Christ the Redeemer Lutheran Church sits on Brecksville Road in the southern Cuyahoga County city of Brecksville, Ohio, just a short drive south of Cleveland. Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the congregation lives by a simple motto, "Praising God, Serving Others," that has shaped its identity from the day it was formally received into the Ohio Synod in 1973 through to its 53rd anniversary this year. CRLC, as the church is known locally, confesses the Triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and grounds its teaching in the canonical Scriptures, the ecumenical creeds, the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, and the other writings in the Book of Concord. That confessional foundation shapes a packed weekly rhythm of worship, education, music, youth work, and hands-on service to the wider community.
Two Sunday Services and a Sunday School in Between
Sunday is the heart of the week at CRLC. Two identical in-person services are held at 8:00 AM and 10:30 AM, with Sunday school classes for all ages meeting in the 9:15 hour between them. Children in PreK3 through 5th grade meet in the opening room on the lower level for a program that runs from the first Sunday after Labor Day through the last Sunday before Memorial Day. Confirmation students in 6th through 9th grade gather with Pastor Randy O'Donnell in the confirmation classroom, and high schoolers meet as YAC, Youth and Christ, in their own space on the lower level. Adults take part in a parallel Sunday morning program that includes book discussion, Bible study, and topical classes. During the 10:30 service, after the children's sermon, an adult takes the younger children to the Children's Church room for an age-appropriate lesson and play, and they return to the sanctuary before communion. Services are also recorded and available on demand for those who cannot be present.
CRLC's services follow a three-year lectionary, the basis for hymn selections, prayers, confession texts, biblical lessons, and the liturgical calendar. The congregation observes the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost, with the same appointed readings used across the Lutheran and Episcopal traditions. Lay readers, communion assistants, acolytes, ushers, greeters, cantors, choir members, and instrumentalists all take part, and families are encouraged to step into one of the many volunteer roles posted on the message center.
Ruah and the Contemporary Stream
Alongside the regular liturgical services, CRLC weaves contemporary worship elements into Sundays throughout the year. Several times a year the congregation gathers for a service called Ruah, planned with diverse musical, prayer, and visual elements that unite in a less-formal style to appeal to a variety of ages and people who are at different places on their journey as Christians. Acolyte training has been refreshed to bring more youth into the liturgical life of the church, and Music Director James Alfieri builds the music program around a clear philosophy of ministry that values serving over spotlight.
A Sanctuary of Glass and Pipes
The sanctuary at CRLC carries two artistic programs that together set the tone of the worship space. The stained glass was designed to do something different from typical church windows. Instead of telling biblical stories, the glass throughout the Sanctuary and the Gathering Space portrays the spiritual journey that children of God travel, the meaning of the sacraments, and the specific ministries to which CRLC's members are called. The round Chancel window, dedicated on May 26, 1991, places the lily (symbolic of the purity of Christ and the flower of the Resurrection) at the center, surrounded by biblical flowers native to the Holy Land. Two side panel windows, dedicated on May 12, 2002, add flowers whose names carry Trinitarian, christological, and sacramental meanings: the Christmas Rose, the Mustard Seed, Jacob's Ladder, and the Madonna Lily. In the Gathering Space above the interior entrance doors, the two sacraments are depicted, with the shell of rebirth for Holy Baptism and sheaves of wheat with a cluster of grapes for Holy Communion, framed by a larger window of a stylized world encircled by two doves as a reminder of the Great Commission. Surrounding panels in the Gathering Space and the Sanctuary continue the themes of worship, music, fellowship, serving, Christian education, property, communication, evangelism, and the Eucharistic bread and wine, with the fountain of water in the Sanctuary mirroring the bowl used at baptisms at CRLC. Poremba Stained Glass Studio, Inc., was responsible for the workmanship, and the Memorial Fund continues to support new glass.
The pipe organ is a tracker organ built by the Schlicker Organ Company of Buffalo, New York in 1973. It was designed on Baroque organ plans for clarity of sound and has enough variety to lead worship and serve a wide body of organ literature. The instrument came to CRLC from St. John Lutheran Church in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, where members of the congregation, an Organ Task Force, and the Holtkamp Organ Company of Cleveland raised the funds and did the work of moving it, cleaning it, refurbishing it, and refitting it for the sanctuary. It was installed in late 2011. The organ has 21 ranks of pipes, three divisions (pedal and two keyboards), and 1,025 pipes in all, ranging from less than six inches to eight feet in length, with most pipes of metal and a few ranks of wood.
