St. Paul Lutheran, Ironwood

St. Paul Lutheran Church, ELCA

111 S. Curry Street, Ironwood, MI 49938 (906) 932-0601 – office • (906) 285-7045 – parsonage Facebook – St. Paul Lutheran Church, Ironwood, MI YouTube – St. Paul Lutheran Church, Ironwood, MI Sunday worship – 10:00 a.m. every Sunday

MISSION STATEMENT - We invite all people in the name of Jesus Christ; to know the love of God – through the Word, Sacrament, and Mission.

The first Finnish Lutheran congregation in Ironwood was started on September 3, 1888. A charter member of the Suomi synod in 1890, the Synod assigned Rev. J.W. Eloheimo as the first pastor in 1981. However, due to rifts in the congregation, it was dissolved by the synod on August 31, 1892. On September 18, 1892, members loyal to the Suomi Synod met at the Swedish Methodist Church of Ironwood and, assisted by Rev. J.K. Nikander and Rev. Tolonen, established the Ironwood Finnish Evangelical Lutheran St. Paul congregation (translated from Finnish). Rev. Kaarlo Huotari was called as the first pastor and stayed until 1897.

The congregation met in rented quarters until 1894 when they bought an old Jessieville school. In 1899, they bought back the original church building and parsonage from the Eloheimos for $1,200. In 1913, the church building was moved onto a stone basement providing church parlors.

In 1931, during the Great Depression, the entire church was enlarged and remodeled into its colonial design ($15,107), plus the new pipe organ was added ($2,500). Through faith, hard work, and pasty sales, the mortgage burning was on Reformation Day, 1943.

Renovations were always in the fore front. The enclosed entrance (1976), the elevator (1987), and the parking lot expansion (1989 – 1991) were added. The congregation's transition from Finnish to English occurred slowly – the first English worship in 1929, the Church Council minutes in Finnish until 1956, Finnish worship only monthly after 1973, and in 1991, the Finnish “Mary Circle” wrote their minutes, for the first time, in English.

Originally part of the Suomi Synod, St. Paul Lutheran merged with the Lutheran Church in America in 1962, and with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1988. As for ministerial service, over the past 129 years, St. Paul Lutheran has been served by twenty pastors and many supply and interim pastors. St. Paul is currently served by Pastor Douglas Norquist who started in the fall of 2019. Pastor Norquist held his first in-house worship service here on December 15, 2019. In March of 2020, Pastor Doug held his first internet-only worship service due to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. On May of 2021, St. Paul Lutheran Church resumed in-house worship with the service also live-streamed on the internet.

As St. Paul Lutheran Church continues our focus on the Word, Sacrament, and Mission, may God continue to abundantly bless this congregation now and in the future. Please join us in celebrating the love God!