A Traditional Lutheran Witness Beneath the Foothills
Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran Church gathers each Sunday morning on Faith Court, a quiet cul-de-sac tucked into the Northeast Heights of Albuquerque at the foot of the Sandia Mountains. The building sits in a neighborhood of modest homes where the street name echoes the congregation's central confession: that the Christian life is lived by faith in Christ alone. Members speak of the church as a small, family-sized body where everyone knows one another by name and where the rhythm of the week is shaped by the Lutheran Service Book.
Christ Our Redeemer is a confessional Lutheran congregation in the Rocky Mountain District of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. Its members describe themselves as a family that supports and uplifts one another through Word and Sacrament, fellowship, and shared service to the surrounding city of Albuquerque and to places far beyond it.
The Pastoral Call Process
Christ Our Redeemer is presently in the call process, seeking its next pastor. The church has been transparent about this season, asking visitors and friends to keep the congregation in prayer as it works through the discernment that the LCMS uses to match pastors with parishes. During this period the pulpit is supplied by guest pastors from neighboring LCMS congregations, and the schedule of services is adjusted accordingly: Sundays on which a guest pastor presides typically follow Divine Service, Setting Three, with the Lord's Supper, while other Sundays use a Service of Prayer and Preaching without communion. Recent guest pastors have included Pastor Eli Lietzau of Wheatridge Evangelical Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, and Pastor Gary Bickner.
The vacancy means that day-to-day ministry is carried by lay leaders. Elder David leads the teens and adults through Luther's Catechisms during the Sunday Bible Study hour, and Miss Fran leads the children's Sunday School. Mike Berish serves as organist, and Ashley Young keeps the office running as administrative assistant, handling bulletin requests, newsletters, and inquiries from newcomers.
Sunday Worship at Nine
The Sunday gathering is built around two anchors: the Divine Service at 9:00 a.m. and an Education Hour that follows it. The Divine Service is drawn from the Lutheran Service Book and follows the historic liturgy of the LCMS, a setting in which the pastor and congregation alternate speaking, where hymns are sung from a hymnal that has shaped Lutheran worship for generations, and where the sermon comes after readings from the Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel.
Because the congregation follows the three-year lectionary, the readings and hymnody change from week to week, and the church publishes the appointed Scripture passages online so members can prepare ahead of Sunday. Services follow a steady rotation through the Sundays after Pentecost, with celebrations of the Holy Trinity, the Transfiguration of Our Lord, the Baptism of Our Lord, All Saints' Day, Reformation Sunday, Advent and Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Ascension, and the Day of Pentecost.
Greeters are a regular presence at the door. Visitors who let a greeter know that they are new are given a small printed guide called The Divine Service: A Guide, which walks first-time worshipers through the parts of the service and explains why the liturgy unfolds the way it does.
The Education Hour for All Ages
Immediately after the Divine Service the congregation gathers again for a single Education Hour that is built for everyone in the household. The hour begins at 10:30 a.m. with a Sunday School Opening service at the altar in the Education Room, a short devotion that gathers children, teens, and adults in one place. At 10:45 a.m. the group divides.
Children who are thirteen and under meet as the Little Lambs and Lambs for an outdoor Sunday School with Miss Fran during the warmer months and indoors the rest of the year. The high school teens, during the pastoral vacancy, join the adults for the catechism study rather than holding a separate class. The Adult Class works its way through Luther's Small and Large Catechisms under the guidance of Elder David, using materials from the LCMS.
Adults looking for a second weekly gathering can attend the Hebrew Class on Thursday evenings at 6:00 p.m., where the biblical languages are studied together.
After the Education Hour the congregation moves into a time of fellowship. Coffee and conversation stretch out each Sunday morning, and additional fellowship events are scattered through the month.
Children at the Center of the Service
Christ Our Redeemer treats children not as an audience for a children's ministry but as full members of the worshiping assembly. Even the youngest Lutherans are invited into the Divine Service itself, and a Children's Message is included during the liturgy so that boys and girls can hear the gospel explained in age-appropriate words before returning to their families.
