Affiliation • History
Funny River Community Lutheran Church is affiliated with the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) is a mission-oriented, Bible-based, confessional Christian denomination headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, founded on the teachings of Martin Luther.
Our congregation is one of several LC-MS congregations in Alaska, which is part of the
Northwest District of the LC-MS.
We recently celebrated our tenth anniversary. Our church building was dedicated on June 19, 2005, but its beginnings go back to 1995 when we first began meeting for worship at the Funny River Community Center. Our small group of worshippers began to grow and soon the group felt that "we should build a church". Land was donated. Ground was broken on June 20, 2004 and work began. Many volunteers helped with the construction and many people donated money and the necessary 'parts' of the building. The result of all of the donations of time, talents, skills and hard work is on Rabbit Run Road in Funny River, Alaska.
Our first pastor, Rev. George Rakos, retired on June 7, 2015. Rev. Andrew Carlson was installed on August 16, 2015.
The AMC is a unique ministry. Very few Circuits have their own mission arm. In Alaska, because congregations have trouble reaching all the opportunities and responsibilities to share Jesus, the LCMS Churches in Alaska formed the AMC. Technically, therefore, this is not an organization outside our congregation, but an extension of our congregation, perhaps a daughter. AMC is totally focused on doing mission work in various forms with the motto of Sharing Christ in the Last Frontier. The goal is often stated that AMC seeks to bring Jesus to every Alaskan community.
Funny River Community Lutheran Church traces its origin to support from the AMC. We continue to support this ministry with our prayers, involvement in outreach, Vacation Bible School ministry and special events.
For additional information, see the AMC website.
