1990

Pastor Remo Madsen
Pastor Bill Roesler
Pastor Greg Junghans

PASTOR REMO MADSEN

Pastor Bonnie Arends served temporarily until we could another full-time Pastor. Pastor Remo Madsen, who was then serving Zion Lutheran Church in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, was called to come to survey our needs and consider a move to Calgary. After prayerful consideration, Pastor Madsen accepted our call and arrived with his wife Joanne and 4 children in September, 1990.

Pastor Madsen was installed as our Pastor on September 30, 1990. One of his first priorities was to get acquainted with the members by visiting everyone in their homes. In the winter of 1991, Remo and Jo Ann introduced us to a 10-week course on Our Christina Faith. Expecting a response of about ten or twelve, they were overwhelmed when at least 40 signed up.

This was followed up by The Master's Plan in the spring. Every Sunday new faces were showing up at FIRST LUTHERAN and on Membership Sunday May 26, 40 to 45 adults and children joined our church. With attendance increasing, a strain was put on the Sunday School.

To relieve the pressure, 2 portable classrooms were purchased at a cost of $22,500. As with most projects, nothing runs smoothly. We had planned to have facilities ready for the fall program in early September. Getting approval from the Municipal District of Rockyview and development permits required us to move our dates back. We had community groups waiting patiently to rent the facilities during the week but the cold weather and snow delayed us once again. Since we did not have the finances to hire labor to fix up the portables, a lot of volunteer help was needed to complete them. The rentals from the community groups helped defray the cost of purchase and operation.

This was a short-lived solution. The attendance at our worship was increasing in church and Sunday school. Pastor Remo felt the need for more worship services. He tried three services, but the attendance at the third service was quite low. He stayed with two - one traditional service and the other contemporary.

We started thinking about expanding out present facilities. A committee was formed to study the possibility of renovation. It didn't take us long to realize that the structure was built in such a way as to make expansion of the existing sanctuary impossible even with extensive renovations.

There seemed to be no alternative but to build a new sanctuary if we were to meet the needs or our ever-growing congregation and Sunday school. Our office space was overcrowded as well. To meet our present needs and with increasing attendance, we found we needed a building that would seat approximately 450. Sunday school needs would have to be met as well as office space. Our office was inadequate and overcrowded and we had only a small corner of the narthex for a library. We needed space for offices, meeting rooms, and a Pastor's office. We decided to convert our present sanctuary for those purposes but our budget had no allowance for the changes.

Woodcliffe United had just gone through some extensive renovations and additions. They had hired a professional fundraiser. David Jackson of Stewardship Dynamics Colorado, and were pleased with their successful campaign to raise funds. Consequently, the congregation hired David Jackson to begin his fundraising campaign called "Vision 2000; Imagine Tomorrow."
The 3-year campaign with the slogan "Not equal Giving, But Equal Sacrifice" had a Challenge Goal of $400,000 and a Victory Goal of $500,000. Our Challenge Goal of $400,000 had been met by the 1996 year end.

Optimism was in the air when architects Woods Parker presented us with a number of designs of churches they had worked on and with. At the congregational meeting in September 1996, a motion was passed that we proceed with full development of the Woods Parker design to start construction in the spring of 1997 with a full completion date by the fall of that year. The cost of the new sanctuary and renovations would be approximately $750,000.

On March 16, 1997, under sunny Alberta blue skies, Pastor Madsen led a group of more than a hundred to break sod for our new sanctuary. Blain Holstein, president of Church Council, Alderman Dave Bronconnier from the City of Calgary, Bishop Stephen Kristenson of the Alberta District, and Myrtle Johnson (one of our oldest active members) participated in a ceremony to officially break ground for this challenging project. Pastor Madsen acknowledged that it was an emotional day for him - a dream becoming more and more real.

Spirits were high now. The time was early spring, with summer and good weather for building ahead. However, the wheels of progress don't always turn to our satisfaction. The spring and summer turned into fall. Many discussions were held with the architect and the City. Our Vision 2000 committee met on a weekly basis. Tenders were put out; designs were presented by the architect; changes had to be made to keep costs down. PCL was chosen to be our builder.

September 5, 1997! What a joy it was that PCL had started to move their equipment on site. It now looked like we would see some progress, no matter how minor. Plans were to build the new sanctuary and then proceed to renovate our existing facilities for offices, meeting rooms, Sunday school, etc. The contractor informed us we could keep our costs down by working them both together. A decision was made to set up our sanctuary in the gymnasium, so that the workmen could proceed to renovate the sanctuary space.

The City of Calgary was in the midst of a building boom by this time and tradesmen were hard to come by. Our hopes were to be in our new place of worship by Christmas, but construction was slow. On March 17, 1998, one year and one day after breaking ground, a capacity crowd gathered to dedicate to the Glory of God FIRST LUTHERAN's new place of worship.

The congregation continued to grow with numerous opportunities for Bible study and fellowship and programs for all ages from young children to seniors groups.

In September of 2002 Pastor Remo and Jo Ann Madsen were called to new ministry opportunities. Pastor Bill Roesler and Pastor Greg Junghans fulfilled these ministry roles until God provided 'First' a new Senior Pastor.

PASTOR BILL ROESLER

Pastor Roesler was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. On June 2, 1955 he married Gretchen Schlutz. In the fall of that year, they went to Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa; a school of the American Lutheran Church. Between their second and third year, they interned in a small congregation in Arcadia, Wisconsin. They graduated in the spring of 1959. In June of that same year, they began their first ministry at St. Matthew Lutheran in Wabasso, Minnesota which is one of three congregations they have served in their 40 years of parish experience They remained there until November of 1968. During that time a new church was constructed which remains healthy and vital to this very day.

In 1968, they excepted a Call to serve Redeemer Lutheran in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. They were there until 1989. During their tenure, an addition was made to the building which increased its Ministry capacity immensely.

In September, 1989, they were called to serve the Lutheran Church of Our Saviour in southeast Calgary, Alberta. They served there until their retirement in 1999. They had spent almost 40 years in the parish ministry.

It was in February of 1999 that they came to First Lutheran. Pastor Remo Madsen asked Pastor Bill to serve as his assistant on a part-time basis. Pastor Bill then performed the role of Interim Senior Pastor from September, 2002 until Pastor Julianne Koivisto arrived in June, 2004.

Some of his responsibilities included leading worship, preaching, as well as some hospital and home visitation.

Pastor Bill served faithfully at First until his death on Nov.9, 2007.

PASTOR GREG JUNGHANS

In September 2000 Pastor Greg Junghans joined First Lutheran as Youth Pastor.

Pastor Greg had great enthusiasm for the youth, young adults and sports at FIRST. He lead numerous fund raisers (including bottle drives and cleanups at the fireworks festival), many youth and young adult events, and two missions to Mexico to build houses. He also enjoyed many sports including playing floor hockey in the church gym and softball with the Hill's Angels. He was a lot of fun and knew how to enjoy himself.

Pastor Greg's wife Tammy was instrumental in setting up and leading the MOPS program at FIRST. She was a tireless supporter of the church family at FIRST.

In August 2005, Pastor Greg was called to leadership as the Director of Youth Ministries, Manitoba and Northern Ontario, Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. Pastor Greg, Tammy and the kids are remembered fondly by the church family at FIRST.

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