About Us

Messiah’s original name was St. Paul’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church. The congregation began August 5, 1883, with the assistance of a neighboring congregation, St. Paul’s English Lutheran Church. Sixty years later, January 3, 1943, the congregation changed it’s name to Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church. It was around this time that services in German began to loose their appeal and women were given vote in the congregation.

Today, Messiah is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We are deeply committed to the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through our ELCA we relate to over 10,500 other congregations in the United States and Caribbean - including approximately 5,000,000 baptized people. Our oldest congregation was founded in 1649!  Although Lutherans are only about 1.6 percent of the total US population, nearly 25 percent of all nursing home care in the United States is provided by Lutherans. We are the third largest non-profit provider of daycare through our innumerable pre-school, day care and latch key facilities. The Lutheran World Relief and Lutheran Disaster Response provide millions of dollars in long term relief to communities here in the United States and across the globe. Lutheran World Relief is designated as one of the four most effective relief agencies in the world. Lutheran World Relief has an administrative cost of only 7% compared to 37% for the next most efficient provider. The single largest non-profit agency in the United States is Lutheran Social Services. The ELCA has strong ties to Habitat for Humanity through our volunteers and our fraternal aid association, Thrivent. And the ELCA is part of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), made up of 68.6 million Christians in 78 countries all over the world.

Through our ELCA, we also relate to the Nebraska Synod, ELCA. More than 124,000 ELCA Lutherans belong to the 260 congregations and 6 mission sites in the Nebraska Synod, contained within Nebraska's state lines. The Nebraska Synod, ELCA, provides "oversight of the life and mission of this church in Nebraska." The synod is actually every member of every ELCA congregation in this state, acting as a community.

Speaking of community, nearly 200 quilts are sewn by volunteers annually at Messiah. They find use as close as Grand Island and as far away as Africa. As well, every Saturday evening 65 – 100 guests are given a free hot meal through the ministry of Messiah. The congregation has recently prepared garden plots on church property for the use of our neighbors in the community; donating plants, seeds, fertilizer, top soil, tools, hoses and water. Messiah participates in the backpack for food program for school children. Messiah donated over $52,000 to pay for a Habitat House as well as numerous hours of volunteer time. We remain committed to this great program through our time and energy.

And finally, through our Prayers and Mission Offerings, and partnership with our ELCA, Messiah supports:
     280 Missionaries
     185 Campus Ministries
     770 Federal Chaplains
     8 Seminaries
     28 Colleges
     280 Social Ministry Organizations
     145 Camps and Retreat Centers