Christ Lutheran Church stands on Vista Drive on the north side of Ferndale, Washington, in Whatcom County just minutes south of Bellingham. The congregation has served this small city since the late 1960s, when a group of Lutheran families watched their town grow and decided that Ferndale needed a church of its own. Today the parish is recognized for its ELCA-rooted liturgical worship, its award-winning preschool, and a remarkable web of partnerships with community organizations serving low-income and unhoused neighbors across the county.
Sixty Years on Vista Drive
The story begins in August 1965, when Pastor Don Cornell of Zion Lutheran Church, just outside Ferndale, contacted the Northwest Regional Director of the American Lutheran Church about the population growth taking place in nearby Ferndale. A year later, on December 11, 1966, Zion's congregation voted to establish a two-point parish, and in November 1965 the Johnsons accepted a one-dollar deposit on a 4.2-acre former sheep pasture at the corner of Vista Drive and East Seamount Drive. A steering committee met for the first time on April 11, 1967, and chose the name Christ Lutheran Church from among roughly twenty-five proposed names.
Christ Lutheran Church worshipped for the first time on July 9, 1967, renting space in the American Legion Hall in downtown Ferndale. The congregation was formally organized on October 22, 1967. Construction of the first sanctuary followed in the first half of 1968, with volunteers laying tile and carpet, staining woodwork, and installing a cross, and the new building was ready for its first service on Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 1968. Dr. Earle H. Christenson crafted and gifted the altar and pulpit, and Moles Mortuary donated candlesticks.
Through the decades Christ Lutheran continued to expand. The fellowship hall was remodeled and four classrooms were added in 1982. Groundbreaking for the second phase of the original building plan took place on April 29, 1984, and the first service in the new sanctuary was held on Easter Sunday 1986. In 1988 the congregation joined the newly formed Evangelical Lutheran Church in America when the American Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Church in America, and the Association in Evangelical Lutheran Churches merged. The two-point parish arrangement with Zion ended in 1989, and each congregation called its own pastor.
The 2010s brought further change. A Memorial Garden and Columbarium was established around 2014, with landscaping designed by member Gavin Gillespie and a labyrinth added by Maclain Schapler as his Eagle Scout project. In 2017 the congregation marked fifty years of ministry alongside the five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation. An extensive 2018 remodel added a new kitchen, Fireside Room, classrooms, four accessible single-stall restrooms, and an administrative office. In September 2020 the fundraising and installation of an emergency generator, completed by Ava Strissel as a confirmation project, allowed the building to serve as a backup shelter for the Ferndale Severe Weather Shelter. The Rev. Pastor Leigh DeVries received a call to become pastor in August 2024.
Living in Christ and Sharing God's Love
Christ Lutheran's mission statement is short and direct: "We live in Christ and share God's love with all people." The congregation describes itself as a community of imperfect people following the God who is Love, who is uniquely and distinctly apparent in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. Worship, the parish teaches, is distinctly Lutheran in style and culminates in communion each week, where members take in the body and blood of Christ so that they might be the hands and feet of Christ in a suffering world.
The congregation values the Christian Bible as its greatest witness to the story of Jesus Christ and welcomes a diversity of opinions about how to live out faith. Members hold that there is no one way to be a Christian and that the highest calling is to follow Jesus in loving God, self, neighbor, and Creation. Work is organized around Jesus' call to feed the hungry, to care for the neighbor, to treasure Creation, and to glorify God in all that is done.
Worship at 9:30 on Sunday Morning
Sunday worship takes place at 9:30 AM and typically runs between sixty and seventy-five minutes. Depending on the liturgical setting and the size of the communing body, the timing can ebb and flow. Visitors are welcomed to join in whatever aspects of the service they are comfortable with. Communion is offered each week.
A Fellowship Coffee Hour begins at 9:15 AM in the Fellowship Hall, giving visitors and members a chance to greet one another before the service. Most Sundays, an Education Hour follows worship from 11:15 AM to 12:05 PM, September through May, with classes for adults and children meeting around the building. The Fireside Room, new kitchen, and accessible restrooms were all part of the 2018 remodel that reshaped nearly every part of the facility outside the sanctuary.
