St. Luke Lutheran Church is an energetic, faithful community called to worship God, walk in the Spirit and witness to Christ. We welcome all who are looking for meaningful worship, learning opportunities for children, youth, and adults and fellowship for all ages.

 

 

We are blessed with the leadership and ministry of Pastor Jim Johnson, who began his call at St. Luke on January 1, 2001. Under Pastor Jim’s Pastoral care and with his consistent vision for the future, the congregation has grown in numbers, program opportunities, staffing and energy. Our multi-purpose building (dedicated on February 26, 2006) continues to provide space for worship, fellowship and basketball and our youth enjoy their loft for high school fellowship.

 

 

The St. Luke staff has grown to support our ministry, resulting in a current staff as follows:

 

• Our Church Administrator, Sandy Randolph, acts as the contact person for questions concerning life at St. Luke, helps coordinate projects, attends to the financial aspects of the church and is staff supervisor.

 

• Our Children’s Ministry Coordinator, Stefanie Reinke, ensures a safe, nurturing environment for our kids, surrounding them with God's love and fun! At St. Luke, our Sunday School celebrates using curriculum written at St. Luke and exciting children’s programs, to include Vacation Bible School, Harvest Fest, the Christmas play, SuperBowl Sunday, Order of the Acolytes and Deeds of Kindness. We look forward to continued excitement and vision for this vital ministry at St. Luke.

 

• Youth Ministry at St. Luke is led by our Youth Ministries Coordinator, Taran Denning, and our three college-age youth mentors. They develop and plan Middle School and High School youth activities at St. Luke. Our youth gather on Wednesday evenings, Sunday mornings and for monthly activities to celebrate Christ’s presence in their lives through youth worship, Bible study, fellowship activities and service projects. Our middle school youth gather for Confirmation studies on Wednesday evenings after our mid-week worship service. Our Mission Team of youth and chaperones traveled to the Dominican Republic in July 2015 for an incredible experience working with children there and helping with construction projects. They have plans to return in the summer of 2017.

 

• St. Luke has a vision for exciting and innovative worship, inspired by our Worship Coordinator, Sally Fullmer. Our 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. Sunday worship services are more traditional in style and are led by organ, piano, instrument ensemble or worship team. These two services are celebrated in our sanctuary. The 11:05 a.m. modern worship is led by our Praise Band and is celebrated in our multi-purpose facility. During the summer months (June – August), we have only two worship services at 8:30 and 10:00 Sunday morning.

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•  Suzie Buell, our Administrative Assistant, creates the monthly St. Luke Newsletter, Sunday’s worship bulletins and announcement sheets, manages our website and meets the needs of a busy staff and active congregation.

 

• The Congregational Care Coordinator at St. Luke, Nikki Cerenzia, welcomes all to St. Luke, develops small group ministry opportunities, coordinates our Congregational Care ministry that cares for, uplifts and encourages each other and helps members find their place in the life and ministry at St. Luke.

 

St. Luke holds to a “tradition” that embraces ministry opportunities. Our vision for the future remains a driving force for faithful ministry at St. Luke. We invite you to join us in worship and fellowship at St. Luke.  We encourage you to contact Pastor Jim, Justin Gil (Secretary) or Sandy Randolph (Church Administrator) with any questions.

 

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Pastors, interns and members of the present and past have blessed ministry at St. Luke with their gifts and vision. The vision of a new Lutheran church in north Spokane became a reality on June 6, 1954, under the guidance of mission start pastor, Warren Pechman, with 50 confirmed adults and 42 children.  Charter members Oren and Margaret Peterson and Magna (Patterson) Knaggs are still attending St. Luke today.  These first services were held at a storefront at 10117 Pend Oreille Highway.  This is now a Mexican restaurant on what has become the Newport Highway.  The congregation grew quickly and the members valued their children’s Christian education, evidenced by the Sunday School growing to 113 students.

 

 

Pastor Pechman was here for one year and was followed by Pastor A. C. Baumgaertner, who confirmed St. Luke’s first three confirmation students on May 1, 1955.  During Pastor Baumgaertner’s ministry plans were set in motion to build a church, and land was purchased at 9706 North Division.  In the summer of 1959, Pastor Jerald Ferguson came to St. Luke just in time to move the congregation to Whitworth Elementary School, where worship was held for the next two years. On May 28, 1961, ground was broken to build the new church at a cost of $34,000.  Construction was completed and worship in the new sanctuary was held on September 12, 1961.

