Grace Lutheran Church was developed as part of an American Lutheran Church (ALC) “package building” program in 1962 to serve the growing North Hills area of Raleigh. Land was purchased by the ALC on Six Forks Road north of the new beltline, building plans were approved, and a parsonage purchased. In July, the newly ordained Reverend J. Lowell Knauff and his family arrived in Raleigh to develop the mission church. Pastor Knauff was assisted in this work by Lucille Bissell, a parish worker for the Board of American Missions of the ALC.
The legal organization of Grace Lutheran Church was conducted on January 19, 1963, at the parsonage on 1120 Manchester Drive with Ralph Bowman, member of the ALC Eastern District Home Missions Committee, officiating. Prospective members adopted a constitution, applied for district membership, extended the call to Pastor Knauff, incorporated, adopted the home mission’s agreement, and set the date for the organization of the congregation.
The spiritual organization of Grace Lutheran Church took place on January 20, 1963, with the first worship service at Effie Green Elementary School. The Reverend Richard Fenske, Regional Director for the Board of American Missions of the ALC, served as guest minister. The Reverend Knauff was installed and officially declared Grace Lutheran Church as a congregation. Twenty-four baptized, nineteen confirmed members were received during a Service of Entry and Dedication.
The same month, the first council for the mission was installed and Robert Powell became the first council president. The new congregation broke ground on their worship-education center at 5010 Six Forks Road in February and the first worship service was held in the new facility on August 4, 1963. In 1968 Reverend Daniel Wee became Grace’s second pastor and Reverend Kenneth Tonnesen came in 1975. In the years following Tonnesen’s fourteen years of ministry at Grace, other pastors, whose names are listed at the end of this history, have continued supporting the growth of the congregation and its missions.
In 1988, ALC/LCA merged to form the ELCA. Prior to the merger, Grace was the only ALC congregation in Wake County; thus, the congregation attracted members spanning this large county. Many members had no family in the area, so strong friendships and support groups formed. While the congregation lost its unique draw as an ALC church, it retained a county-wide constituency through warm welcomes extended to visitors to become members of the Grace family. Grace members celebrated the Jubilee Year in 1988 and the fiftieth anniversary in 2013.
Grace has been a study in contrasts over its history. It began as a congregation on the outskirts of Raleigh. It is now near the geographic center of Raleigh. From its earliest years, the congregation ministry focused on community outreach. Today it is a congregation that continues to reach out to others but one with targeted support for members of our church community and our young people. The brief notes that follow about Grace’s activities, then and now, demonstrate our faith by Growing in Grace, Bearing Fruit as Disciples with a mission “to seek the fullness of life in Christ, for all people.”
Outreach to the Community and the World
Members of Grace Lutheran Church have felt a strong call to mission in the community. Led by individuals in the congregation, different outreach ministries evolved over the years. In 1970, the Sheep and Goats committee was organized with a mission of serving Christ by taking care of those in need. The committee’s name was based on Matthew 25:31-46, and while committee names have changed over the decades, the work of outreach continues today.
When members discovered that many elderly people did not have heat because they could not afford to purchase coal in large quantities, Coalition was established. Coal was purchased by the ton, bagged, and delivered to elderly people. This was one of the first Grace initiatives to include other Lutheran churches and community organizations. It planted the seed for Grace’s reputation as an incubator for ideas and an initiator of effective collaborative ministries that improve life for the needy.
During the late 1970’s, Grace began to sponsor refugee resettlement. The first family was Vietnamese, the second from Poland, the third from Laos. Three Montagnard families from Vietnam followed. Grace sponsored and helped build Habitat for Humanity homes for the three Montagnard families. In 2001, a pregnant woman from Democratic Republic of the Congo was rescued and brought to Raleigh. She was cared for in partnership with St. Phillip Lutheran, Raleigh, and lived at Grace for over a year. During that time, the congregation helped with the complex process of rescuing her two teenage children and bringing them to live with her in Raleigh. Grace has continued this ministry with the resettlement of a fourth Montagnard family and, most recently, by supporting a family relocated from Afghanistan.
Women of the congregation formed a group called The Amazing Graces and began the ministry of stitching quilts for Lutheran World Relief in the 1970’s. In 2009 they shipped over 200 quilts, and the group strives to increase that number every year. This ministry continues today and despite the restrictions of Covid 19, the group was able to produce 96 quilts during the first year of that pandemic.
