Holy Cross Lutheran Church sits on the corner of Nevada and Cozza on the north side of Spokane, Washington, a stretch of the city that has changed a great deal since three sister Missouri Synod congregations decided in 1948 that the growing neighborhoods to the north needed their own church. The congregation that grew out of that decision is now in its third generation of ministry, and the building at 7307 N. Nevada has been its home since 1990. Members describe themselves as a friendly, family-oriented church where the door is open wide and the Bible is taken at its word.
Planting a Church on the North Side
Spokane was growing rapidly in the years after World War II, and the city's Missouri Synod Lutherans noticed that families moving to the north side had a long drive to reach St. John's, Pilgrim, or Redeemer. Together, those three churches agreed to plant a daughter congregation. Holy Cross Lutheran Church was received into Synodical membership at the LCMS District Convention held in Portland, Oregon, on June 13 to 16, 1949. The new congregation called its first pastor on June 6, 1949, and dedicated its original building at 5122 N. Division Street on November 6 of that same year.
In its first decades, Holy Cross helped give shape to Lutheran education in the city by being part of the formation of Spokane Lutheran School. By the late 1980s the congregation had outgrown its Division Street home and purchased land at Nevada and Cozza, breaking ground in the fall of 1989. The new building at 7307 N. Nevada was dedicated on May 27, 1990, and members marked a half-century of ministry with a fiftieth-anniversary gathering on June 27, 1999. A reflection written for that milestone put it plainly: "To God Alone Be The Glory!"
Belong, Believe, Bear Fruit
The congregation sums up its purpose in three verbs that echo a verse from John 15. Holy Cross is a place to belong, to believe, and to bear fruit in Jesus. Belonging comes first, and the church works hard at gracious hospitality so that newcomers feel they have a place. Believing means putting trust in what God has said in Scripture, especially the promise that salvation is a gift received by grace through faith. Bearing fruit is the overflow of that belonging and believing, showing up in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and the other qualities that Galatians 5 names as the fruit of the Spirit, and in concrete service to neighbors in Spokane and beyond.
Holy Cross belongs to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The congregation's own statement of belief, however, is short and plain, with each line tied to a passage of Scripture.
What Holy Cross Believes
- The Bible is God's Word to the world and the final authority for faith and life.
- God is the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the God who is love.
- People were created in God's image, but sin has marred that image and broken the relationship with the Creator; God wants to restore all people through Jesus.
- Jesus is true God and true man, Lord and Savior, who took the punishment for sin in his death and rose again so that those who trust him may live in his kingdom forever.
- You are invited to believe in Jesus as your Savior and to become God's child through Baptism.
- Us, the congregation, has been given faith that works through love.
- Grace comes to believers through God's Word, through Baptism, and through the Lord's Supper.
Two Sunday Services, One Lord
The rhythm of the week centers on two Sunday morning services that share the same liturgy and the same pulpit but speak in different musical idioms. At 8:00 AM, the early service is traditional, led by organ, piano, and hymns sung from the hymnal. At 10:30 AM, the later service moves to a more contemporary sound built around piano, guitar, and drums. Both services gather around Word and Sacrament, with Baptism and the Lord's Supper celebrated according to Christ's institution.
Between the two services, at 9:30 AM, the church opens up small group Bible studies for adults, middle schoolers, and high schoolers, with fellowship time woven in so that neighbors who came for the early service and those preparing for the later one can meet in the middle. Visitors who cannot attend in person are not left out. A PDF of the worship folder and a video of the sermon are available each week, typically by Monday, and sermons are shared through the church's YouTube channel.
Youth Ministry That Travels
Holy Cross takes the discipleship of middle and high school students seriously enough that the words "We Care about Youth Discipleship" sit at the top of its youth ministry program. Every Sunday from 9:30 to 10:30 AM, students meet in the youth room for Bible study; a current series is working through the book of Galatians. Once a month, on the second Sunday, the Youth Group gathers from 12:30 to 4:30 PM with lunch provided, and upcoming event details appear in the church's Band app under Holy Cross Lutheran Youth.
The youth ministry has a track record of sending students and adults to the LCMS National Youth Gathering. In July 2022, Holy Cross traveled with Beautiful Savior Lutheran to Houston for the Gathering, where the group helped pack meals at the Houston Food Bank, attended mass events at Minute Maid Park with thousands of other youth, and spent a long, joyful week with peers from across the country. Three years later, the church joined St. John's Lutheran for the 2025 Gathering in New Orleans, where the theme "Endure" was drawn from Hebrews 12.
Coordinating all of this is Jaye Dryden, the Youth and Family Ministries Coordinator, who came to Holy Cross in July 2025 after serving at St. Luke's Lutheran in Federal Way, Washington. She brings experience in missions, community outreach, discipleship, and summer camp, and is passionate about helping people see how God is at work in their own lives. She also keeps a hand in a small non-profit she co-founded, which is building a school in Liberia, West Africa.
Worship Leaders and Music Ministry
Music at Holy Cross is shared between two gifted pianists who each lead different services. Debi McBride, the organist, pianist, and praise team leader for the traditional service, grew up at St. John's Lutheran in Spokane, where she first developed her musical abilities, and joined Holy Cross in 1991. She and her husband Brian are active in the life of the church, and the family enjoys camping and boating together.
Heather Selset leads the contemporary praise team from the piano on Sunday mornings. She and her husband Lee live in Suncrest, where Heather works part-time from home doing background investigations and streaming cozy video games and artwork. A graduate of Concordia University, Ann Arbor, with a bachelor's degree in Music Education, Heather uses her training week after week even as she manages the daily realities of fibromyalgia. She is grateful that Holy Cross gives her a way to keep doing what she was trained for.
