First Lutheran Church of South Bend is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and its Southwestern Washington Synod.
Established as the First Norwegian Lutheran Church of South Bend in 1907, we also lent our support the English speaking Finns of Raymond with the opening of Our Savior's Lutheran in 1922 and began offering services in English ourselves in 1928.
In 1951 the Ansgari (Swedish) Lutheran Church building was purchased and moved to adjoin the building at Water and Adams.
In 2005 joint services with Our Savior's began and in 2008 the churches merged.
In 2009 the Legacy Community Outreach Food Bank was established using funds from the sale of the Our Savior's church property.
In 2015 a back pack feeding program was begun and in the Spring of 2018 with the assistance of school social worker Kayla Camenzind we were reaching 33 youth a week with a combination of food and grocery vouchers to meet their nutritional needs over weekends and school holidays. We are thankful to The Willapa Harbor Eagles, Kiwanis, and Lions clubs for their financial support of this vital program. At present our focus has changed to assisting the 80 students experiencing some degree of homelessness.