Messiah Lutheran Church History
April 23, 1989. The first service of worship of Messiah Lutheran Church. We met in the auditorium of a local union hall. Much preparation led up to this first service. In the mid 1980's, the Division for Outreach of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) recognized Madison as an excellent mission field for planting a new church. A Mission Director identified Highway 72 W near Hughes Road as a highly visible location for a Lutheran Church. In the fall of 1988, Pastor Scott Peterson accepted the call to move from Minnesota in order to develop the new congregation. After almost six months of meeting people, holding interest meetings, and extending invitations to the unchurched that first service had 115 people in attendance.
May 20, 1990, Messiah Lutheran formally organized and was welcomed into the ELCA with 159 charter members. The next few years were dedicated to growth. Growth occurred not only in numbers, but also in faith and in programs offered to meet the needs of members and the community.
February 14, 1993, Messiah Lutheran broke ground on our current church home. Largely through the labors of members the building was completed and provided a home for its ministries. The service of dedication was on March 13, 1994.
In early 2005 we completed a new education wing that provided 5 additional, and much needed, classrooms plus a large youth room.
In the spring of 2006 we dedicated a new Parish Hall that includes an elevated "stage" area, an audio room and a much larger kitchen!
We are especially grateful for God-given gifts in the areas of music, outreach, and education. We look forward to welcoming new people as we celebrate our gracious God's love for all people. If you are seeking something more in your life than just frantic daily routine, if you want help teaching values to your children, if you would like to be part of a group of people who are open to share experiences and opinions, and if you want a place where you can explore your faith and God’s plan for your life—Messiah is here for you. But when you start along a journey of Christian faith something significant happens. Your life expands. You discover all the ways that God is already at work in you, and you find out that you are not alone. There are believers all over the world, and we see ourselves as sisters and brothers. As Lutherans we recognize other churches as legitimate in the sight of God, and we join with others in their ministries—to relieve suffering, to champion justice, and care for all of God’s creation.
Please come to join us in worship on a Sunday morning or call the church at 256-721-0041 for more information.
What does it mean to be a Lutheran Christian? Well, at the core Lutherans believe that we are saved not by what we do or say, but by our faith alone, as argued by Martin Luther himself. Martin Luther is known as the Father of Protestantism. Luther was a lawyer and German monk, and was ordained a priest in 1507 in present-day Germany. While continuing his studies he discovered significant differences between what he read in the Bible and the beliefs and practices of the church of his day.
On October 31, 1517, he posted a challenge on the church door at Wittenberg University to debate 95 theological issues. Luther hoped the church would reform its practice and preaching to be more consistent with the Word of God as found in the Bible. But what started as an academic debate escalated to a religious war. That day in October marks the most important religious event of the last 1,000 years. It kicked off the Reformation, or the reforming of the church. By Luther’s death in 1546, Europe was divided between Roman Christians and protesting—or Protestant—Christians, led by those known as Lutherans. Today there are more than 65 million Lutherans world-wide.
Lutherans still celebrate the Reformation on October 31 and believe in the basic principles taught by Luther: We are saved by the grace of God—not by anything we do, our salvation is through faith alone—meaning we need only to believe that our sins are forgiven because Christ died to redeem us, and that the Bible is our source for guidance and inspiration.
As a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America—the ELCA—we belong to the largest group of Lutherans in the United States, close to 5 million members in more than ten thousand congregations. Our denomination is led by an elected presiding bishop, an elected lay vice president and church council. Our congregations and ministries are served by more than 18,000 ordained pastors, associates in ministry, and diaconal ministers. Our elected voting members meet in assembly every two years to conduct the business of our church. As ELCA Lutherans we are part of a church body with more than 280 agencies and institutions that are the second largest non-governmental provider of human services in the country. We are part of a church body that maintains 28 church-related colleges and universities, enrolling more than 53,000 students each year. We are part of a church that provides eight seminaries across the country for the training of pastors and other church workers. We help support 400 missionaries in 45 countries around the world. And each year we reach thousands of men, women, and children by providing more than 15 million dollars in hunger relief and other forms of aid, both internationally and at home.
The Congregation will celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Messiah Lutheran Church on Sunday May 30th, 2010.
