Mission:

We Are Called to Make Disciples

We INVITE our friends, our neighbors and one another to experience and share God’s transforming love.

We HELP each other grow in faith.

We SEND ourselves into the world to serve according to the example of Jesus.

History:

Our congregation was developed for those people who, because of their language, did not have a church home. In fact, the original name of our congregation was Faith English Lutheran Church.

One of the lasting hallmarks of our congregation has been our hospitality. From the very start, we have been a church that has been able to help people feel at home. We continue to carry on our lasting tradition of outreach and hospitality to people who are looking for a church home. That tradition has always been one of our great strengths.

It all began in 1916, when a woman in Minneapolis told her pastor, the Reverend Luther B. Deck, of the need for an English language Lutheran church in Winona. At that time, Lutherans who did not speak either German or Norwegian could not worship as Lutherans. In March and April of 1917 Reverend Deck traveled to Winona to conduct a survey of households in Winona’s west end. He discovered enough interest to start a new Lutheran church.

The vacated Free Baptist Church at 707 West Howard was rented for services with an option to buy.  Five hundred dollars was paid down to secure the property.  It was money Reverend Deck had collected from friends in his home congregation at the historic Trinity Church in Philadelphia, and other sources.  This was paid back when the mortgage was placed and the $500 was sent to Pentecost Church, in Minneapolis, to acquire property.

The first permanent members to sign up were Mr. and Mrs. Otto Hoppe. Their numbers increased to twenty-five members by June 1, 1917, when Faith entered the English Evangelical Synod of the Northwest as their 50th congregation.

Reverend Edward R. Wicklund, a graduate of Mt. Airy Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, was extended a call on July 17, 1917, as the first regular pastor. He gathered a faithful community of Lutherans and by the end of his first year the membership up to eighty.

By Feb. 23, 1918, the congregation was able to purchase the church property in which it worshipped.  This was made possible with the support of Church Extension funds and the help of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Naas, who demonstrated their faith in the work by advancing a loan of $2,500.  Reverend Deck remarked that this act of faith did more than anything else to stabilize the young congregation. The congregation remained at the corner of Lincoln and Howard Streets until 1968.

In the middle 1960's the Lutheran Church in America, to which the church belonged, began to encourage the members to look for new property on which it could build a new building.  Construction was begun at our present location in 1967 on the 50th Anniversary of the congregation.  The building was expanded in 1994 with the addition of a new office, classrooms, rest rooms and music room.  A new sanctuary and narthex was added in 1996.