Updates from congregations around the Church of the Lutheran Confession
The first stanza of hymn 123 (TLH) beautifully confesses two truths about our relationship with the Lord. “Our God, our Help in ages past, Our Hope for years to come, Our Shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal Home!” In the past, God has been our help, our shelter from the stormy blasts of this world. In the future, God is our hope. Our eternal and heavenly home is sure because the Lord God has made it ours through the saving work of His Son. Both things are true. He has helped us. He will continue to help us.
Sanctuary, Christmas 2025
Here at Redeemer Lutheran, we thank and praise the Lord for His manifold blessings that He has given to us throughout many generations. Eight years after its founding in 1952, Redeemer became a charter member of the then newly-formed Church of the Lutheran Confession. This upcoming summer will be our seventy-fifth year as a church, and an anniversary celebration is currently being planned. There have been many variables within our congregation throughout these seventy-five years. But there has always been and will ever remain one constant. Our Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, remains faithful to us. “For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” (Malachi 3:6 NKJV)
In recent years, our merciful God has been quite gracious to us. After forty-five years, our Christian day school was closed in 2008 due to lack of students. In 2022, after years of planning and blessings from the Lord, we were able to reopen our Christian day school doors. Our church called Mrs. Dawn Mayhew from within our congregation to be our teacher. Mrs. Mayhew served us faithfully for four years, restarting and maintaining the school. This past year, through the work of the call committee and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we called Mr. Orrin Hanel to continue the good work of training our children in the way they should go. This year we have seven students. Looking ahead, Lord willing, we project enrollment to grow to nine or more students in the coming years as younger members of the congregation reach school age.
Teacher Orrin Hanel (l.) with Pastor Libby and the school children
Church membership has also grown, extending to fifty-five souls with an average attendance of thirty-six for worship. We are getting to the point where we are discussing a possible expansion project, as both our church and school could use more space for worship and teaching. These talks are in the earliest stages, but as we have seen in recent years through the reopening of our school, the Lord is with us and will continue to provide for us according to His good will. “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” (Jeremiah 32:27 NKJV)
The story of Redeemer Lutheran Church has not been one of uninterrupted growth or earthly success. There have been seasons of difficulty. Yet Christ has preserved His people and His Word here for seventy-five years. We continue to have our midweek Bible classes, as well as Sunday morning Bible class and Sunday school. We continue to maintain the building and property. We continue to be able to have yearly joint Reformation and Mission festival worship services with Prince of Peace in Loveland, Colorado and St. Paul’s of Lakewood, Colorado. Our ladies’ group, Ladies of Our Redeemer, continues to serve the congregation by providing essential help in many ways. We continue to preach the Word, in and out of season.
And the Lord has seen fit to bless us in many new ways in recent years. We live-stream our worship service and put out our sermons weekly in podcast form by the effort of dedicated members. In 2019, we were able to purchase a spacious, six-bedroom parsonage to replace the previous parsonage. We bought a state-of-the-art organ in 2022. We have been blessed to be able to restart our summer VBS program, through volunteers and the aid of the TVBS program. We were also able to update the kitchen appliances and the playground at church. Both church and school have grown. No doubt there are many other blessings that I have forgotten to include in all of this; such is the forgetful nature of the author, and such is the giving nature of the Lord of hosts. The Lord has provided us with many exciting blessings and opportunities to continue to spread His holy Word of truth.
Children of the congregation with the ILC Tour Choir
But what remains ever true is our Savior’s steadfast love for us. The variables change, but our constant remains the same. What Jesus won for us by His death and resurrection ever remains our focus. The Lord has blessed us, and whatever else happens in this world, He will remain faithful to us. “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2) The Lord God has been our Help. He remains our Hope. Jesus Christ is our Redeemer. He is our eternal Home.
is pastor of Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cheyenne, Wyoming.