Below is the story of how we came from and grew until we were able to with Gods help build our own Church building, and became known as “THE CHURCH ON THE HILL”.  We recently have received the blessing of a new Pastor, Melissa Lundquist.  We invite you to join us with her in our ministry to the Elko community, and are sure that you will be blessed and touched by the Holy Spirit just as we are.

The Beginning

Elko is located on Interstate 80 in northeastern Nevada. We are the only E.L.C.A. presence between Salt Lake City, Utah (233 miles) and  Reno, Nevada (300 miles), Las Vegas, Nevada (435 miles) and  Boise, Idaho (230 miles). We pride ourselves on our independence and enjoy the small town life and the wide open spaces.

                In the early 1990's Elko was voted " The Best Small Town in America". However, prior to 1990 there was no E.L.C.A. presence. At that time, a small handful of families started meeting in homes. We started with no money, no budget, no pastor, no meeting place, and no financial help from anyone. All we had was faith in God's calling.

                The Episcopal Church opened their arms and their doors to us, and we began meeting there on Sunday afternoons. We were able to have communion once a month with a visiting pastor from Reno. Eventually, we signed up for a seminary internship program. This enabled us to have weekly worship with communion, however these positions were short term. Knowing that if we were to grow, we needed our own full time pastor, we prayerfully called our Pastor in 1995. What a "leap of faith" this was, for our budget at that time was around $25,000. We called our first Pastor, Dick L. Wright.  God continued to smile upon us and our little church grew.

Moving On in Faith

                The Episcopal Church was very gracious to us, but again we felt that if we were to continue to grow we needed our own space. We took another" leap of faith" and rented space in a office park in the fall of 1999. This enabled us to operate a child care center and set our own times for worship, and brought us all of the other freedoms that came along with having our own space.  We closed the child care after 2 years which was a big disappointment to the congregation. We just could not find enough children to make it feasible.  But, God continues to smile on us. We had now grown and developed into a community with 216 members with an average attendance of 90 and a 2002 budget of $149,500.  That previous year, in addition to scads of babies, we baptized 7 adults.

               We then took another "leap of faith". We concluded that it would be a much better use of our money to be purchasing our own building instead of renting. We purchased a 7 acre parcel of land with high visibility on a busy road across from our new hospital. It is here that we have erected our own building. Mission Investment Fund of the E.L.C.A. lent us some of the money we need for the building, however we needed $250,000 more, and we needed to pay back as much of the loan that we could in 5 years when we would have to refinance.

The Building Project

We all know that a church is not a building but a group of people who gather together to worship and serve the Lord. But sometimes a church building becomes necessary to invite visitors, welcome guests and expand ministry outreach. At Faith Lutheran Church in Elko, Nevada, we have come to this point in our church life!

Anyone who has ever built a house can tell you how difficult it can be and how many decisions have to be made. With a church, it is tenfold. Do you build for the size you are now or what you hope to be in 5 or 10 years? If you build what you can afford now, will the economic conditions in the community 10 years from now still be able to sustain the payments? And you have to consider how many classrooms, how much fellowship space, the number of offices, a full kitchen space, and convenience for weddings along with the standard sanctuary, narthex and sacristy!

Building a new church has been an exciting and scary process. As we moved forward, we thought of the reassuring words of one of our members, Gracie McLean, "None of this has ever looked like it would work on paper. Hiring a pastor, moving into our own place, it was all scary. We just had to take a leap of faith! And we do now!  We couldn’t build our own church building. But God could, and He did!"

One of our other church members shares this story about building our church: “We were moving ahead with our plans to build a church. We had been number crunching and looking at what it would cost and what we could afford at our current giving level. I was surprised to learn there were no grant opportunities for a congregation such as ours – we were new, small, and in a rural community but not third world or considered low income. I had been praying a lot and asking for guidance and a creative way for our church to raise money. I received an answer to my prayers one Sunday morning & it was not at all what I had been expecting. The new church was on my mind as I went forward to the rail for communion. I always feel better as I step away – filled with faith and renewed spirit. That day was no exception. I was almost back to my chair when I heard it, "You don’t’ have to do it by yourself." I literally stopped in my tracks and looked around. It was quickly apparently that the words had not come from someone that I could see. As I sat down, I felt like a burden had been lifted. Of course! We had included the Lord in all of our discussions and invited Him to all our meetings. But our family is even bigger! Our church family does not begin and end in Elko, Nevada!”

We have ELCA family members across this country and around the world! And family members help one another – sometimes cheerfully and willingly and sometimes just because they feel they should. So we are asking you, our family, to help us reach this important milestone by becoming a Mission Partner.

We need Mission Partners who can help with one time gifts and 3 or 5 year pledges. We need Mission Partners who will pray for us on a weekly or daily basis.

If you would like to become a Mission Partner to Faith Lutheran Church or have questions, please e-mail us at or call 775-738-1774. We look forward to hearing from you!

God Bless