|
St. Luke Lutheran Church is an
energetic, faithful community called to worship God, walk in the Spirit and
witness to Christ. We welcome all who are looking for meaningful worship,
learning opportunities for children, youth, and adults, and fellowship for all
ages.
We are blessed with the leadership and
ministry of Pastor Jim Johnson, who began his call at St. Luke on January 1,
2001. Since Pastor Jim’s arrival at St. Luke and with his consistent vision for
the future, the congregation has grown in numbers, program opportunities,
staffing and energy. A new multi-purpose building was dedicated on February 26,
2006, and provides space for worship, fellowship and basketball and includes a
youth loft for high school fellowship. Most recently, the Adult Education room
(Genesis Room) was remodeled and the “old” kitchen was completely gutted to
re-emerge as a new, spacious library and modern kitchenette.
The St. Luke staff has grown to support our
ministry, resulting in a current staff as follows:
- Our Church Administrator, Sandy
Randolph, acts as the contact person for questions concerning life at St.
Luke, helps coordinate projects, attends to the financial aspects of the
church and is staff supervisor.
- Debbie Wraspir, our Children’s Ministry
Coordinator, develops St. Luke’s Sunday School and children’s programs, to
include Vacation Bible School, Harvest Fest, the Christmas play, SuperBowl
Sunday, Order of the Acolytes and Deeds of Kindness.
-
Tyler Strom, our Youth Director, ministers to our
middle and high school youth. Together they celebrate Christ’s presence in
their lives through youth worship, Bible study, fellowship activities and
service projects. Our middle school youth gather for Confirmation studies on
Wednesday evenings after our mid-week worship service. At the same time, our high school youth meet for Youth Group.
Tyler and our youth traveled to Puerto Rico in
July 2001 on a mission trip to work with families in need and children's
Vacation Bible School and will soon begin plans towards a summer 2013
Mission Trip.
- St. Luke has a vision for exciting and
innovative worship, inspired by our Worship Coordinator, Jim Scollard. Our
8:30 and 10:00 a.m. Sunday worship services are more traditional in style
and are lead by organ, piano, or various ensembles. The 11:10 a.m.
contemporary worship is lead by our Praise Band. All three services are
celebrated in our Sanctuary. During the summer months (Memorial Day thru
Labor Day), we have only two worship services at 8:30 and 10:00 Sunday morning.
- Justin Gil, our church Secretary, was
welcomed to our staff in May 2011. Justin creates the monthly St. Luke
Newsletter, Sunday's worship bulletins and announcement sheets and meets the
needs of a busy staff and active congregation.
- The Congregational Care Coordinator
at St. Luke, Suzie Buell, welcomes all to St. Luke, develops small
group ministry
opportunities, coordinates our Congregational
Care Ministries that
care for, uplift and encourage each other and helps members find their place in the life and ministry at
St. Luke.
St. Luke holds to a “tradition” that
embraces ministry opportunities. Our vision for the future remains a driving
force for faithful ministry at St. Luke. We invite you to join us in worship and
fellowship at St. Luke. We encourage you to contact Pastor Jim,
Amy Whisenand
(Secretary) or Sandy Randolph (Church Administrator) with any questions.
________________________________________________
Pastors, interns and members of the present
and past have blessed ministry at St. Luke with their gifts and vision. The
vision of a new Lutheran church in north Spokane became a reality on June 6,
1954, under the guidance of mission start pastor, Warren Pechman, with 50
confirmed adults and 42 children. Charter members Oren and Margaret Peterson
and Magna (Patterson) Knaggs are still attending St. Luke today. These first
services were held at a storefront at 10117 Pend Oreille Highway. This is now a
Mexican restaurant on what has become the Newport Highway. The congregation
grew quickly and the members valued their children’s Christian education,
evidenced by the Sunday School growing to 113 students.
Pastor Pechman was here for one year and was
followed by Pastor A. C. Baumgaertner, who confirmed St. Luke’s first three
confirmation students on May 1, 1955. During Pastor Baumgaertner’s ministry
plans were set in motion to build a church, and land was purchased at 9706 North
Division. In the summer of 1959, Pastor Jerald Ferguson came to St. Luke just
in time to move the congregation to Whitworth Elementary School, where worship
was held for the next two years. On May 28, 1961, ground was broken to build the
new church at a cost of $34,000. Construction was completed and worship in the
new sanctuary was held on September 12, 1961.