To help children follow along, the congregation provides special children's bulletins that mirror the order of service. Print materials are also available in the Narthex: copies of Portals of Prayer, The Lutheran Witness, The Divine Service: A Guide, and a series of Simple Explanation booklets. Parents interested in baptism, confirmation, or adult membership can write to the administrative assistant for guidance.
Music and the Sanctuary
Music at Christ Our Redeemer is provided by organist Mike Berish and follows the Lutheran choral tradition. The Lutheran Service Book is the standard hymnal in the pews, and the choir loft and chancel are arranged for the historic orders of service that the LCMS has preserved across centuries. The altar, the Advent wreath, and the Lenten altar settings are visible from every seat, and the sanctuary is photographed regularly through the seasons, showing Christmons at Christmas, the Advent wreath during the weeks leading to Christmas, and evening Lenten services as the season turns toward Easter.
Materials that members might want to read or take home line the Narthex, including the devotional Portals of Prayer and current issues of The Lutheran Witness, the magazine of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod.
Faithful Hands, Hygiene Kits, and the COR Love Fund
The congregation's outreach to its immediate neighborhood takes three named forms.
The Faithful Hands Fellowship group is a circle of members who knit and craft hats for various charities and for people experiencing homelessness. Their handiwork is shared through the church and out into the community.
The Missions Board gathers supplies for hygiene kits that are distributed to people experiencing homelessness around Albuquerque. Members of the church are invited to donate the items that fill the kits and to help hand them out.
The COR Love Fund is a dedicated benevolence account that allows members to support other members in moments of crisis. The Love Fund was most recently used to assist a member whose home was lost to fire, and donations can be designated to help that family directly or to replenish the fund for the next emergency.
Supporting Missionaries Far from Albuquerque
Christ Our Redeemer's outreach does not stop at the city limits of Albuquerque. Through the LCMS, the congregation supports missionaries known as the Helges, who serve in a small village in the Czech Republic, teaching the Word and planting Lutheran confession in a region where that witness is rare. Members can support the Helges directly through the LCMS, and the church keeps their work in front of the congregation as an ongoing item of prayer and giving.
Beyond the Helges, the church points its members toward a wider set of LCMS resources: the LCMS itself, the Rocky Mountain District, the Friends for Life podcast, Issues, Etc. (a podcast created by LCMS pastors), worship resources for the congregation, and materials designed for use in the home.
Online Worship and Online Giving
Members who cannot be present on Sunday morning can watch or listen to the service through the church's YouTube channels. The most recent services are posted to Christ Our Redeemer LCMS, while recordings made before May of 2026 are kept on a second channel that preserves the church's earlier identity as Redeemer Lutheran Church Albuquerque. Each post lists the Sunday of the church year, the date of the recording, and the time stamp at which the sermon begins, so listeners can skip ahead to the message if they prefer.
Giving is also available online through Vanco, the church's electronic giving platform. Members and friends can give to the general fund or designate their gifts to the COR Love Fund for members in crisis.
What the Church Confesses
Christ Our Redeemer states its faith in three short sentences drawn from the Lutheran Reformation: Sola Scriptura, that the Bible is the sole authority for Christians in faith, doctrine, and practice; Sola Gratia, that salvation is a gift from God and not the result of human merit; and Sola Fide, that salvation is found in faith in Jesus Christ alone.
These convictions shape the way the church worships, teaches, and serves. The liturgy in the Lutheran Service Book traces its roots to these commitments, the catechism study in the Education Hour drills down into them, and the mission statement of the congregation: to make known the love of Christ by word and deed within the church, the community, and the world. This mission statement is the church's way of putting them into practice.
A Small Congregation with a Long Reach
From its sanctuary beneath the Sandias, Christ Our Redeemer keeps its eyes on three horizons at once. The first is the family in the pew on Sunday morning, gathered around Word and Sacrament. The second is the city of Albuquerque, where hygiene kits are handed out and the Love Fund lifts up neighbors in crisis. The third is a small village in the Czech Republic, where missionaries carry the confession of Christ into a place where that confession is still new.
The congregation is small enough that a single bulletin, a single email, or a single Sunday announcement can move the whole room, and large enough in conviction that its worship, its education, and its giving reach well beyond the cul-de-sac on Faith Court.