Choir music and congregational song are also carried by laypeople. Mark Werfelmann, the Visitation Deacon, has been an active member of Holy Cross since his confirmation in 1973, sings in the choir, and occasionally serves as cantor and liturgist.
Pastor Shaun Adams and the Pastoral Team
The pastor of Holy Cross is the Rev. Shaun Adams, who was called by the congregation in August 2025 and installed that fall. A Spokane native, Pastor Shaun served in the U.S. Army with tours in Germany and Texas, then returned to the Pacific Northwest to attend Washington State University. Before entering the ministry, he spent years with the regional office for Lowe's Home Improvement, serving stores across Washington, Idaho, and Montana. He and his wife Janna were married at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Spokane, where they had met, and he later began his pastoral formation at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, supporting his family during those years with a home inspection company of his own. He was ordained and installed as an associate pastor in January 2021.
Pastor Shaun and Janna have three children, and the family enjoys camping, hiking, and traveling to national parks. Janna works for the U.S. Air Force at Fairchild Air Force Base. In his free moments, Pastor Shaun plays volleyball, watches Dodgers baseball, and tries new recipes on his family. His guiding Bible verse is Ephesians 4:11, and he sees his primary calling as equipping the members of Holy Cross to serve God by serving one another and the greater Spokane community.
Helping in that work is Vicar Bryan Mann, who was assigned to Holy Cross in March 2026. Bryan is pursuing certification and ordination through Concordia Seminary St. Louis in the Specific Ministry Pastor (SMP) program. He and his wife and children make their home in Spokane Valley.
Visitation, Stephen Ministry, and Prayer
For members who can no longer come to church, Mark Werfelmann serves as Holy Cross's primary Visitation Deacon. Mark grew up in the congregation, where his own father served as vacancy pastor in the early 1970s, and he was confirmed by his father in 1973. After graduating from Eastern Washington University and serving in the U.S. Air Force from 1988 to 1994, he returned to Holy Cross and has facilitated LifeLight Bible classes there since 1996. He is also a trained and certified Stephen Minister, was elected to the Board of Elders in 2004, and completed the Leadership Advancement Program before serving for many years as a Licensed Lay Deacon in the Northwest District of the LCMS. He and his wife Kristine were married in 2002, and their son Nathan is currently at Washington State University.
Anyone can send prayer requests to the congregation through a dedicated prayer list email, and the church takes seriously the long Lutheran practice of carrying one another's concerns before the Lord.
Son-Shine Early Childhood Center
Just down the hallway from the sanctuary, the Son-Shine Early Childhood Center operates as an outreach and ministry of Holy Cross to the families of north Spokane. The preschool shares the church's campus and extends the congregation's presence into the neighborhood through the steady, daily work of caring for and teaching young children. Parents looking for a preschool connected to a church family will find Son-Shine a natural fit with the congregation's broader ministry to children and youth.
A Community Garden and Loving Service in North Spokane
Out the back of the property, a community garden is part of the way Holy Cross puts its faith into action in the neighborhood. Along with the preschool, Sunday morning ministries, and a quilt group that meets to stitch together, the garden is one more reason people in the surrounding neighborhoods interact with Holy Cross during the week. The congregation's stated vision is to lead with loving service to bring the Spokane community closer to Christ, and members see these outward-facing ministries as the natural fruit of belonging and believing.
Women of the congregation are active in the Lutheran Women's Missionary League (LWML), and the church's newsletter regularly lists opportunities to plug into a life of loving service, both to Spokane and to the broader Inland Northwest, the country, and the world. Recent sermon series such as "Resurrection Realities" have walked the congregation through the practical implications of the gospel for everyday life: identity, relationships, suffering, evangelism, and the Christian's struggle against evil.
Music, Quilts, and LWML
Beyond Sunday worship, the women's ministry at Holy Cross includes a quilting group and a robust LWML presence. Members of the quilting group turn fabric into finished projects that are distributed through LCMS channels to people in need, while the LWML circle gathers for Bible study, fellowship, and mission support. Staci Litrel, who serves part-time in the church office and is also active in the quilting group and LWML, is one of many members whose long history with the congregation (she and her family returned to Holy Cross from Pilgrim Lutheran in 2022) shapes the warm, intergenerational character of the church.
What to Expect on a First Visit
Holy Cross wants first-time visitors to feel at ease. There is no dress code and no expectation of membership to attend; jeans and work clothes are as welcome as anything else. Each week a sermon is preached from Scripture as the final authority for faith and life, and the congregation worships through song, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper in keeping with Christ's institution. Classes and ministries are available for every age range, and special events through the year give the whole family additional ways to connect to the church body.
The church office is open Monday through Thursday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM and on Fridays from 8:00 AM to noon. Visitors who want to plan ahead can fill out a contact form or use the "Plan a Visit" option to let the church know they are coming. Donations can be made through the church, and members may also direct gifts to specific funds such as the Living Stones Building Fund by calling the church office.
A Neighborhood Church with a Long View
Three-quarters of a century after its founding, Holy Cross Lutheran Church remains a neighborhood church in the best sense of the word. The same Spokane families who started the Sunday school and folded the bulletins back in 1949 have been followed by their children and grandchildren, and the work of being a Lutheran church on the north side has changed with the neighborhood without losing its shape. The charter members built on faith, the congregation's own history reflects, and over the years faith and trust in the Lord and Savior have sustained and built up the believers at Holy Cross. The future of the congregation, that same history says, rests in the hands of the Lord.