In the north end of Bismarck, North Dakota, just off Washington Street at 120 Aspen Avenue, sits Charity Lutheran Church. The congregation's own name points to what its members want to be known for. Charity calls itself "a shelter in Jesus Christ welcoming all into faith and fellowship, and preparing disciples for meaningful service in the world through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in their lives." On any given Sunday you will hear that mission lived out in song, prayer and a steady stream of children heading to Sunday School.
From a New Ministry Task Force to an Oak of Righteousness
Charity was planted in 1979 by the Bismarck-Mandan A.L.C. Ministerium, whose New Ministry Task Force included representatives from five existing Lutheran congregations. By February of that year a three-acre site had been purchased at the corner of Aspen Avenue and Washington Street. The early congregation met at the old Masonic Temple while a pastor was called. Merrill D. Ronning and his family arrived in Bismarck on July 13, 1979 to begin ministering to what had become a worship center for more than one hundred families and 350 individuals. Charity was formally organized and Pastor Ronning was installed on November 18, 1979.
Successive pastors shaped the body over the following decades: Bishop Roy Gilbertson served briefly as interim in 1985, Robert Nordvall pastored from 1985 to 2009, Joel Scherr from 1986, Scott Bauman from 1999 to 2021, and Randall Upgren from 2004 to 2017. Sam Coleman served from 2018 to 2022, with Brad Miller as interim from 2022 through June 2023. Emmanuel Jackson, the current lead pastor, began his ministry at Charity in 2024.
A defining moment came on August 6, 2000. After a Sunday sermon at East Immanuel Church, Pastor Fred Thoni spoke a prophetic word over Pastor Bob Nordvall called "Oaks of Righteousness." It pictured Charity as a terebinth, an oak planted in the midst of time, called to stand through the storms that sweep across the prairies and to be a haven for many the Lord would draw under its branches. The prophecy ended with the charge, "You are My oak of righteousness." The congregation engaged in a full year of prayer following the word, and the image of the oak has remained central to who Charity is. The same passage from Isaiah 60 describes the people of God as "oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor."
What to Expect on Sunday Morning
Sunday services at Charity are described by the church itself as a warm, welcoming setting to worship together. A single service gathers at 9:30 a.m. and combines foundational Lutheran liturgy with modern worship songs and long-standing hymns, the kind of service where a congregation can pray the historic collects and sing the newest chorus in the same hour. The service is also livestreamed for those at home.
After worship, the building shifts into a flurry of teaching. Sunday School runs from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for preschool through fifth grade. The curriculum is the SEED program, designed to introduce children to the stories of the Bible, to familiarize them with the characters and events of Scripture, and to show what a life with God looks like in real human terms. Confirmation meets in the Meeting Room at the same hour for sixth through eighth graders, walking students through the Lutheran confession in age-appropriate ways.
Both Sunday School and Confirmation run September through May. New families register through the Family Registration link on the Charity Kids page.
Wednesday Unscripted: A Midweek Sanctuary
Beyond Sunday, the heart of the week at Charity is Wednesday Unscripted, a gathering the church describes as shaped by the conviction that God meets people most powerfully in the unplanned, unpolished places of life. Running September through May, the evening has the rhythm of a family table.
The night opens with a family meal from 5:00 to 5:45 p.m., suggested donation $5 per person or $20 per family maximum. At 6:00 p.m. the meal gives way to Unscripted worship, a thirty-minute service built around acoustic music, Scripture, silence, testimony and prayer practices. The point, the church says, is to create room for people to encounter God outside the traditional Sunday rhythm: "Life is not scripted, and yet God is faithful. This gathering acknowledges both realities and offers a sanctuary for those in need of rest, renewal, and perspective."
From 6:45 to 8:00 p.m. the building fills with parallel programming. WINGS (Witness in God's Service) gathers preschool through fifth grade with Bible teaching, scripture memory, prayer time, music and fellowship. Middle school and high school youth groups meet separately for games, teaching, discussion and Bible study, with the high school group in the New Youth Room. Adults have their own choices: a Men's Bible Study in the Meeting Room, a Women's Bible Study in the Fireside Room, and rotating adult educational offerings.
