A Milwaukie Heritage
Our Place to Our Values to Our History
As We Gather
Community is where a group of people choose to be together with those that they wouldn’t have necessarily curated for themselves. There is no single described box that God can be fit into, and likewise, his love for all people shows we cannot fit into a perfectly described box, either. Liturgy and worship knits our unity, welcoming diversity honors Christ our Lord. Being in the world with our greater community is often meeting the stranger, and in the stranger we meet the experience of Christ.
Being in this Lutheran Space
If you were looking for definitive absolutes for what this passage happens to tell you, what you should recite as your thoughts, or what to do in this specific situation right now, then yeah, nope. Being Lutheran here isn’t really that sort of space. Being Lutheran here is about encountering the grappling with what do the great commands to love our neighbor and God and to go and make disciples do as they reach into your place as your life is lived. It doesn’t carry a rule book to push pat answers into your hands. It will hand you the respect as a beloved and accepted child of God, Gospel and the sacraments of the Lord’s supper; all to fortify you the way a good meal gives you sustenance to move through this world. Worship gatherings are where you are fed. Life is where faith is experienced.
Our Values
And so, our values attend to exemplify the Gospel as experience:
We welcome all and embrace diversity.
We experience God in scripture, worship, music and art, and each other.
We serve our neighbors in the local community and around the world.
We share God’s love by the things we say and do.
Our History
The Milwaukie Lutheran Church of Milwaukie Oregon was formed on February 10, 1946 and became a part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC). In 1960, Milwaukie Lutheran became part of the American Lutheran Church (ALC) and in 1987 joined the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Buildings
The first church building was erected in 1948 with the first service in the building held on Easter Sunday, March 28. There were 320 in attendance. This building was located across from Milwaukie High School in downtown Milwaukie. The building served the congregation from 1948 to 1963 when the congregation outgrew the original building.
Our present site was purchased at 3810 SE Lake Road. The first worship service here was held on August 25, 1963. Following the completion of the Educational Unit, Fellowship Hall and Church offices, work began on the sanctuary itself. On June 19, 1966, the present church sanctuary was dedicated. In 2003, the congregation voted to purchase the “Corner Property”, a house that is situated between the church and Lake Road.
Pastors
Pr. Waldo Ellickson
1945 – 1950
Pr. Frithjof Eide
1951 – 1955
Dr. Elmer Johnson (Interim)
1955 – 1956
Pr. Lloyd (Bud) Roholt
1956 – 1990
Pr. Lowell Nelson (Assoc.)
1966 – 1971
Pr. Arthur (Butch) Olson (Assoc.)
1972 – 1977
Pr. Gilbert Rossing (Interim Assoc.)
1977 – 1978
Pr. Eric Fosgard (Assoc.)
1979 – 1981
Pr. Harlow Jacobson (Assoc.)
1979 – 1991
Pr. Joan Hunt (Assoc.)
1987 – 1990
Pr. Don Haven
1991 – 1994
Pr. Elizabeth Ekdale (Interim Assoc.)
1991 – 1992
Pr. Charles Mantey (Assoc.)
1992 – 2005
Pr. Burt Schroeder (Interim)
1994 – 1995
Pr. Jim Liefeld
1995 – 2004
Pr. Charles Mantey
2005 – 2010
Pr. Janelle Aldrich-Dale (Interim)
2010 – 2012
Pr. Jesse Christopherson
2012 – Present