A Richfield Church Centered on Three Commitments
Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church sits along Highway 175 in Richfield, a small Washington County community northwest of Milwaukee. For more than fifty years, members of the congregation have shaped a Lutheran presence here whose identity comes from three commitments the church calls Love God, Grow in the Holy Spirit, and Serve Others.
Senior Pastor Mike Matzek, who joined the congregation in 2020 after twelve years as an associate pastor in southern California, frames those commitments plainly. "We aren't defined by worship style or cultural heritage, but by the grace of our God who loves us and calls us to something more than we are today," the church writes. In practice that means a blended congregation that runs both a traditional and a contemporary service on Sunday mornings, teaches the Bible book by book, and pours volunteer hours into local food pantries, recovery ministries and Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes.
Two Sunday Services, Two Musical Traditions
Shepherd of the Hills holds worship at 8:30 AM and 10:30 AM on Sundays, with both services including Holy Communion and lasting about an hour. The 8:30 AM gathering leans traditional, with the church choir and organ carrying classic hymns. The 10:30 AM service features a praise band leading contemporary songs. A livestream rotates between the two services: 8:30 AM on the second and fourth Sundays of the month, 10:30 AM on the first and third Sundays, with the full archive of past sermons kept online for later listening.
The two services share the same preaching and the same communion schedule. Anyone who trusts Him as Lord and Savior is welcome at the table, and children who have not been instructed in communion may come forward for a blessing instead. Visitors are asked to dress however they are comfortable. On Green Bay Packer Sundays you will see plenty of green and gold mixed in with jeans, business casual and Sunday best.
Bible Teaching Book by Book
Preaching at Shepherd of the Hills moves steadily through the Bible. Recent series have walked through Ezekiel under the title "Ezekiel: Ruin and Renewal," covered the Gospel of John in fourteen parts from Palm Sunday through Easter, and tackled the harder stories of the Old Testament in a long-running series titled "Stuff They Left Out of Sunday School," which has included sermons on Balaam and his donkey and the witch of Endor. A newer series, "Questions Jesus Asked," has worked through the Gospel of John passage by passage, including messages on the woman caught in adultery and on John 1, where Jesus asks, "What are you looking for?"
Audio recordings of every sermon are posted, and past series, topics and the specific Bible books preached through are easy to filter on the sermon page. Guest preachers fill the pulpit from time to time; Pastor Dave Uden, for example, preached a summer message from Matthew 9 about Jesus calling Matthew and healing the leader's daughter.
Pastor Mike Matzek and the Leadership Team
Mike Matzek serves as Senior Pastor. Before coming to Richfield he spent twelve years as an associate pastor in southern California, and the move back to the Midwest was, in his words, a homecoming. He and his wife are Midwesterners at heart, and he speaks openly about a passion for working through the Bible and helping people see their place in God's story.
Loriann Matzek is the Director of Contemporary Worship and a regular preacher, often working through Old Testament prophets and the Gospel of John. Nicole Moritz directs the choirs and traditional music and serves as organist, anchoring the 8:30 AM liturgy. Brad Rake directs the contemporary music. Amy Cichon serves as Director of Children's and Youth Ministries, the staff member families touch first when they ask about nursery, Sunday School or confirmation. Sherry Levitsch directs communications and keeps the church's sermon archive, social channels and Sunday bulletins organized.
Confirmation and the Student Ministry
Confirmation at Shepherd of the Hills is a three-year walk through faith for sixth, seventh and eighth graders. The program centers on small groups, regular Bible reading, service projects and community, with the goal that students graduate able to articulate who they are and how God has called them. Each fall the Confirmation Kickoff and Orientation gathers students and at least one parent for dessert, an overview of the middle school ministry and a class schedule, and includes acolyte training for every sixth grader and any new confirmation student.
High school students gather for the church's IMPACT ministry, a place to keep applying their faith, to ask hard things, and to build community. Sunday nights are the regular meeting rhythm for both middle and high school groups, with confirmation small group nights adding to the calendar during the school year.
A Place Built for Kids
Children are welcome in worship at any service. During the sermon, parents can release younger children into two staffed spaces. The nursery, staffed by trained caregivers, is open for children from birth through age three. Children's Church, for ages four through eight, uses age-appropriate Bible lessons, songs and activities, and children return to the Sanctuary at the end of the sermon.
Sunday School runs from September through May for preschoolers through fifth grade and is staffed by teachers and helpers who serve long, planned, and faithful tenures. The children's ministry team also leads a Vacation Bible School program during the summer, drawing on the same Bible-based, hands-on style that marks the rest of the children's work.
