Kountze Memorial Lutheran Church, the oldest, continuous Lutheran church west of the Missouri River, is the birthplace of Lutheranism in Nebraska and the Nebraska Synod (1871), and has been worshiping, growing, and serving in downtown Omaha for over 160 years. Kountze Memorial (originally known as Emanuel’s Evangelical Lutheran Church) was founded in 1858, by Rev. Henry W. Kuhns, as a mission church of the Allegheny Synod of Pennsylvania. At the time, there were no other Lutheran congregations in the area. In 1862, after renting meeting facilities for a time, the congregation built a modest church at 13th and Douglas, the current site of the Holland Performing Arts Center. The church bell, cast in 1867, is the oldest church bell in Nebraska and was recently refurbished and remains in use in the current church building at 26th and Farnam. A second church building was built in 1885 at 16th and Harney at a cost of $50,000 with a gift from charter member Augustus Kountze. This ...
By Jon Fredricks, Executive Director, Campus Ministry Coordinator Nebraska Lutheran Campus Ministry Spamming students…and fulfilling our mission It is always amazing how God works in our lives to bring us together. Sometimes the connections can be profound—akin to a blinking sign seeking our attention—but at other times, the spark of the Holy Spirit drawing us together in Christ can be delivered in a much more mundane way…like in an ordinary can of Spam. When you think of ‘spam’, you probably think of the obtrusive email solicitations you receive, sent out to the thousands of people who may (or more likely may not) wish to receive them. Others might recall Monty Python’s Spamalot , a musical comedy adapted from the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail . However, spam is also the name of a product made right here, close to home in Fremont, Nebraska. Spam, or ‘spiced ham’ is a canned meat product. The first can of Spam luncheon meat...
By Rev. Rich Sheridan, Nebraska Synod Evangelist / Director for Evangelical Mission, ELCA Not too long ago, our church shifted from the Revised Common Lectionary to the Narrative Lectionary. Since making the change, I’ve gotten a kick out of both the gift and the challenge of preaching on different scriptures than I’ve generally been accustomed to in the past. This last month in particular, this meant exploring more deeply the biblical book of Ruth in my preaching. Ruth is a story that, to my mind, requires a little more explanation than most. It has a kind of soap opera quality with drama and intrigue, a variety of scenes and settings, and several characters with unfamiliar names (at least to my twenty-first century Anglo-American ears!). It can be tough to read just a portion of the book in worship, because the entire book is really one cohesive narrative. At the same time, so much happens in such a short number of verses that it can be challenging to disti...
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