A Reconciling Congregation on Dixie Highway
Faith Lutheran Church sits along a busy stretch of Dixie Highway in Homewood, a south-suburban village in Cook County, Illinois. The congregation identifies itself as a Reconciling in Christ church, a designation that signals an explicit welcome to people of every sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, race, culture, age, ability, and economic background. That welcome is not a footnote; it shapes the bulletin, the language of the announcements, and even the calendar, where a monthly LGTBQIA+ Table Meeting is listed alongside worship and Bible study.
The congregation belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), part of the Lutheran World Federation's community of roughly 75 million Christians worldwide, and is one of about 200 ELCA congregations across Chicagoland and more than 10,000 across the country. Within that larger body, Faith has chosen to be known locally for a few specific things: open Communion, a teaching tradition that honors questions, a fully accessible building, and the long memory of a 1972 decision that made it a first in American Lutheranism.
Sunday Mornings at 10:30
Worship is held on Sundays at 10:30 am, with a relaxed summer schedule of 9:30 am between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Services are led by Pastor Amy Wiegert and follow a liturgical shape, gathered around word and sacrament. The order includes a printed invitation to the Communion table that is read aloud every week:
The table of the Lord is made ready for those who love him, and for those who want to love him more. So come, you who have much faith and you who have little, you who have been here often and you who have not been here long, you who have tried to follow and you who have failed. Come.
Each service closes with the same dismissal: "Go in peace. Serve the Lord." It is a deliberate rhythm: worship that sends people outward into service rather than treating it as a private experience.
For those who cannot travel, services are livestreamed on Faith Lutheran's YouTube channel, and past services remain viewable in the channel's archive.
Christian Education for Every Age
Education is built into the Sunday rhythm. Between Labor Day and Memorial Day, Sunday School runs from 9:30 to 10:30 am for children ages 3 through sixth grade, and a professionally staffed nursery is available for the youngest visitors. Classes open with the day's Bible lesson in age-appropriate groups, then gather together for songs and a closing prayer. Teachers use art projects, games, and other hands-on activities to bring a Bible-based curriculum to life.
At the same hour on Sunday mornings, a Parenting Group meets to discuss faith and the vocation of raising children in an ever-changing world. Confirmation-age young people (seventh and eighth graders) gather on Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8:00 pm for two-year confirmation classes that mix conversation about big questions of faith with service projects, fellowship, and prayer. They also take part in the Sunday School program on Sunday mornings.
Bible Study and Adult Learning
On Wednesdays from 1:00 to 2:00 pm, the congregation gathers for Bible Scripture Sharing, a small-group hour that complements the larger rhythms of the week.
Adult education is woven into the Sunday morning schedule as well, with an Adult Forum at 9:30 am during the school year (and at 8:15 am during the summer). Pastors and lay leaders take turns guiding sessions on the Bible, theological books, and special topics. Bible study and faith-sharing small groups are also formed from time to time, usually for six- or eight-week sessions, so adults can dig into a topic without committing to a year.
The Building, the Accessibility, the Parking
The church building at 18645 Dixie Highway is fully accessible, so anyone who comes to worship, work, or learn can move through the space together. The congregation makes a point of saying so plainly: a wheelchair user, a parent with a stroller, or a visitor who needs a seat near the door is not an afterthought. Parking is available on site, and visitors are invited to come as they are. The atmosphere of the sanctuary tends toward the traditional Lutheran style, without being stiff, and the building has grown through several expansions since the first structure was dedicated in 1953.
A 1952 Beginning in the VFW Hall
Faith was founded in 1952 by a group of households who began worship in the VFW Hall in Homewood. Within a year, property was purchased at 186th Place and Dixie Highway, a first building was erected, and the congregation dedicated the structure in 1953. The congregation has stayed on that same corner ever since, through several building expansions that have shaped the present-day campus. In the language of the congregation, "we've been there ever since," a phrase that captures both the geographic rootedness and the institutional steadiness of a community now in its eighth decade.
