Updates from congregations around the Church of the Lutheran Confession
A so-called “faith” page in the Republican Eagle, a weekly newspaper for Minnesota’s Goodhue County area, includes a listing of all the churches in and around the city of Red Wing. The “Worship Directory” on that page lists the name, address, and times of worship of no fewer than one hundred eleven churches, including no fewer than forty-six “Lutheran” congregations. In turn, under that category is an alphabet soup identifying a particular congregation’s affiliation to different church families or “synods” (AFLC, ELCA, LCMS, WELS, CLC). One can’t help but wonder what explains the existence of such a potpourri of churches in the area, one of which is Our Redeemer’s Lutheran of the CLC.
For anyone wondering what the CLC synod and its constituent congregations stand for, the book OUT OF NECESSITY—A History of the Church of the Lutheran Confession (published in 2010 for the CLC’s 50th anniversary) is a big help. It was 1958 when Our Redeemer’s Lutheran Church (and School!) of Red Wing was first established. For doctrinal reasons based on the Word of God, and under the guidance of its Pastor George Barthels, a group of eighty-three communicants and thirteen Christian day school students severed church fellowship from their former WELS church. Sad to say, Our Redeemer’s Christian Day School, operating from the beginning, closed in 1983.
Fast forward. On August 12, 2018, Our Redeemer’s Lutheran Church observed its 60th anniversary. Former pastors of the congregation (and former organists as well) returned to lead the joyous worship. The service theme centered on the heart and core of all Bible teaching—the Gospel Good News of how the whole world of sinful mankind has been “Redeemed—With the Precious Blood of Christ.”
Worshiping and serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has always been front and center at Our Redeemer’s. Over the years many families—from inside and outside the Red Wing area, some driving forty-five minutes one way—have joined in worship at and/or taken membership in the congregation. In recent years a member of Our Redeemer’s was able to attend Immanuel Lutheran Seminary in Eau Claire; Pastor Paul Agenten and family are now serving at the dual parish of Calvary, Marquette; and St. Peter’s, Iron River, Michigan.
Children’s Christmas Eve program: “Precious is the Child”
Latest upgrades to the church property include landscaping, removal of some huge (and very old) trees, installing an upper-level parking lot for easier church access, resurfacing of the lower parking lot, painting the church, and re-shingling and painting the parsonage.
The decades since 1960 have seen a sharp demographic decline in the number of families with children, and this, among other factors, has resulted in a similar decline in church membership across all denominations. Our Redeemer’s has not been immune. Our last two resident pastors were David Baker (2010-18) and Edward Starkey (2019-2025). At the time of this writing, the congregation is experiencing a pastoral vacancy. Thankfully, regular worship and Bible class continues under the leadership of retired CLC pastors in the area, including two members of the congregation (Michael Schierenbeck and this writer).
But with all the comings and goings of members in recent years, average attendance for worship has averaged in the mid-twenties, which makes it difficult to support a full-time resident pastor. With that in mind, in January of this year the possibility of forming a joint parish was discussed with representatives of a sister CLC church, St. Paul’s of Austin, Minnesota (a bit over an hour away). Many questions were addressed such as the following: With both churches having parish homes, where should the pastor reside? When and where would regular worship services be held at each location—especially since remote/virtual worship is far from ideal for any community of Christian?
The following was also agreed upon: in-person, face-to-face pastoral preaching and teaching, counseling, and soul care would remain top priority for any under-shepherd of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who endeavors to minister to a widely scattered flock.
We know not what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future—as our Redeemer Himself has promised: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20 NKJV) As the poet James Russell Lowell once said,
Careless seems the great Avenger; history’s pages but record One death-grapple in the darkness ‘twixt old systems and the Word; Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne— Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
In the face of all Satan’s attacks against the Word, our confidence remains that the God of all Truth—Whose Word cannot be broken—is indeed “keeping watch above His own.”
is a retired pastor and former editor of the Lutheran Spokesman. He is a member of Our Redeemer’s, Red Wing, Minnesota.