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 American Lutheran Church purchased land to establish a church in Rogers. By 1974, a call was extended to and 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.  We sadly held our first service, a funeral for him, in the new church building.

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

In less than ten years, our congregation grew at such 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 our Associate Pastor and then in 1997, Pastor Rick Skare was called to fill that position and is still here today.

Pastor John Christianson came to Word of Peace in 1989 and he continued as our Senior Pastor until 2003.  Pastor Ron Prasek, our current Senior Pastor, accepted our call in 2004 after Pastor Christianson retired.

In 1992, Pastor Milo Brekke accepted our call for a part-time pastor.  Pastor Brekke continued his work until his passing in December 2004.  His wife, Beth Brekke, continues to serve at Word of Peace as our Parish Worker.

By the year 2000, Word of Peace had grown to 673 households and 1,964 baptized members. As of June 2008, we have nearly doubled in size to 1,044 households and 3,047 baptized members.  Our membership continues to increase dramatically each year.

Construction of Building in 2003

Ground Breaking