An Update and Brief History of Holy Cross Lutheran Church
I realized recently that I have not updated many of you on the current status of Holy Cross Lutheran Church.
A short recap is in order for my newer readers. Three years ago next month, my husband, the beloved Rev., received a Divine Call from the North Dakota District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, to plant a new traditional Lutheran Congregation in North Bismarck.The Rev. accepted the Call, and our family of six packed up and left Northern Minnesota for the North Dakota Prairie in October of 2007. The Rev. was installed in Novermber of 2007 and began the difficult task of starting a brand new church…totally from scratch! His very first Call was to a church that just celebrated it’s 100 Year anniversary!
Over those first few months we had a lot of meetings. We had a small, but dedicated core group who shared their hopes and dreams with the Rev. He in turn shared with them what a Lutheran congregation entails. On July 12, 2008, we began holding weekly worship services at Bethel Lutheran Church, on Saturday Evenings. At the time, we referred to ourselves as North Bismarck Lutheran Mission. In July of 2009, the North Dakota agreed to lease us a storefront space for our Mission start, and so, almost a year ago, on July 12, 2009, we held our first worship service as Holy Cross Lutheran Church in our own space!
We worked hard to get all of our ducks in a row, so that we could eventually stand on our own and become an official member church of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. We were dealt a crushing blow in November of 2009, when we learned that our mission was going to be closed. Since then, there have been many meetings, open forums, and endless hoops to jump through.
In the end, as of June 21, Holy Cross Lutheran Church became an official member congregation of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. As a trade off, os to speak, we are losing much of our funding from the district. We are a growing congregation, what started as the six Thompsons has grown to 63+ souls. A full third of that number is children, so our worship services include the joyful noise of children’s voices.
If you are in town during your summer travels, feel free to join us for Divine Service at 9 am, followed by some social time and then Sunday School and Bible Class at 10:30.
We would be thrilled if you would consider adding our church to your mission budget. We are attempting to do a lot with very little, but we know that God is with us. His gracious hand has been with us for these three very growing years!
AMEN! God is good.
Congratulations on becoming an official LCMS church! That's wonderful news! May God continue to bless your growing congregation – you are in my prayers. I was part of a mission church 31 years ago, and know how exciting it is to see it grow, from a day care center to the grange to the 7th Day Adventist church, to our own building. And to see my oldest son baptized in the grange hall, surrounded by all the children of the congregation, using a special baptismal "bowl" sent by his uncle/sponsor from the seminary.
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