An active group of members meets here every Sunday morning. Attending the Divine Service is our most important activity each week. This is the time that we receive God’s gifts and respond with prayer and thanksgiving.

Christian education is very important to us, including the education of the youth. The children of our congregation attend Sunday School, sing in church regularly, and put on a special Christmas program each year. Our pastor also leads a Catechism Class for junior high and high school youth, which culminates in Confirmation.

Our Youth Group meets for events through the year and has the opportunity to attend local camps and a national youth convention in the summertime. Our Ladies Aid and Men’s Club groups meet each month for Bible Study, fellowship, and event planning. The Ladies Aid hosts a special dinner each year emphasizing the congregation’s Norwegian heritage.

Jerico Lutheran Church was originally founded by Norwegian immigrants in 1867 under the leadership of the Rev. U. V. Koren. It was a member church of the old “Norwegian Synod,” a church body with its headquarters in Decorah, Iowa. When much of the Norwegian Synod merged with other Norwegian Lutheran church bodies, Saude entered a smaller church body in 1923, now called the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS).

The ELS enjoys church fellowship with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). Along with other Lutheran church bodies around the world, the ELS and WELS are part of the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference (CELC).

Jerico has enjoyed a long partnership with Saude Lutheran Church and shares a pastor with them. In 2018, these congregations formed a three-point parish with Redeemer Lutheran Church in New Hampton. To learn more about us, please click the links below and visit our History page.

Extended History of Jerico Lutheran Church

Jostedal Church – Norwegian Roots of Jerico Lutheran Church

Cemetery Listings for Jerico Lutheran Church

Saude & Jerico WWII Program (1945)

Jerico celebrated its Sesquicentennial (150th) Anniversary on June 25, 2017.

150th Anniversary Exordium – Pr. Glenn Obenberger

150th Anniversary Sermon – Pr. Craig Ferkenstad

Our congregation has been blessed with excellent pastors through the years:

1867-1869 — U. V. Koren (pictured)
1869-1889 — J. C. T. Moses
1889-1895 — J. G. Ness
1895-1903 — Karl Xavier
1903-1909 — J. G. Rugland
1909-1922 — M. K. Bleken
1923-1940 — H. M. Tjernagel
1940-1945 — N. S. Tjernagel
1946-1957 — M. H. Otto
1958-1971 — M. E. Tweit
1972-1979 — G. A. R. Gullixson
1979-1982 — Timothy E. Erickson
1983-1988 — Glenn R. Obenberger
1988-1995 — Mark E. DeGarmeaux
1995-2006 — Kent E. Dethlefsen
2006-2015 — Daniel E. Larson
2016-pres. — Peter J. Faugstad

Children from both congregations attended the Saude school after it opened in 1943. But by 1947, the Jerico congregation recognized the need to have a school of its own. A building was moved over from Elma to its present location west of the Jerico church. In the spring of 1968, the Jerico and Saude schools began to operate jointly with grades 1-4 at Jerico and grades 5-8 at Saude. The two schools were combined at Jerico in 1979, and the school continued to operate until 1982.

Jerico Lutheran School Teachers:

1947-48 — Theodore Aaberg
1948-51 — Joan Gilbo (Krueger)
1951-52 — Esther Petersen (Faugstad)
1952-53 — Corrine Hoefker (Schoer)
1953-55 — LaVonne Bodirius (Grauer)
1955-57 — Irma Speerschneider
1957-58 — Marshall Handberg
1958-60 — Stanley Holt
1960-61 — Ione Lillegard
1961-62 — Alice Knutson
1962-63 — Kenneth Fossen
1963-65 — Diane Natvig (Skaaland)
1965-67 — Pamela Scheidel (Davis)
1967-70 — Judy Tostenson (Teigen)
1970-72 — Camilla Dashcund
1972-74 — Alona Steffen (Knutson)
1974-75 — Carol Weber (Kraepel)
1975-77 — LaRue Jans (Heyn)
1977-78 — Sarah Aaberg (Mehlberg)
1978-79 — Karen McCreary (Huffman)
1979-81 — Carol Graham
1981-82 — Alona Knutson