Living Lord Lutheran Church Brief History
In 1963, the American Lutheran Church (ALC), the larger church body at that time, worked with Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Warren, Ohio, to start a new mission congregation at the Howland Corners residential area on the east side of Warren. Manufacturing jobs were abounding, new residences were being built in the Howland area, and it was the vision of the ALC to start new congregations in the residential areas near where people lived.
Pastor Paul G. Fuchs, a graduate of Wartburg Seminary, was called in July 1963 to lead this new mission congregation. 73 members of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, the sister church of Living Lord Lutheran Church, dedicated themselves to this new mission church. They became some of the charter member of Living Lord.
They conducted the first worship in the Howland township Junior High School on September 8, 1963.
The ALC Board of Missions purchased land at 851 Niles Cortland Road and had a ground breaking ceremony on September 22, 1963. The first worship service in the new facility was conducted on March 1, 1964.
In 1988, Living Lord Lutheran, along with other congregations of the American Lutheran Church, became part of a larger church organization called the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
In 2024, the congregation decided to become an independent church. While we remain Lutheran in our faith and practices, leaving the ELCA gave us more autonomy and financial freedom. We remain supportive of many of the causes of the ELCA, but prefer to offer that support as we decide to locally.