The 1972 Call of Rev. Karen Knutson
Faith carries an unusual piece of American Lutheran history. In 1972, the congregation became the first Lutheran church in the United States to call a woman, the Rev. Karen Knutson, to a regular ordained pastoral position. That historic vote took place in the same sanctuary in which the congregation worships every Sunday. The story is not tucked in a sidebar; it is part of how the congregation introduces itself and continues to shape its self-understanding as a community that takes seriously the call of every baptized person.
Pastor Amy Wiegert
Faith's senior pastor is the Rev. Amy Wiegert, who grew up in northern Colorado, attended Coe College (BA in religion and psychology), and earned her MDiv at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She served congregations in northern Illinois and Metro Chicago for 20 years as a solo and associate pastor before coming to Faith in fall 2017 and beginning her work as senior pastor in fall 2022. She points to the ways the Gospel comes alive in the present day and connects God's people to community, working from a deep understanding that God calls people into shared joy and shared work and that God is moving through ordinary days and relationships toward deeper freedom and love.
Her spouse, Doug Kenshol, serves as executive director of South Suburban PADS, a non-profit that works to end and prevent homelessness in the south suburbs. Together with their two children they live in Homewood, and the family's connections to local social-service work shape the congregation's sense of being part of the wider community.
Beliefs: Lutheran Distinctives
Faith describes Lutheran Christianity in three movements. First, an emphasis on God's grace: God's love and forgiveness are gifts, received rather than earned. Second, a focus on vocation, the everyday calling to be an instrument of God in daily work, household life, and the ordinary places where God meets people. Third, a tradition of reform: the Lutheran Reformers proclaimed ecclesia semper reformanda est, "the church is always reforming." That last phrase is more than a slogan; it shows up in the congregation's willingness to revisit its own practices, including the 1972 call and the contemporary work of anti-racism, social and economic justice, and environmental care.
Service Beyond the Walls
The congregation's statement of welcome names three commitments that go beyond the sanctuary door: anti-racism; social and economic justice; and environmental care. Members are involved in many kinds of service work across the south suburbs, and the church closes each worship service with a charge to take that work into the world. The calendar includes monthly LGTBQIA+ Table Meetings on Thursday evenings, where members and visitors are explicitly invited to join the conversation. Trivia Nights and other fellowship events happen periodically, and the bulletin board carries a steady stream of one-off gatherings listed on the public event calendar.
Vacation Bible School: Rainforest Falls
Each summer, Faith hosts Vacation Bible School. The 2026 program was called Rainforest Falls, a rainforest-themed week held June 8 to 12, 9:00 am to noon, designed for children to "step through the mist" into a setting of wild waterfalls, towering trees, and colorful creatures while discovering the nature of God and what it means to be rooted in a relationship with their creator. Adults are welcome and needed as well. A photo gallery captures the highlights of the week.
Office, Calendar, and Staying in Touch
The church office is open Monday through Friday, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. The calendar of weekly events is published online, and the community maintains a monthly email newsletter, an active Facebook page, and a YouTube channel with both livestreamed services and an archive of past services. Visitors who want to learn more can attend a service in person, watch a service on YouTube, or sign up for the newsletter.
For a first-time visitor, the practical details are simple. Come to 18645 Dixie Highway on a Sunday morning at 10:30 am (or 9:30 am during the summer). Park in the lot. The building is accessible. Dress is whatever you would wear to a community gathering; you will not be out of place. Children are welcome in worship, and there is a professionally staffed nursery for the youngest. Communion is open, and the table is read aloud every week. If you cannot make it in person, services are livestreamed on YouTube.
An ELCA Congregation with a Local Memory
Faith Lutheran Church is at once a typical ELCA congregation, with liturgical worship, Sunday School, confirmation, Bible study, Vacation Bible School, and an active calendar, and a particular one, shaped by the Homewood-Flossmoor community it has served since 1952 and by the decisions that have marked its history. The 1972 call of Rev. Karen Knutson, the explicit welcome extended through the Reconciling in Christ program, the accessibility of the building, and the steady involvement of members in service work across the south suburbs together give the congregation its distinctive character. Visitors will find a church that takes its liturgy seriously, asks its questions openly, and sends its people back into the week with the words "Go in peace. Serve the Lord."