Alive! Lutheran Church (Monticello, Minnesota) Records

In November 2005, members of Grace Lutheran Church, Becker, Minnesota met with Pastor Dave Johnson, Vicar Greg Koepsell and representatives from the Minnesota South and Minnesota North Districts to formulate plans for planting a new LCMS church in Monticello, Minnesota. The first meeting of potential members of this new church was held on January 6, 2006 at the Monticello Community Center. Included in the 15-20 people who attended were Pastor Johnson, Vicar Koepsell, and Minnesota District Missions Directors Rev. Dave Stroschein and Peter Maier. During the next eight months, a core group met at the Communuity Center with Vicar Koepsell to choose the new church's name develop the mission statement and values, and find rental space in Monticello. Pastor Koepsell was ordained at his home church in Horicon, Wisconsin in July 2006, and in August, he was installed as mission planter for Alive! Lutheran Church. The first worship service was held on September 10, 2006 in a rented storefront in downtown Monticello. The 2000 suare foot storefront included the sanctuary, fellowship area, a small area for Sunday School, a tiny office and single restroom. About 40 peole attended this first service. THe membership grew over the next three years. The congregation drafted its COnstitution and Bylaws, and on March 8, 2009, Alive! Lutheran Church congregation was formally chartered into the LCMS, calling its first pastor, Rev. Greg Koepsell. He remained at Alive! until September 2015. In May 2010, the congregation voted to request a peacful release from the Minnesota South District to the Minnesota North District. The request was granted byboth districts in 2012. Next to Alive!'s location was a large, empty storefront since 2005. As Alive! continued to grow, the church council negotiated a rental agreemenrt with the owner of that larger storefront. The congregation moved to that larger storefront in December 2009. As a result of continued growth and the city's plan to revitalize the downtown area in the next 15 years which would include tearing down the current buildings, this congregation began looking for a suitable piece of land on which to build in the coming years. The congregation approved to proceed with the purchase of the property they identified in September 2014, contingent on receiving a consitional use permit from the COunty. The approval finally came in May 2016. At the time that this history of the congregation was written, the congregation was in the process of updating their mortgage application with LCEF, and were hopeful to complete the land purchase at the end of the summer of 2016. The closing service for this congregation wa held on March 12, 2023.