 

 

In 1964, Pastor Dave Angersbach was called to St. Luke, and during his four-year ministry, he introduced the congregation to sermons sung to guitar accompaniment. Now, he was an “out of the box” thinker!  Pastor Delmer Anderson followed Pastor Angersbach (1968) and led the congregation to envision an addition to the existing church.  The youth group continued to be a growing and active ministry.  The new addition conceived under Pastor Anderson’s direction came to fruition with groundbreaking on April 3, 1977.  Pastor Anderson had already moved on to another call in 1973 and Pastor William Waxenberg was leading St. Luke in ministry.  Pastor Waxenberg served St. Luke for six years, during which time the new addition and sanctuary were dedicated (April 16, 1978) and the congregation grew in numbers and energy.

 

 

While many will remember 1980 for the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens, St. Luke will also remember that during his ministry here, Pastor Burton Schroeder (1980 - 1985) embraced innovative worship with the addition of a Chicago Folk Service.  After Pastor Schroeder left St. Luke, we were served by two interim pastors (Pastor C.P. Smith and Pastor Llano Thielen) before calling Pastor Michael Wiser in 1986.  During Pastor Michael’s time at St. Luke, the congregation grew in size and ministry opportunities.  Children’s and youth ministry continued to be important, and to meet the needs of a growing number of youth, St. Luke hired Alan Harbine, our first Director of Youth and Family Ministries.  Our high school youth group came to be known as F.L.Y. (Fellowship of Lutheran Youth) and was active at home and in national synod events.  With the financial and prayerful support of the congregation, our youth group traveled to distant places to work on mission projects. 

 

 

By the 1990’s, it was clear that St. Luke would be blessed by the addition of an associate pastor, and in 1994, Pastor Karen Bates-Olson was called.  Pastor Karen inspired the congregation to new levels of musicianship, music and innovation in worship.  Two children’s choirs were started and a worship team, now known as Celebrate Grace, had its beginnings.  Alan Harbine left his position and Mark Eastman joined the staff to work with our youth.  In addition, in 1998, St. Luke hired Sandy Randolph as our bookkeeper.  After Pastor Wiser left his ministry at St. Luke (1999), Pastor Ron Paulson was called as an interim pastor. He served the congregation with Pastor Bates-Olson through much of 2000. Pastor Karen served St. Luke until her move to a new call in September 2005.

 

 

St. Luke has been blessed by the enthusiastic leadership of a number of Youth Directors over the years. One of the hallmarks of youth ministry at St. Luke has been mission trips every two years to Mexico to build houses, to Ninilchik, Alaska to help with community repairs, to Bay-St. Louis, Mississippi to help with Hurricane Katrina relief, to Calais, Maine to work in their community center and to Puerto Rico to volunteer in orphanages and run vacation bible school experiences. St. Luke began a new model for Youth Ministry in February 2013 with our Youth Ministry Coordinator and four college-age youth leaders. Our Youth Ministry Coordinator will organize, plan and administrate youth ministry opportunities while our youth mentors gather with our youth for their many activities. Our next mission trip will be to the Dominican Republic in Summer 2015.

     

In Summer 2011, St. Luke entered into a joint venture with St. Peter Lutheran Church in the Hillyard area of Spokane to help facilitate the revitalization of the worshipping community at St. Peter. Both congregations worked together to prepare St. Peter's parsonage for new interns. Pastor Jim Johnson, St. Luke's Pastor, provided internship support and supervision to the interns as they were welcomed into a unique partnership to provide pastoral leadership at St. Peter and also share in the worshipping community at St. Luke. St. Luke shared in this joint ministry through the first two years of internships and in Fall 2013, St. Peter welcomed their third intern and moved forward independently with their intern program. Their second intern, Brian Jack decided to remain in Spokane to finish his last year of seminary through Luther Seminary’s distance learning program. As a result, St. Luke hired Brian as a Pastoral Assistant to work with Pastor Jim through May 2014.

 

Come be Part of St. Luke's Future!

St. Luke History
Today, Tomorrow & Yesterday​