History

In the early 1970's the Rogers community was predominately a Catholic area with no Lutheran Churches.  However, a group of people wanted a Lutheran church and worked hard to accomplish this goal which is how Word of Peace began.

In 1973, the ALC purchased land to establish a church in Rogers. By 1974, a call went out and was accepted by Pastor David Knutson from North Dakota.  The first church service was held at Rogers Elementary in 1975 and on Palm Sunday of the same year a ground breaking dedication was held for the proposed church building.

While the work of organizing the church was going on, our church had a great loss, our first Pastor, David Knutson, suffered a heart attack and we held a funeral for our first Pastor.

Pastor Thomas Moen accepted our call and joined our congregation in July of 1975 and the newly named Word of Peace Lutheran Church was welcomed into the American Lutheran Church and fifty-nine families desired to join.

In less then ten years, our congregation grew at an enormous speed that we needed to start planning to build a new sanctuary, more classrooms, a library, and more offices.

In December 1985, Pastor Ron Bockhaus was installed as Associate Pastor and in 1997 Pastor Rick Skare was called to fill that position. Pastor John Christianson was called to our church in 1989 and continued his position until 2003. In 1992, a Part-time Pastor was called to complete our Pastoral staff and Pastor Milo Brekke accepted  and continued his work until his passing in December 2004.

By the year 2000 , Word of Peace grew to 673 family units, 1,964 baptized, and 1295 confirmed members.

As of today, May 2005, Word of Peace Lutheran Church has

continued to grow 846 family units,  2,524 baptized, and 1653 confirmed members.

Construction of the new Word of Peace Lutheran Church

Ground Breaking

    May 8, 2003

June 25, 2003