Charity Kids: Preschool Through Elementary
Children from birth through fifth grade fall under Charity Kids, a ministry built on the conviction that what happens at home matters even more than what happens at church. The church frames the partnership plainly: "Studies show that over the course of a year, churches have about 40 hours to impact a child's life. That's significant, but there is someone else who has even more influence: a parent. Parents have an average of 3,000 hours each year." The ministry's aim is to come alongside parents to lead children into authentic relationships with Christ through age-appropriate lessons, activities, and small groups.
Preschool and elementary children have two weekly touchpoints at Charity: Sunday School on Sunday mornings and WINGS on Wednesday evenings. Children also gather for the annual Vacation Bible School, a multi-evening event in early summer with its own themed curriculum. The director of Children, Youth and Family Ministry, Jennifer Farley, oversees this work along with the student ministry and a Stephen Ministry leadership role.
Charity Students: Middle and High School
Sixth through twelfth graders are served by Charity Students, the church's student ministry. Confirmation runs on Sunday mornings from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for sixth through eighth graders, covering the Lutheran confession in a setting designed for that age. Middle school youth group meets Wednesday evenings from 6:45 to 8:00 p.m., and the high school group gathers in the New Youth Room at the same hour for games, teaching, discussion, and Bible study.
The student ministry's stated aim is to mentor and encourage middle and high school students to become faithful disciples grounded in God's Word. The Wednesday programming for students is intentionally woven into the broader Wednesday Unscripted evening, so that families can share the meal and worship together before splitting into their own groups.
Growing as Adults: Life Groups, Bible Studies, Hope and Hobby Groups
Adult ministry at Charity is built around five overlapping lanes: Bible studies, discipleship classes, Life Groups, Hope Groups, and Hobby Groups. The stated purpose is the same across all of them, to help people connect to God through His Word and to one another through Christ-honoring relationships, so that the body becomes the disciples God has called it to be.
Bible studies meet on and off campus throughout the year, ranging from ongoing studies to short-term book studies. Discipleship classes are offered on a rotating schedule, with the church pointing to Colossians 1:9-10 as the heartbeat of the work, that believers "be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord." Curriculum is reviewed by the Education Ministry Team to make sure it aligns with Charity's accepted beliefs.
Life Groups are the small-group backbone of the church. Each one is a regular gathering of eight to twelve people meeting in a home, led by a trained leader from the congregation. The groups are designed to weave evangelism and discipleship into personal relationships, providing intimacy, mutual sharing and support, practical love and service, prayer and visible examples of God at work.
Hope Groups exist for seasons of grief, loss, betrayal and disappointment. GriefShare is the best-known Hope Group at Charity, a faith-based support program offering hope and healing to anyone who has lost a family member or friend through death. The GriefShare group is open to the wider community.
Hobby Groups are self-organized gatherings built around shared interests. Amazing Grays, a fellowship for seniors, meets once a month for shared meals and outings. The Quilting Group gathers monthly during the school year (except December) in the Fellowship Hall, with beginners and advanced quilters welcome. The Pinochle Group meets once a month on a Thursday evening in the fellowship hall for snacks and tournament play. A Kayaking Group meets monthly in June, July, and August, and two golf groups round out the list, a Wednesday Morning Men's Group and a Mixed Group.
Stephen Ministry: One-to-One Care
For those going through crisis, loneliness, illness or simply a hard season, Stephen Ministry offers confidential one-to-one care. Stephen Ministers are lay people trained to listen, encourage and pray alongside someone walking through difficulty, free of charge. The program is built on fifty hours of initial training plus ongoing education, and Stephen Leaders follow up after a request is made.
The ministry serves a wide range of circumstances: people who are grieving or suffering from depression, families facing divorce or separation, individuals before, during, or after hospitalization, the homebound, single parents, those facing a serious illness, those facing losses related to aging, those left behind after suicide, and anyone facing a major life transition. Care receivers are matched with a Stephen Minister who walks with them through the season.
For Our Neighbors: Centennial Elementary and Beyond
For Our Neighbors is Charity's framework for outreach in its immediate community. Anchored in Jesus' summary of the law from Matthew 22, to love God and love one's neighbor, the ministry works in four strategic directions.
The first is community events, several large gatherings each year that give neighbors a safe, positive place to play, talk, laugh and eat together. The second is meeting emotional needs through ministries that reach out, encourage, support and bring healing. The third is meeting physical needs, which includes maintaining a collection box for 701 Closet, a Bismarck-area resource for families needing clothing and household items. Through The Helper List, Charity partners with Centennial Elementary to field small but concrete requests from neighborhood families, things like a pair of snow boots for a parent, a winter coat for a dad, a few new shirts for a child outgrowing last season's. Anyone can sign up to be a Helper.