The Children's and Youth Ministries Director, Amy Cichon, is the main point of contact for families wanting more information, and registration for Sunday School and confirmation is handled through online forms.
Adult Groups and Care
Adults at Shepherd of the Hills find their next step through small groups that study the Bible and walk alongside one another. The Care Ministry is the church's prayer and support arm during the harder stretches, providing individual prayer after most Sunday services and connecting people with support groups when life brings illness, loss or other difficulties. The Prayer Ministry team is easy to spot on Sunday mornings: members wear prayer ministry lanyards and are available to pray with anyone who has a request, big or small.
Welcoming Connections, the church's hospitality team, staffs the Welcome Center on Sundays to help visitors find their way, answer questions and hand out information. Anyone walking in for the first time can expect a friendly face at the door and coffee after the service.
Local Mission: From Blood Pressure to the Salvation Army Kettle
The Missions ministry at Shepherd of the Hills runs the local mission effort and is organized around three circles: care for one another, care for the neighborhood, and care for the ends of the earth. Inside the building, a volunteer Health Team offers occasional blood pressure screenings after worship and prays for individuals who ask. The Hospitality and Prayer teams are the most visible expressions of that on a Sunday morning.
In the surrounding community, the church works directly with food pantries in Slinger, Menomonee Falls and Germantown to keep shelves stocked. A partnership with Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin turns the building into a donation site four times a year. The congregation regularly prepares and shares dinner at Serenity Inn, a long-term residential recovery ministry for men in Milwaukee overcoming addiction. Members also cook and serve meals through The Gathering, which provides food to people without homes in Milwaukee. Hands and Feet of Jesus organizes local service trips for those who cannot travel, helping families with home repairs and pressing needs. A knitting and crocheting group produces hats, scarves and blankets distributed through local charities, and every holiday season the congregation fills Salvation Army Red Kettle slots outside area businesses.
Global Mission and Operation Christmas Child
The global arm of the missions ministry reaches from rural Wisconsin all the way to East Africa. The church partners with Shishitony Parish, a sister congregation in Meru, Tanzania, sharing prayers, financial support and visits. Members have travelled to serve with Eight Days of Hope in the wake of disasters along the Gulf Coast, in the Mississippi and Alabama tornado zones and in the floods of Cedar Rapids and Nashville. Simple Hope Tanzania, Soles for Jesus, the Mt. Meru Coffee project and Compassion International extend the work into nutrition, footwear, sustainable agriculture and child sponsorship.
The most visible global ministry is Operation Christmas Child. Each fall the congregation packs hundreds of shoebox gifts filled with school supplies, toys and a book about Jesus translated into the child's language. A Richfield-area packing event pulls together area churches for the work. In 2025 alone, 1,288 shoeboxes were packed at Shepherd of the Hills and another 15,876 shoeboxes came through the church during National Collection Week, a combined 17,164 children receiving a box. During the year, donations of money, hand-sewn items, beaded craft kits and Christmas cards fund the project.
What Shepherd of the Hills Believes
The congregation identifies with the Lutheran Reformation and holds to grace through faith alone, Scripture alone and Christ alone. The Bible is taught as God's Word, without error in the original manuscripts, and as the final authority in matters of faith and life. God is confessed as one God eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully human, and His death on the cross is the ground of redemption. The Holy Spirit's gifts are described as available and active today for every Christian, edifying and empowering believers for God's work.
Salvation is taught as a free gift of grace received through faith alone, with assurance of eternal life and a lifelong process of growth the Bible calls sanctification. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are taught as sacraments instituted by Jesus in which God truly meets them, with faith essential for their benefit. The church is described as one true Church made up of all who trust in Christ, and the hand of fellowship is extended to every member of that universal Christian Church. Christ will return in power to judge the living and the dead.
Visiting Shepherd of the Hills
Visitors coming for the first time will find a large parking lot with handicapped spaces near the main doors. Greeters are stationed at the entrance, and someone is always at the Welcome Center to answer questions. The Sanctuary is just past the Welcome Center on the right, and visitors are invited to sit wherever they are comfortable. Both services include a sermon, congregational prayer, music and Holy Communion. Nursery for birth through age three and Children's Church for ages four through eight are available during the sermon at both services. After the service, the church invites everyone to stay for coffee.
Church office hours run Monday through Thursday from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM, with Friday closed. The office is located at 1350 Highway 175 in Richfield, and the phone number is (262) 628-2633. Online, sermons are livestreamed and archived, and the YouTube channel, Facebook page and Instagram feed keep regular contact with the surrounding community. Giving can be done online, dropped in the offering basket or sent by post. Those who want a head start can fill out a short "I'm New" form online so the church knows to look out for them on Sunday morning.