Located on Pikes Peak Avenue in central Colorado Springs, Immanuel Lutheran Church has gathered Lutherans of the LCMS since 1901. The congregation is known for its historic liturgy, two remarkable pipe organs and a Mercy Meals outreach that packages food for hungry children overseas.
Sunday Mornings in the Sanctuary
The principal Sunday gathering is the Divine Service at 9:00 AM, set in a sanctuary built in the early 1960s with a capacity of about 500. The liturgy follows the historic rites of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, drawing families and young adults who come looking for traditional worship and solid preaching. After the service, a fellowship hour runs from 10:15 to 10:45 AM, and at 10:45 the congregation breaks into Bible study and Christian Education classes for every age beginning at age three.
Mid-Week Prayer and Bible Study
Worship at Immanuel does not end with Sunday morning. Wednesdays are set aside for a Prayer Service that revisits the readings from the previous Sunday, followed by a Bible study that looks ahead to the next one. The gathering runs from 10:00 AM to noon. The church also offers Mid-Week Matins on Wednesdays, a shorter service rooted in the historic daily office.
Mercy Meals Against World Hunger
Twice a month on Mondays, volunteers meet in the kitchen of Fellowship Hall in the basement to compile and pack Mercy Meals. The morning shift runs 9:30 to 11:30 AM and the afternoon shift runs 1:30 to 3:30 PM. The food is delivered by the Orphan Grain Train to orphanages, refugee camps, feeding centers, disaster relief sites and local food pantries around the world. The church welcomes anyone willing to spend a few hours packaging meals that fight malnutrition.
The Organs of Immanuel
Music at Immanuel is built around two remarkable pipe organs. The sanctuary organ began in 1963 with 23 ranks built by local organ builder Dewey Layton and was dedicated by Paul Rosel of Concordia College, Seward, Nebraska. A 2005 renovation combined the original instrument with a second Layton organ acquired from First Lutheran Church, producing a 46-rank instrument that is one of the largest in Colorado Springs.
In 2011 the church added the Joel Kremer Theatre Organ, the largest theatre organ in Colorado with four keyboards and 28 ranks. It lives in the gymnasium and has accompanied silent films, nationally known visiting recitalists and military band concerts. Director of Music Dr. Donald Zimmermann oversees a regular recital and concert series that draws organists from across the region.
Christian Education from Age Three
Sunday School at Immanuel is built into the late-morning hour, not separated from it. Christian Education classes for all ages begin at 10:45 AM, with classes for children starting at age three and studies continuing through the youth grades. A youth retreat at Lutheran Valley Retreat brings 6th through 12th graders together with other LCMS young people for a weekend of Bible study and outdoor activities such as zip-lining.
A 125-Year Story in Colorado Springs
Immanuel was officially founded on August 11, 1901, the same year the congregation joined the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. It grew out of a wave of German immigration into a town laid out by General William Jackson Palmer in 1871. The first small sanctuary was finished in 1903 at the corner of Wahsatch and Boulder and served the German-speaking members for nearly five decades; its cornerstone, inscribed "Ev. Luth. Immanuels Kirche U.A.C." (Evangelical Lutheran Immanuel Church of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession), is preserved inside the gymnasium.
Until the mid-1920s every service was in German. In 1925 the congregation added an English Vespers, and by 1929 English and German services alternated on Sundays. After the Second World War membership swelled, and in 1949 a larger building was constructed at the present Pikes Peak Avenue and Institute site, with a school and gym added in 1953. By 1962 Immanuel had roughly 1,600 members and a school of about 250 children, making it one of the largest LCMS congregations in the country. A third sanctuary, the present one, was built with classrooms for grades seven through nine, a library, a science room and a choir loft that would soon house the Layton organ.
The school, founded in 1953, was closed at the end of the 2008-2009 academic year after fifty-six years of teaching Colorado Springs children. Its classrooms and gym quickly filled with a basketball program and several private, charter and special schools.
Renovations for an Older Generation
During the past decade of Pastor Jonathan Kern's leadership, the building has been updated to serve an aging congregation. An elevator was installed and the front of the church was redesigned so that cars can pull up to the entrance, making drop-offs easier for elderly members and guests with mobility challenges. Two libraries (one for young children, one for youth and adults) and a renovated kitchen in Fellowship Hall support ongoing Christian education and Mercy Meals volunteers.
Good News, Great Joy, For All
Immanuel's motto is "Good News. Great Joy. For All. Even you." Members describe the good news in three lines: Christ was born that man would die no more; Christ died that all sinners might be forgiven; Christ is risen that we also might rise. The great joy of Immanuel, they say, is not a feeling but the lasting joy of heaven, found when the lost are found and sinners repent and receive grace. The mission of the congregation is for every human being on earth: God is with us.
What Lutherans Here Believe
Immanuel teaches that salvation comes through Christ alone, through faith alone, by grace alone, as revealed in Scripture alone, the historic solas of the Reformation. The congregation has been a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod since 1901 and points to the LCMS for the doctrine it believes, teaches and confesses.