Who We Are

You will hear this as you are greeted at our Worship Services. So welcome, young and old, rich and poor, all races, all genders, all believers, all people!

First Lutheran Church was founded in 1869. Our Lutheran heritage is strong and rich, and our vision for the future embraces diversity, change, and contemporary goals while keeping parts of our precious heritage that make us who we are.

We are an intergenerational church. That means that all members, from ages 0 through 100+ are important in the life of this church family. For this reason, it is our goal to provide worship and program opportunities that ensure all ages and generations opportunities to worship, learn, grow, and support one another.

We are a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and part of the Southeast Minnesota Synod. We are committed by its statement of purpose to worship God in proclamation of the Word and administration of the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion through lives of prayer, praise, thanksgiving, witness, and service. The Scriptures and our Confessions establish this purpose.

Beyond that, we are a church family that shares our work, joys, sorrows, faith, and sense of community in all that we do.

If you are not already a part of this church family or you have not been present as a part of the family for awhile, come. You are always welcome at First Lutheran!

We look forward to seeing you at worship!

Our faith tradition is based on a life-transforming story. The story of our church is both ancient and timely. It’s a story of a powerful and patient God who has boundless love for all people of the world, who brings justice for the oppressed. It’s a story of Jesus Christ, changing lives. It’s a story that brings comfort and strength to people who today live in modern, often unsettling times. Learn more about our beliefs—and become a part of our story.

Here are the main points of our faith and teachings:

• This church confesses the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• This church confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and the Gospel as the power of God for the salvation of all who believe

Jesus Christ is the Word of God incarnate, through whom everything was made and through whose life, death, and resurrection God fashions a new creation.

The proclamation of God’s message to us as both Law and Gospel is the Word of God, revealing judgment and mercy through word and deed, beginning with the Word in creation, continuing in the history of Israel, and centering in all its fullness in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the written Word of God. Inspired by God’s Spirit speaking through their authors, they record and announce God’s revelation centering in Jesus Christ. Through them God’s Spirit speaks to us to create and sustain Christian faith and fellowship for service in the world.

• This church accepts the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith, and life.
• This church accepts the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds as true declarations of the faith of this church.
• This church accepts the Unaltered Augsburg Confession as a true witness to the Gospel, acknowledging as one with it In faith and doctrine all churches that likewise accept the teachings of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession.
• This church accepts the other confessional writings in the Book of Concord, namely, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles and the Treatise, the Small Catechism, the Large Catechism, and the Formula of Concord, as further valid interpretations of the faith of the Church.
• This church confesses the Gospel, recorded in the Holy Scriptures and confessed in the ecumenical creeds and Lutheran confessional writings, as the power of God to create and sustain the Church for God’s mission in the world.

In order to learn more about what the ELCA believes and how we put faith into action beyond the community of Lake City, visit these ELCA sites:

What We Believe

Our Faith In Action

(Please note, you will be leaving the First Lutheran Page and entering the ELCA’s website by clicking these links.)

The Journey with First Lutheran Church:

First Lutheran Church was founded in 1869 as a Swedish Lutheran Congregation under the Augustana Synod. Lars August Hocanzon, a lay leader, led the services, which were held in parishioners’ homes. On Sept. 10, 1869, Pastor Peter Sjoblom of Red Wing presided over 50 families as they signed the charter to officially begin our church’s history.

Swedish was the language used in all the services until 1920, and there was no resident pastor for the first 10 years. The members were mostly Swedish, but there were also several Norwegian and German families. The original part of First Lutheran Church was completed in 1875. The first pastor was Rev. S. A. Lindbolm in 1880, and the first parsonage was built in 1881.

In 1899 a reproduction of the original painting “Christ in Gethsemane,” which still hangs in our sanctuary, was painted right in our building by Jonas Olaf Grafstrom.

Four acres of land were purchased in 1900 for Oakwood Cemetery, which is still owned by First Lutheran Church and maintained by its members.

By 1920 three services a month were in English and one in Swedish. Also in 1920, women were given the right to vote, but they were not allowed to become members of the Church Council.

The church has been renovated several times over the years. In 1973 the Education building was completed and then added on to in 1988. Our 125th Anniversary was celebrated in 1994.

The present 28-acre site on Highway 61 was purchased in 2000 and a new facility was dedicated in October of 2005. The new Church provides a larger sanctuary with seating for 300 people, a spacious narthex for gathering and socializing, 12 classrooms, 5 offices, a choir room, modern kitchen, and 150 parking spaces. The new building offers space for worship, communion, baptism, wedding, funerals, confirmation events, music performances and concerts. A Columbarium was added on-site in 2015. In August of 2021 an eleven circuit Labyrinth was built by volunteers providing a sacred space for church and community members to come for prayer and meditation.

Over the years our mission has remained much the same as the original members had intended. One of our former pastors stated in his annual report: “The world changes and the pressures of society come in different ways in different generations, but people and their needs and concerns remain the same. The task of our congregation is still to build and sustain the presence of God in Christ Jesus throughout the world, for this is still the life to which all of us are committed.”

First Lutheran Church is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which was organized in three expressions that enable and support us all to grow in faith and put faith into action. We can do together what would be impossible as a single church body.

The three expressions include the:

Congregations of the ELCA (10,500 across the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands)

Synods (65 across the U.S.) We are a part of the Southeast Minnesota Synod of the ELCA based in Rochester, MN.

Churchwide Organization (based in Chicago and at work globally)