Our History
Our history can be expressed around certain themes: preaching the Law and Gospel, providing for Christian education of children and adults, and building up of our people to fully serve and to follow Christ both in the church and in the community. The Lord has blessed us in doing His work in this place in our 58 years.
How did we get to this place? In 1960 the Northwest District of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod asked other churches to provide members who would be willing to transfer their membership to help establish a new mission congregation: us! The district leadership called a recent seminary graduate named Francis Smidt to plant a congregation in the Lake Grove area Pastor Smidt gathered transfers from other congregations and many others from the community to worship in a local elementary school gym. Two years later our present structure was built. A more detailed history can be derived in reading the three documents linked to this brief survey: 1) early history, by Ward Zimmerman; 2) “Triumphant King LC”, by Pastor Cliff Kaufman together with the 25th Anniversary special edition; and 3) Honoring our leaders on the event of our 25th, July 10, 2011 by Keith McGraw. In these documents one can find the names of our other pastors and the dates of their service along with many interesting events in the life of our congregation.
In the years since then, Triumphant King has been served by five pastors. It has also seen five young men called into pastoral ministry and one young woman called into Christian education. We have also built a preschool/daycare structure with the generous donation of one of our families. During these years we have served our own children and the community with a mid-week Bible class together with a meal each Wednesday, conducted a Vacation Bible School each August, called a DCE (Director of Christian Education) for two years before he was called to service in Bothell, WA. We have had a children’s Sunday School for most of the years of our existence. Outreach to our community/world has been through our quilting ministry and Shoe-box Christmas Child ministry. Our members have provided a”spiritual home-body-care” to many of the aged at home or in care facilities. We praise God for the blessings we have received in implementing the ministries here–it is His Work, as He uses our hands.
Fifty eight years has seen dramatic changes in the size of our congregation, the age of our people and, most recently, the retirement of Pastor Daniel Faragalli, our last full-time pastor. We moved to call Pastor Larry Locke as our interim pastor. Our congregation needs to find more permanent pastoral care, and we approached Immanuel Lutheran (Sellwood, OR) to become our sister church and to join us in asking for a seminary graduate. This request to our two seminaries was not filled, so our two churches have asked the district for a list of pastors as candidates for a permanent call.
2020 saw Covid-19 pandemic which has challenged us in many ways. One was how to hold church services. Zoom was the answer! We await full opening of worship, but for now we have services online with Zoom and once a month communion on a Saturday with individuals (or family units) being served inside the church.
Our church has always had pastors who have preached Christ both crucified and resurrected – hence, our name: Triumphant King! We desire to serve Him, our people and the community around us. Our future years are not known, but we are confident because of Christ! He has a plan for us, we feel, in this place.