with the NLC sending Pastor Martin Grimshold and Sister Veda Johnson to establish Lutheran services for the 50,000 persons at the temporary community. In 1947, nuclear research reignited in the area, with the temporary community of North Richland, with the NLC again sending workers to aid the 15,000 persons in the trailer community.

From 1947 to 1955, the North Richland community was served by Ann Worcester, with numerous baptisms and confirmations taking place. The temporary community of North Richland was terminated in 1955, and the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church was founded in May 1957 in Richland, arising from the preexistent services. It became affiliated with the Lutheran Church in America (ULCA), with Reverend Ernest Hauge serving as Pastor. His successors were Bjelland, Ranlett,, Hoobing, Stan Gardner and Karen Gardner.

After Karen Gardner left the congregation Pastore Karen & Bob Edwards came as interim pastors. Their approach was seen by some to be very different than the previous pastor of 25 years, and a vote to remove them failed. This resulted in many members leaving the church. They received a call, and left the congregation shortly after this. Ron Moen came to replace them, and under his leadership the congregation voted to close June 2005.

Mission developer Richard I. Crossland arrived on November 15, 1957 to begin work in the Bow Lake-Rancho Vista area just south of Seattle in the vicinity of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The congregation was organized on October 12, 1958 with a membership of 273 baptized and 134 confirmed. The present site was purchased and the first unit dedicated May 22, 1960. Good Shepherd has been adversely affected by the changing community and the experience of being boxed in between the airport and the freeway.

The congregation voted to move out of their building and share church buildings with Our Savior’s in Seattle November 16, 1997. The first service was held in Our Savior’s January 18, 1998. On April 22, 2001, they voted to dissolve the congregation, and their last service was August 1, 2001.

This congregation was started by the Board of Hope Missions of the ELC, who called Milton W. Nesse as the organizing pastor. In 1940 Reverend Ofstedal of Phinney Ridge and Shirley Christiansen conducted a survey of the area and a Sunday School was organized in January of 1942. Known as Trinity Sunday School, it met in a store at NE 148th and 15th Avenue NE and later moved to a community clubhouse.

There were 55 charter members on hand when the congregation was organized on Pentecost Sunday, May 20, 1945, and a parsonage was purchased the following June. In 1948 a new site was purchased and construction began on the present church plant. The new church was dedicated on May 28, 1950, and an education unit was completed December 13, 1959. The congregation had their last service November 23, 2003.

On January 1, 1970, two congregations in the Burien area merged to form Our Savior’s. They were the House of Prayer Lutheran Church (ALC), and Bethel of Burien (an ALC congregation which had been established by the Lutheran Free Church). The two pastors served the merged congregation until August 1, 1970, when they left for other parishes and Reverend Robert Moylan became head pastor. During the four years that Moylan was pastor a building program was instituted. A first unit was erected and a few years later, a parish education unit was added. They voted to leave the ELCA on January 20, 2001.