Worship is livestreamed on YouTube, and a wide archive of recorded services and bulletins is available for those unable to attend in person. The livestream link is shared weekly in the parish newsletter.
The Preschool Voted Best in Whatcom County
Christ Lutheran Church Preschool, known locally as CLCP, has been serving young children and families in Ferndale for more than thirty years and was voted Whatcom County's Best Preschool in 2024 and again in 2025. The preschool was structurally reorganized in 2013 to become a fully integrated ministry of the church.
The program offers a Christian setting in which children can grow, learn, and develop physically, spiritually, intellectually, and socially, in a child-centered and hands-on environment. Classes are offered for children ages three, four, and five. Two-day classes for threes meet Mondays and Tuesdays from 9:30 AM to noon. Three-day morning classes for fours and fives meet Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9:30 AM to noon. Three-day afternoon classes for threes, fours, and fives meet Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 12:45 to 3:15 PM. Children must be three by August 31 of the enrolling year and be self-sufficient at using the bathroom.
Registration is open for the 2026-27 school year, with classes running from Labor Day through Memorial Day. The preschool follows Ferndale School District weather closures. Director Liza Okan leads a small staff that includes Asia Roman and Daisy Ghiring. To schedule a tour, families can call 360-380-2233 or email preschooldirector@clcferndale.org.
Education for Every Age
Adult Education is the most active education program at CLC, offering opportunities to explore the Bible, Christian theology, and contemporary topics related to faith. Recent classes have included overviews of the entire Bible, an introduction to the "Book of Faith" Lutheran way of reading scripture, learning about stewardship, and topics such as dying and aging, the ELCA Malaria Campaign, orphanages in Haiti, and the Lutheran church in Palestine. The class meets in the Fireside Room on Sunday mornings and is taught by lay leaders.
For children, Godly Play serves preschool through fifth grade, using a Montessori-based method of storytelling and hands-on materials to connect the stories of God's people with a child's own experience. Middle school students participate in Confirmation Classes during the Sunday School hour in the pastor's office, and high school youth meet in the Youth Room once a month. The parish notes that youth programs have been on hold at times because of low attendance, but middle and high school ministries continue.
Community Education adds another layer. Past book studies have included Richard Rohr's "The Universal Christ," led by Pastor Leigh and trained Spiritual Directors Stephen and Irene Wise, with both Sunday classroom discussion and Monday small-group sessions that pair brown-bag lunches with prayer and spiritual practice.
Walking with the Lummi Nation
On October 10, 2021, the day before Indigenous Peoples Day, Christ Lutheran dedicated a formal land acknowledgement that is read at significant gatherings. The acknowledgement names the ancestral homelands of the Lummi and Coast Salish People, tells of their stewardship of the land since time immemorial, recounts the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott, and commits the congregation to ongoing care of the land and to healing and strengthening relationships with Lummi neighbors.
The congregation's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force developed a Strategic Plan in 2021 to uphold the commitments in that acknowledgement. From October 2021 to May 2022 an orange "Prayers of Lament" banner hung in the building to remember Native children killed at church-sponsored boarding schools. CLC observes Orange Shirt Day each September 30 and links members to ELCA resources on the Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery and the church's Truth-Seeking and Truth-Telling Initiative, as well as to books recommended by Lummi friend Renee Swan Waite.
On November 16, 2025, an overwhelming majority of the congregation voted to become a full Reconciling in Christ (RIC) Partner Church, formally welcoming people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions, naming a commitment to racial equity and anti-racism, opening the way to calling LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC rostered leaders, and allowing sanctuary and community space to be used for LGBTQIA+ weddings and blessings.
Serving Ferndale and Beyond
Social Concerns is one of the most active ministries at CLC. The congregation enthusiastically supports, with donations and volunteer hours, the Ferndale Other Bank (toiletries and household items for low-income residents), the Ferndale Food Bank (originally Project Concern, founded by CLC members in 1972), the Interfaith Coalition, the Ferndale Holiday Giving Store, Ferndale Community Services, Adopt-a-Highway, Lutheran Campus Ministry at Western Washington University, and the ELCA Malaria Campaign. The Social Concerns Committee has also worked directly with the unhoused population of Whatcom County, with donations earmarked for dump fees and laundry fees.