Grace has often shared its facilities with the community, at different times hosting Al-Anon, Narc-Anon, Overeaters Anonymous, Camp Gladiator, Wake County Public Schools, a monthly Road Runner running group, Lutheran Peace Fellowship, Via De Christo (small groups), and the Montagnard Church.
Other examples of the congregation’s outreach ministry include raising funds through Crop Walk, Race for the Cure, and Bowl for the Cause; delivering Meals on Wheels; staffing the Lutheran Peace Advocacy’s Peace Booth at the State Fair; packaging meals for Rise Against Hunger; the Angel Tree Project and an annual birthday party at the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford.
Advocacy for Those in Need
Growth in the congregation led to the need for an expanded facility. With years of planning and input from the congregation, in 1979 a new sanctuary was built and dedicated. Church members were invested financially and through their talents. Seats were manufactured by a church member from trees cut down for the sanctuary and other members designed and built other furnishings. The cross that stands tall outside Grace was designed by a member. The expanded building made additional ministries possible, and the mortgage was paid off during Pastor Frye’s tenure.
Soon after Pastor Tonnesen arrived at Grace, he and lay leaders attended the first Cursillos held in North Carolina. Now called Via de Cristo, the retreats inspired the congregation to an intensified zeal for serving the poor and needy. The ministries of Grace established a reputation in Wake County for advocacy and provision for the homeless that indicated an expansion of the congregation’s mission: As Christ clearly tells us, we must serve the strangers, the hungry, the hurting, and the disadvantaged.
In the early 1980’s, Harold Fass led the congregation in overcoming legal restrictions and neighborhood resistance to establish Grace House. Office space was remodeled to provide living quarters for homeless families who shared the church kitchen. Members sponsored the families to help them find work, learn life skills, and then helped them find affordable housing. In 1984, Grace was given a three-unit apartment building. One unit was renovated as an apartment for Grace House.
Additionally, Grace continued to serve homeless families in cooperation with Pan Lutheran Ministries as they centralized their ministry model in the early 2000’s into Agape Place, Samaritan Inn, and the Helen Wright Center for Women (formerly the Ark Shelter). The congregation has joined others to sponsor construction of three Habitat for Humanity homes, support PLM’s Families Together, and contribute to the Food Bank of North Carolina.
Early in his tenure at Grace, Pastor Michael Frye led the congregation in a collaborative interdenominational ministry with other North Hills churches. North Hills Crisis Center was founded in 2001-2002 to provide food and financial subsidy to neighbors in need. The ministry, now known as North Raleigh Ministries, added a thrift shop and expanded to serve a broader area in late 2005.
Spiritual Growth, Nurturing, and Evangelism
As with all congregations, the Covid pandemic presented new challenges, especially the Council and the health and Caring Team. Interim Pastor Meghan Richter led Grace to new forms of worship when gathering in person in the sanctuary was not an option. Outdoor services, drive-through communion, and virtual worship opportunities were initiated. A Technology Team was established to enable the congregation to grow its online opportunities as we begin to gather again as a church family in the sanctuary, guided by Grace’s current Pastor Ben Kifer.
Since the earliest days of Grace, many activities have been the work of WELCA. An active women’s group, WELCA includes an emphasis on Bible study, topical programs, fellowship, and field trips. Women in the congregation have ministered to members physically, emotionally, and intellectually. They set up a lending library, provided numerous meals—Lenten and Advent dinners, Easter breakfasts, receptions, and congregational meeting lunches, made backpacks for students and assembled personal health care kits and school care kits that are distributed by Lutheran World Relief. Women in the church established an Altar Guild to care for vestments and banners and prepare for communion.
The 1970s and 1980s were busy years at Grace. Bethel Bible Studies became part of the church’s ministry from 1976 through 1980 with classes for the congregation following a school year schedule. The Stephen Ministry program supported caring for members of the congregation in times of special needs.
In the mid 1980s a young adults’ group, called Come as You Are, became an energetic part of the work of Grace. They met regularly for Bible study, fellowship, and service projects.
Outreach to teens became a major focus in 1989 when a small group of youth and adults, mostly Grace members, committed to bring the Teens Encounter Christ program to North Carolina. This program, based on the Cursillo method, sponsors retreat weekend led by youth, lay adults, and clergy. By 2008, Share the Word TEC had served nearly 1,000 people and helped to launch Footsteps in Faith TEC in San Diego, California, and Hand in Hand TEC in Western North Carolina.