The fourth focus is partnering with a school. Charity's neighborhood elementary, Centennial Elementary, has roughly ninety students living below the poverty line. Charity supports the school year-round: donating school supplies and backpacks in the fall, collecting more than a thousand pairs of socks one year that were distributed to several nearby schools, and providing food and gifts at Christmas through the Advent Family Mission.
Standing on the Lutheran Confession
Charity Lutheran Church is affiliated with Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC), a fellowship of Lutheran congregations that operates outside the more formal synodical structures of other Lutheran bodies. Within LCMC, Charity holds to the historic Lutheran confessions.
Article II-B of the congregation's constitution confesses faith in the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: in the Father as creator and sustainer of the universe, in the Son Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior who died and rose again for the redemption of a fallen humanity, and in the Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the Christian church and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the faith. The canonical scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are accepted as the divinely inspired, revealed and inerrant Word of God and the only infallible authority in all matters of faith and life.
As brief and true statements of the doctrine of the Word of God, Charity accepts the three ecumenical creeds, the Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian, together with the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, Luther's Small Catechism, and the Book of Concord of 1580. The congregation is also called to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, administer the sacraments, study the Scriptures, witness to the community, nation and world, support one another in prayer, help those in need, and practice responsible stewardship.
A Faith That Reaches Out: Missions
Charity's benevolence committee is given ten percent of the congregation's annual donations to direct toward local and global needs. The Missions page lists the organizations supported, and quarterly Benevolence Reports going back to 2018 are published for transparency.
Local and regional partners include Martin Luther School, Shiloh Christian School, Crystal Springs Baptist Camp, Lutheran Bible Translators (serving in Sierra Leone), Lutheran Association of Missionaries and Pilots (LAMP), and Lutheran Asian Ministries. National and global partners include CRU (with ministry at Minot State University), Go Missions International (a family in Peru), Mission To Mexico (Enrique Estrada in Monterrey), Lutherans for Life, the North Dakota Family Alliance, Tartu Academy of Theology, and Tipi Wakan, led by Pastor Boots Marsh. Short-term mission support, continued support, and new mission applications are all available through the Missions page.
Marking Life's Moments: Weddings, Baptisms, and Funerals
Charity hosts weddings, baptisms, confirmations and funerals as part of its ministry to the wider Bismarck community. The pastoral staff asks for at least six months' advance notice for weddings, with a deposit of $50 for members and $150 for non-members to reserve a date. Premarital counseling is required, with materials costing $35. Weddings are not performed during Holy Week, VBS Week, or Christmas Week.
The sanctuary seats roughly 300 and the fellowship hall up to 75, and the church publishes a detailed fee schedule for the pastor, building, wedding coordinator, janitor and reception use. Alcohol is prohibited anywhere on the premises, including the parking lot. Baptisms are not scheduled during services with communion on the first and third Sundays of each month but may take place following services those weeks. Funeral teams help families with setup, cleanup, decorating and serving during difficult times.
The Staff and Vision Council
Emmanuel Jackson serves as lead pastor. Doug Leet is the Executive Director of Ministries. Jennifer Braun serves as Communications Director and Worship Leader. Jennifer Farley is the Director of Children, Youth and Family Ministry. The remaining staff support the work administratively, including a secretary, an accountant/bookkeeper, and an IT manager who also serves on the Stephen Ministry leadership team.
Governance of the congregation is carried out by the Vision Council, which meets at 5:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month in the Fireside Room. Current members include Ray Eckroth (President), Al Knutson (Vice President), Janet Mitzel (Secretary), Amber Torgerson, Thea Kuntz, Tom Swanson and Tom Oakland. Assembly meeting minutes going back to January 2020 are published for members to review.
From a worship center of more than one hundred families meeting in an old Masonic Temple to a congregation rooted on Aspen Avenue for more than four decades, Charity Lutheran Church continues to cast itself as a shelter in Christ, an oak planted in the midst of time. Its Sundays blend liturgy and modern song, its Wednesdays gather families around a meal and a thirty-minute service, its kids and students are taught in their own rooms, and its members are sent out weekly to be neighbors in Bismarck and beyond.