History of First Lutheran Church
The history of our church can be traced back to the early settlement years of New Richmond. The northside of town was an area that was plotted off and sold to many families of Scandinavian heritage. Once home construction started, the needs for a neighborhood church developed. The Norwegian Lutheran Church was founded in 1889 at the current site of First Lutheran. The classic white church with a tall steeple can still be remembered by some of our elder members. The English Lutheran Church, (so named English because the services were spoken in English rather than Swedish) was formed in 1891. Prior to this, the Swedish Lutherans worshipped in Huntington, a small hamlet several miles north of New Richmond. This church merged with the English Lutheran Church in 1924. The English Lutheran built their first church in 1905, one block west of First Lutheran. First Lutheran Church then came about as the result of the merger of these two churches on March 19, 1945. The members only differed in the national background of the founders, English Lutheran of Swedish heritage and the other of Norwegian heritage.
Pastor
C. W. Holte, with the help of Loren Spalding, served the congregation until
Pastor E. N. Okland arrived in October 1946. At that time the congregation
consisted of 200 parishioners.
During
Pastor Okland’s ministry the building program went forward. In 1947 Unit I,
the present basement dining room and kitchen area, was constructed. In 1952 Unit
II, comprising of the overflow area and adjacent Sunday school rooms, was
completed. On February 13, 1955, the completed church, complete with a
sanctuary, was completed and dedicated.
Pastor
Okland left our congregation in March of 1955, and Pastor Donhowe was installed
on July 10, 1955. Under his leadership our church grew spiritually and
numerically. Sunday school enrollment increased by approximately fifty per cent,
which brought about the need for more Sunday school rooms.
Following Pastor Donhowe’s resignation in 1960, James D. Anderson became our next pastor and served our congregation until August 1966. During his ministry the first floor of the Parish Education Unit was completed and dedicated on August 26, 1962.
Pastor Eugene Wekander and his family arrived in March of 1967. Several years later, it again became apparent that we had outgrown our facilities so plans were formulated for the construction of additional educational areas. Two more floors were added above the Parish Education Unit. The completed area also included a connection area serving as a main entrance, complete with offices, lounges, nursery, and rest rooms. Pastor Wekander was our pastor until 1985 when he retired. Since then we have had a number of other pastors serve our congregation. Some of them are: Ron Hanson, David Saetre, Ron Golberg, Dave Mesaros, and Jean Gfall. The church has been richly blessed over the years with these different pastors. Under the leadership of these dedicated pastors the membership has grown from 200 at the time of the merger to over 2000 baptized members.
We have a few long-standing traditions here at First Lutheran. One of them is the smorgasbord held the first Thursday in November, each and every year. Another one is the quilting group which has made thousands of quilts over the years for Lutheran World Relief.
Our current pastor, Pastor Larry Jorstad joined us in July of 1998. This same year the church purchased nineteen acres of land for future expansion. We are currently exploring options available for us in regards to the expansion of our ministry on this land.
As we look back and count the many ways we have been blessed through the years, we can only look forward in eager anticipation of what the Lord has waiting for us in the future. We are confident that the years ahead will continue to bring us growth and in keeping up with the changing world, new ways to spread our ministry.