A Brief History of Messiah Lutheran Church 
    

 May 1972 – Mrs. William Leder of Fruitland ID wrote to the WELS.  Pastor Ralph Baur, chairman of the Pacific Northwest Mission Board, contacted Mrs.Leder and set up a meeting in the home of Jackie Hatch in Fruitland.  Pastor Warren Widmann, PacificNorthwest missionary, then contacted interested people in Idaho, held services and did spot canvassing in Boise, Payette, Emmett and Ontario.

 

March 1973 – First communion service was held at the Women’s Century Club in Nampa.

 

July 1973 – Pastor Ron Mehlberg was ordained and installed as the first pastor of the only WELS congregation in Idaho. The church was designated a mission, which made it eligible for financial support from the WELS. Pastor Mehlberg served here until April 1978.

 

October 1974 – Messiah’s 5 acre building site was purchased for $21,000 with a loan from WELS CEF.

 

May 1975 – Groundbreaking for the parsonage, which was completed in October, at a cost of $43,000.  The parsonage was sold in 2002.

 

April 1976 – Groundbreaking for the new church building. WELS Board of Trustees approved funding in the amount of $177,351.

 

April 1977 – Dedication of the new church building. Jim Waite, Beth Watson and Gloria Kieselhorst are the remaining charter members of our congregation.  At the time of dedication, there were 130 souls with 88 communicant members.  Average Sunday attendance was about 65.

 

July 1978 – Pastor Beck Goldbeck was installed as Messiah’s new pastor after Pastor   Mehlberg accepted a call to Vancouver WA.  Pastor Goldbeck accepted a call to El Paso, Texas in December of 1980.

 

May 1981 – Pastor Mark Cares installed as pastor.  He arrived with his wife, Bonnie, and their four children—Jenny, Erin, Adam and Jeremy from Boulder, CO.  Their youngest daughter, Natasha, is an Idaho native. 

 

1980’s – During the 1980’s various attempts were made to minister to the scattered membership and to reach other communities.  Weekly services were held for a number of years in Ontario and Boise.  Monthly services were also held in Mountain Home and Gooding.

 

               Also during this time, our Outreach to Mormons program picked up steam.  With a generous grant from WELS Kingdom Workers, a second pastor was called in order to give Pastor Cares more time to work on this program.

 

July 1989 - Pastor Mark Franck was installed as our second pastor.  He served here from 1989-1991 when he accepted a call to Yakima WA.

 

Early 1990’s – We began to reach out to the Vietnamese community of the Treasure Valley with weekly Bible classes. 

May 1994 – Pastor John Steinbrenner was commissioned as a missionary to West Boise.  In 1995 Cross of Christ Lutheran Church began holding weekly services with a core group of members from Messiah.  Over the years, we have rejoiced to watch the Lord richly bless our sister congregation.

 

September 1996 – Messiah’s Children Preschool began with 10 students. Now in our 12^th year, only 5 of our 69 students are from WELS families.  

 

July 1997 – Pastor Rick Tuttle was installed as Messiah’s second pastor to give Pastor Cares time to develop more resources for our Outreach to Mormons.  He served until 1999.

 

August 1998– Pastor Dan Kramer, our former vicar, was commissioned as a missionary to the Vietnamese community.  We now rejoice in the fellowship we enjoy with another sister congregation, Peace in Jesus Vietnamese Lutheran Church.

 

January 2002 – We dedicated our new education wing and expanded fellowship hall.

 

January 2005  - Truth in Love Ministry (formerly Outreach to Mormons) was incorporated as a separate ministry.

 

May 19, 2005 – Mark D. Gunderson  was assigned to be our second pastor to help compensate for Pastor Cares’ service as Chairman of the Board for Home Missions. He served until October 2007.



February 17, 2008 - Howard Mohlke was installed as Associate Pastor. He came from Norfolk NE with his wife Leslie and two of their five children--Tim and Rachel. Sarah, Elizabeth and Philip remain in the midwest. Pastor Mohlke previously served as a missionary in Zambia, Africa and at St. Paul's in Norfolk. We are truly blessed to have the Mohlke family with us!

       Our congregation has been blessed with the following dedicated vicars:  Daniel Kramer, Steve Hillmer, Jason Ewart, Bill Monday, Colin Vanderhoof and Caleb Davisson.  Over the past 32 years, God has richly blessed our congregation with steady growth in faith and membership.  Messiah  presently has 250 members.

 

Surely the Lord is in this place!