The Helping Neighbors Fund provides one-time emergency financial relief for residents of Whatcom County. On every fifth Sunday, youth help gather the Noisy Offering that replenishes that fund. CLC also partners with One Parish, One Prisoner, supporting incarcerated individuals, and with Family Promise, which serves homeless families.
The congregation supports Lutheran World Relief through its longtime Piecemakers quilting group, which meets most Monday mornings at 9:00 AM in the Fellowship Hall to create quilts that are shipped around the world. The quilt group is one of several entry points for hands-on service, alongside the Altar Guild, which prepares communion elements and worship paraments each week, and the Stephen Ministry, formed in 2013 to provide one-on-one pastoral care.
A Little Free Library and Free Mini Pantry
On May 14, 2017, member Don Lorenz built and installed Christ Lutheran's Little Free Library, a "take a book, return a book" book exchange kept stocked with titles for children and adults. Next to it stands a Free Mini Pantry, a 24/7 community resource stocked with individually wrapped, ready-to-eat food such as jerky, beef sticks, cheese and crackers, peanut butter and crackers, trail mix, juice boxes, and bottled water. The pantry was installed with the help of a Thrivent Action Grant after a Ferndale High School teacher described buying protein bars by the case for hungry students, and the church is within walking distance of the school.
Music That Fills the Sanctuary
Music has been central to worship at Christ Lutheran from the very beginning. A choir first rehearsed on February 15, 1968, at the home of Jon and Joanne Donnellan, and Joanne directed the choir for more than forty years while continuing to offer her gifts as a violinist. The church has also been blessed with strong praise teams and instrumentalists who share their talents weekly. Music Director Don Clausen, a retired music teacher who served elementary and secondary classrooms in Ellensburg, Port Angeles, Bellevue, and Issaquah and who supervised student teachers for Western Washington University, joined CLC in December 2022 and rekindled a robust music ministry.
The Memorial Garden, Labyrinth, and Columbarium
The Memorial Garden and Columbarium was established on the church grounds around 2014 as a resting place for the cremains of loved ones and a sanctuary for remembrance, contemplation, meditation, and prayer. Niches may be purchased in advance or at the time of a loved one's death, and memorial plaques for those whose remains are located elsewhere are also available. A fountain and labyrinth within the garden serve to remind visitors of their life and journey with Christ.
Pastors, Staff, and Council
The Rev. Pastor Leigh DeVries leads the congregation. Born and raised in Nashville as the youngest daughter in a long line of Presbyterian ministers, Pastor Leigh studied Religious Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, served two years as a non-ordained youth pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, attended Princeton Theological Seminary, served as Associate Director of the Bend Youth Collective in Oregon, and spent five years as Associate Pastor for Youth and Their Families at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church before receiving the call to Christ Lutheran in August 2024.
Don Clausen serves as Music Director, Shay Andersen as Parish Administrator, and the Rev. Liza Okan as Preschool Director, supported by preschool teacher Asia Roman and preschool assistant Daisy Ghiring. The Congregation Council is led by President David Soderlund and Vice President Jo Ann Philpot, with committee representatives covering Evangelism, Fellowship, Parish Education, Preschool, Property Management, Social Concerns, Stewardship, and Worship and Music.
Sharing Space with the Community
Christ Lutheran's building, refreshed by the 2018 remodel, is available to rent for weddings, celebrations of life, interment services, and single or multi-room gatherings. The facility includes the sanctuary, Fireside Room, Fellowship Hall, classrooms, and accessible restrooms. Building Use forms are available through the church office.
Visiting Christ Lutheran Church
The church building sits at 5904 Vista Drive in Ferndale, with a mailing address of PO Box 845, Ferndale, WA 98248. Sunday worship begins at 9:30 AM, preceded by a Fellowship Coffee Hour at 9:15 AM. Office hours during the summer are Thursday from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, or by appointment; the office is closed most national holidays. For general questions, the office can be reached at 360-384-1422 or info@clcferndale.org. Giving is available online, services are livestreamed on YouTube, and a weekly newsletter keeps members and friends informed of upcoming events, education offerings, and service opportunities.