In the 1980s a Scholarship Fund for Grace students graduating from high school and continuing their education was established. As the Scholarship Fund has grown, since 2000 over forty-five scholarships have been awarded, and today every recent applicant has received financial assistance.
In the 1990s the Teaching and Learning Committee was created to provide an intentional focus on life-long faith development and learning for all ages, as well as cross-generational faith formation events. Throughout the history of the church there have been weekly Bible Studies and special opportunities to celebrate our youngest members through Splash Babies and a Young Families Group. Today an intergenerational Sunday School meets the first Sunday of each month.
The School of Grace Preschool, a parent-participatory preschool, has been educating children since 1995. It was organized by church members who dreamed of a pre-school ministry. She was joined by other members of Grace to establish the school that has grown to now include children of varied backgrounds and abilities, ages six months to five years. The preschool serves typically developing children, children with special needs, and children from refugee families. Parents commit to serve at the school one day each month. Parent education classes are held frequently and are open to the public.
Evangelism within the congregation has meant nurturing members through acts of caring as well as celebration. Music has played an important role in worship and was a special gift by the church’s musicians who recorded music from their homes to be compiled for sharing with everyone during the pandemic. Today there are Cherub, Covenant, and Adult Choirs.
Activities for building a close church family have included an annual weekend retreat to Kure Beach, a Prayer Shawl Ministry, supper club, weekends at Swannanoa, church picnics and outings, cards to members for birthdays and anniversaries, care packages for college members, a daytime book club, Greenway Walkers, and meals for members in need.
Grace Memorial Garden is the columbarium built in 2017 on the church grounds for the inurnment of the cremated remains of current or former members of Grace and their families. It serves as a place for reverent reflection and meditation. The columbarium has permanently engraved, granite-faced niches, which accommodate one or two urns. A bound Memorial Book containing biographical data of all who are inurned in Grace Memorial Garden is displayed in the narthex of the church.
In early 2020 a Mission & Ministry Endowment Fund was created to team with the ELCA Foundation to build an endowment for support of Grace’s mission and ministry goals. The account holds funds from both current and estate gifts with distributions to be made for ministry from the fund’s earnings.
Throughout its history, Grace Lutheran Church has been a center of worship where members are fed through Word and Sacrament and encouraged to serve each other, the community, and the world. Now led by Reverend Ben Kifer, Grace celebrated its sixtieth anniversary in 2023 and continues a ministry that may be best summarized: Growing in Grace, Bearing Fruits as Disciples as we seek the fullness of life in Christ, for all people.
Pastors serving Grace Lutheran Church:
1963-1968 J. Lowell Knauff
1968-1974 Daniel Wee
1975-1989 Kenneth Tonnesen
1988-1992 Nedra Merriman
1991-1999 James Duke
• Fall 1992-February 1993 Daphne Burt, Part-time, Minister of Education
1998-2005 Paul Abbe, Associate Pastor of Youth and Family Ministries
1999-2001 Jack Bernlohr, Interim Pastor
2001-2017 Michael Frye
• 2007-2013 Ellen Koester, Associate in Ministry
• 2014 Brandon Dressen, Interim Director of Youth and Children
• 2013-2015 Ken Schmidt, Assistant to the Pastor
• 2015-2021 Caitlin Stratemeyer: Director of Youth and Children’s Ministries
2017-2018 David Sloop, Interim Pastor
2018-2020 Timothy Taylor
2020-2021 Meghan Richter, Interim Pastor
2021-present Ben Kifer
Interns serving Grace Lutheran Church from 1982-1988:
Eric Williams
Michael Skoor
Karen Hill
Cliff Lewis
Ingrid Lukas
Barbara Holzhauser
Former members entering full-time church vocations:
Ellen Skatrud-Mickelson, Pastor, Peace Lutheran Church, Billings, Montana. Pastor Ellen retired in Florida and passed away at the end of 2018.
Phil Tonnesen, Assistant to the Bishop, NC Synod, ELCA
Chris Bowen, College Chaplain at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia
Jay Thompson, formerly Minister of Youth and Family, Christ the King Lutheran Church, Cary; now in Espoo, Finland
Lt. Paul Chapman, Navy Chaplain, stationed in Japan and New York, August 2022
Jim Chinery, Pastor