In 1964, Pastor Dave Angersbach was called
to St. Luke, and during his four-year ministry, he introduced the congregation
to sermons sung to guitar accompaniment. Now, he was an “out of the box”
thinker! Pastor Delmer Anderson followed Pastor Angersbach (1968) and led the
congregation to envision an addition to the existing church. The youth group
continued to be a growing and active ministry. The new addition conceived under
Pastor Anderson’s direction came to fruition with groundbreaking on April 3,
1977. Pastor Anderson had already moved on to another call in 1973 and Pastor
William Waxenberg was leading St. Luke in ministry. Pastor Waxenberg served St.
Luke for six years, during which time the new addition and sanctuary were
dedicated (April 16, 1978) and the congregation grew in numbers and energy.
While many will remember 1980 for the
eruption of Mt. Saint Helens, St. Luke will also remember that during his
ministry here, Pastor Burton Schroeder (1980 - 1985) embraced innovative worship
with the addition of a Chicago Folk Service. After Pastor Schroeder left St.
Luke, we were served by two interim pastors (Pastor C.P. Smith and Pastor Llano
Thielen) before calling Pastor Michael Wiser in 1986. During Pastor Michael’s
time at St. Luke, the congregation grew in size and ministry opportunities.
Children’s and youth ministry continued to be important, and to meet the needs
of a growing number of youth, St. Luke hired Alan Harbine, our first Director of
Youth and Family Ministries. Our high school youth group came to be known as
F.L.Y. (Fellowship of Lutheran Youth) and was active at home and in national
synod events. With the financial and prayerful support of the congregation, our
youth group traveled to distant places to work on mission projects.
By the 1990’s, it was clear that St. Luke
would be blessed by the addition of an associate pastor, and in 1994, Pastor
Karen Bates-Olson was called. Pastor Karen inspired the congregation to new
levels of musicianship, music and innovation in worship. Two children’s choirs
were started and a worship team, now known as Celebrate Grace, had its
beginnings. Alan Harbine left his position and Mark Eastman joined the staff to
work with our youth. In addition, in 1998, St. Luke hired Sandy Randolph as our
bookkeeper. After Pastor Wiser left his ministry at St. Luke (1999), Pastor Ron
Paulson was called as an interim pastor. He served the congregation with Pastor
Bates-Olson through much of 2000. Pastor Karen served St. Luke until her move to
a new call in September 2005.
Our Youth Director, Mark Eastman, left his
position at St. Luke in Spring 2003 and later that year, Patrick Striker joined
the staff and infused our youth program with excitement for fun, in-depth Bible
study and a Mission Trip to Ninilchik, Alaska. Patrick worked in ministry with
St. Luke youth through Spring 2006 and later that summer, Jerry Jones took over
as Youth Director, focusing on preparations for the Summer 2007 Mission Trip to
Bay-St. Louis, Mississippi to help with Hurricane Katrina relief. By Fall 2007,
youth ministry at St. Luke began a transitional time under the vision,
organization and foundational planning of Nancy Skrei. Nancy held the interim
position of Youth Ministry Coordinator until February 2008. From that point
through July 2008, Greg and Annie Albrecht enjoyed fellowship with our youth on
Sundays and during special activities and events. Tyler Strom began his ministry
with St. Luke middle and high school youth in
September 2008 and continues today to provide inspired and energetic leadership
to our youth. Tyler has organized two Mission Trips for our youth: To Calais,
Maine in 2009 and to Puerto Rico in 2011, and will soon start the planning
process for another trip in summer 2013.
In Summer 2011, St. Luke entered
into a joint venture with St. Peter Lutheran Church in the Hillyard area of
Spokane to help facilitate the revitalization of the worshipping community at
St. Peter. Both congregations worked together through the summer to prepare St.
Peter's parsonage for a new intern. Coming from Luther Seminary in St. Paul,
Minnesota, Mandy Brobst-Renaud and her husband, Ben, arrived in August to begin
a one-year internship experience with the St. Peter congregation. Pastor
Jim Johnson, St. Luke's Pastor, provided internship support and supervision as
Mandy was welcomed into a unique partnership to provide pastoral leadership at
St. Peter and also share in the worshipping community at St. Luke. Each year in
August, a new intern will arrive as the previous year's intern returns to
Seminary for their final year of education.
Come be Part of St. Luke's
Future
|