From 141 Pioneers to 53 Years
CRLC's story is rooted in a Lutheran mission to the Brecksville area. In early 1971, the Lutheran Church in America determined that a new mission should be planted there, and Paul F. Swartz was called in August 1972 to serve as pastor-developer. The first worship service, with Holy Communion, was held at Brecksville United Church of Christ on February 4, 1973, with 141 people present. Sunday Church School began on March 25, 1973, with 62 students, and the first congregational meeting took place on May 20, 1973. On May 27, 1973, Christ the Redeemer Lutheran Church was formally organized with 120 baptized members and received into the Ohio Synod, LCA, as the 345th congregation in Ohio. Paul F. Swartz resigned in late 1975, and Robert E. Springer was called in June 1976, beginning a 39-year pastorate.
For its first sixteen years the congregation worshipped without a building of its own, dedicating an outdoor worship space on the Route 21 property in September 1986 and participating in the CROP Walk and the Bloodmobile, two of the parish traditions that continue to this day. Ground was broken on June 25, 1989, and the first service was held in the new building on April 8, 1990, followed by a dedication on May 20. The chancel organ and the chancel window were dedicated in the early years, and the side glass panels followed in 2002. A 2000 building addition doubled the overall space, opening extra offices, an expanded fellowship hall, and many educational classrooms. All God's Children Christian Preschool opened in September 2007 and operated on site for twelve years before closing in May 2019. Pastor Springer retired on July 31, 2010, after 39 faithful years of ministry. On Reformation Sunday, October 30, 2011, the congregation called Pastor Randy O'Donnell, who was installed on January 29, 2012, and has served since. The 40th anniversary was celebrated on May 5, 2013, the 50th on May 21, 2023, and the current pastoral team has been guiding a 53rd-anniversary year that looks toward a new mission investment in 2027.
Confirmation, YAC, and the Mission Trip
CRLC's middle and high school youth form a large part of the congregation. Confirmation classes run for 6th through 9th graders, with confirmations typically taking place on Reformation Sunday in late October. After confirmation, students are folded into the high school Youth and Christ group (YAC), which meets at 9:15 AM on Sundays and on its own calendar through the year.
Youth Director Paul Travaglianti, a lifelong Brecksville resident and Cleveland State University graduate who has led the program since 2011, organizes an annual week-long mission trip each summer (with the exception of National Gathering years) to a city typically four to six hours from the church. The youth travel with a Christian-based organization, begin each day with devotions, serve youth and adults in the host city, and close the day with fellowship, dinner, an evening of service, and worship. The 2025 trip took the group to Indianapolis, and an overview was shared with the congregation on a Sunday in September. Back in Brecksville, the program is also known for its 30-Hour Famine lock-in, a Christmas Candy lock-in fundraiser, pancake breakfasts around the Easter and Christmas Pageant services, Rivalry Sunday between the pastor (a Steelers fan) and the mostly Browns-rooting congregation, and outings that have ranged from bowling and whirlyball to scavenger hunts, corn mazes, movie nights, and campfires.
Faithful Readers, Ladies Bible Study, and Adult Classes
Adults at CRLC keep their own weekly calendar. The Ladies Bible Study meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 10:00 AM, currently working through excerpts from a book on service and renewal written by ELCA Pastor Phyllis N. Kersten and ELCA Deacon E. Louise Williams. Faithful Readers, the long-running book discussion group, gathers on the third Wednesday of the month at 10:00 AM, with the 2026-2027 reading list. The adult Sunday school class at 9:15 AM, led by Pastor Randy or a volunteer from the congregation, has walked the parish through an extended series on the Acts of the Apostles and a separate "Basics of Faith" series that covers the components of worship, the sacraments, Martin Luther, Lutheran theology of Law and Gospel, the Christian life, and the ELCA. Both series are recorded and remain available for viewing.
The Parish Nurse, a Monday Yoga Class, and Health Ministry
Jill Koubal serves as CRLC's parish nurse, the visible expression of a Health Ministry that connects the parish to a wider network of faith community nursing. A lifelong Lutheran who received her BSN from Valparaiso University and trained through the Fairview Hospital Parish Nurse program, she provides health counseling, health education programs, home and hospital visits, bereavement support, and a community resource function, and she participates in healing services. The Health Ministry also functions as a Stephen Ministry leader, a Safe Sitter trainer, an American Heart Association CPR instructor, and a facilitator of a "Circle of Life" holistic health program and chronic disease self-management courses. Parish nurse notes regularly reflect on topics such as vitamin D, immune health, and the integration of body, mind, and spirit.
On Monday evenings at 7:00 PM, instructor Jenna Waltz leads a yoga class in the building. Open to all ages and abilities, the class is offered on a free-will offering basis, with members and non-members welcome to come and bring family and friends.
The Coat Closet: Serving the Wider Community
Where the parish nurse cares for the body and spirit of the individual, the Serving Ministry reaches out to the wider neighborhood. The coat closet and the gathering space shelves at CRLC serve as collection points for several ongoing drives that rotate around the year. The Redeemer Crisis Center in Cleveland receives regular food donations (canned soups with pull-tab tops, complete meals in cans, tuna, peanut butter, hygiene items, toilet paper, lamps, lightbulbs, and matching bed linens) to support a Wednesday lunch program that feeds 130 to 150 people. South Hills Lend-A-Hand is the local food pantry serving residents of Brecksville, Broadview Heights, Independence, and Seven Hills who have lived in the community for at least six months, are employed, have a photo ID, and have proof of income, with distributions on the third Saturday of each month. OASIS in Akron receives snack and hygiene items for about 50 youth in its after-school program at the Elms school. Colony Cupboard serves the youth at Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School, with backpacks, pencil pouches, hygiene items, and snacks collected in the wooden BEE box in the Gathering Space.
Members can also volunteer at the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries Men's Shelter computer lab at 2100 Lakeside Avenue in Cleveland on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday mornings and Tuesday afternoons, helping residents with basic computer skills, email, printing, faxing, and resumes. Used cell phones are collected for the Journey Center for Safety and Healing, and aluminum pull-tabs are gathered for Ronald McDonald House charities. Donations to Lutheran World Relief and Lutheran Disaster Response are accepted year-round, with a small 3 percent fee noted for online gifts.
Concerts, Weddings, and a Building to Share
CRLC's building is in regular use beyond Sunday morning. The Music Director maintains a Concerts@CRLC series, with recent and upcoming performances including a graduate and undergraduate bassoon ensemble from the University of Akron and a recital by the Jamaican-born Canadian pianist Maria Thompson Corley, whose career has taken her to the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Carnegie Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and concert halls across North America, Central America, the Caribbean, Bermuda, and Europe. The Concerts@CRLC sponsor form and online giving link support the series.
Weddings are coordinated by a parish wedding coordinator and supported by a wedding information booklet. Members may also reserve the building for personal use, and non-members and outside groups may rent space at posted rates. The Sanctuary holds 175, Fellowship Hall 100, the Gathering Space 30 to 40, the Chapelview Room 25, the Vestry 6, and several classrooms are also available. Outdoors, the property includes a meditative garden with a fountain and an outdoor chapel with altar and benches, where outdoor worship is held on the third Sunday of the month during the summer.
The Pastoral Team
Pastor Randy O'Donnell grew up in Butler, Pennsylvania, graduated from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, where he majored in Sociology and Religion and minored in Ancient Biblical Languages, and received his Master of Divinity from Trinity Lutheran Seminary. He became a Licensed Independent Chemical Dependency Counselor in Ohio and has worked as an inpatient chemical dependency counselor, a camp counselor at Camp Lutherock in North Carolina, and the head of a food pantry in Columbus. Before coming to CRLC, he served three parishes: Grace Lutheran in Lancaster, Ohio, Calvary Lutheran in Chillicothe, Ohio, and David Lutheran in Canal Winchester, Ohio. He and his wife have twin daughters and two younger children.
Music Director James Alfieri holds a Master of Sacred Music from the Graduate Theological Foundation and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Geneva College. A church musician for 25 years who has served Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and United Church of Christ congregations, he also works as a Clinical Laboratory Manager at Summa Health. Parish Nurse Jill Koubal holds a BSN from Valparaiso University, trained through the International Parish Nurse Resource Center, and serves as a co-leader for the Northeast Ohio Faith Community-Parish Nurses organization. Youth Director Paul Travaglianti is a lifelong Brecksville resident, Cleveland State University graduate, and coach who has spent decades in youth ministry. Tonya Pagel serves as Ministry Coordinator, a role created for her; she spent her previous career of 37 years teaching in the Brecksville-Broadview Heights City Schools and has been a member of CRLC for 36 years.
The office is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM and on Friday from 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM, and the office staff handles everything from prayer requests, submitted by email, phone, or a blue card in the pew racks, to facility use and membership inquiries.