Our New Pastor Ed Backell

Pastor Ed Backell is a Washington state native and has taught for over 40 years in churches in Oregon, Nebraska and Washington. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada with various musical groups. As a youth minister, he specialized in creating teen performance groups that helped students use their gifts and talents to explore and share their own faith.
 

He holds an M. Div. from Bethel Seminary in St Paul, MN, as well as an M. A. in Ministry. He is currently taking classes to be certified as a Lutheran pastor. Pastor Ed has been a minister in various denominations, but all his ministry has been built upon the foundations he learned going through Lutheran confirmation as a teen. He still has his copy of Luther's Small Catechism, as well as the hymnal from his first Lutheran church.
 

The most crucial part of worship, in Pastor Ed's eyes, is to put away anything which can so easily distract us, to lay aside every weight which entangles us, accept the forgiving grace of the Father through the work of the Son and cooperate with the transforming work of the Spirit - all of this to run with endurance the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
 

Sharing Scripture with anyone who will listen has been a keystone in his ministry for his entire adult life; he has published curriculum on the national level, and is the author of many Bible studies, and one devotional commentary, with more in the works.
 

He was called to Holy Trinity Lutheran in August of 2024. He is married to Jami, his bride of 35 years, and they have three daughters, and three sons-in-law, as well as two grandchildren (one of whom lives just blocks away from HTLC). Ed is a creative person, avid musician, published author, voracious reader, computer geek, and a pretty darn good ethnic cook!

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church is part of the Northwest District of the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC). Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) is an association of congregations and individuals who are:​ 

• ​͏͏free in Christ;
• accountable to one another;
• rooted in the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions;
• working together to fulfill Christ's Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations.

LCMC is an association of congregations. We have a great respect for the reality that the church is where the people of God gather together around Word and Sacrament. The local congregation is where the church becomes a concrete reality for God's people.  At the same time we are joyously aware that each congregation is a part of the greater body of Christ. The actions of each congregation within our association reflect on our association as a whole. And the actions of our association reflect on the whole body of Christ. For this reason we have committed ourselves to a common set of ministry standards.  

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church is also part of the North Amercian Lutheran Church (NALC). The North Amercian Lutheran Church's Core Values are:

We confess the apostolic faith in Jesus Christ according to the Holy Scriptures. We affirm the authority of the Scriptures as the authoritative source and norm, “according to which all doctrines should and must be judged” (Formula of Concord). We accept the ecumenical creeds and the Lutheran Confessions as true witnesses to the Word of God.

We believe that the mission of the Church is to preach the Gospel and to make disciples for Christ. We believe that making disciples — in our congregations, in our communities and nations, and around the world — must be a priority of the Church in the present age.

We affirm the ecumenical creeds and the faithful witness of the Church across time and space. We endorse the form and practices of the universal Church that are consistent with Scripture, particularly the office of the ministry and the tradition of worship under Word and Sacrament. We seek dialogue and fellowship with other Lutheran churches and with faithful Christians of other confessions.

We strive to be a church that is organized to facilitate the ministries of local congregations in a posture of servanthood and a spirit of partnership, through the provision of resources, connections and information.

It all started in June of 1958 when Pastor Ronald Kragthorpe arrived and invited local families to join with him to form a new Lutheran church. Two months later, in August of that same year, forty-one people attended a meeting at McDonald Elementary that were interested in forming Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. On September 7, 1958, the first worship service was held at McDonald Elementary School, with 114 children and adults in attendance. Three months later, on December 7, 1958, the Membership Charter opened with fifty-one total signatures. Only thirteen months later, on February 7, 1960, the first service was held in the new church (present church building--north wing), with a dedication held in April of that same year.

During the next 34 years, Holy Trinity gathered for worship, Bible study, fellowship and continued daily serving God by serving their neighbors and community. They decided to add on to the existing church building, and in February of 1994, the first worship service was held in the new Sanctuary of the remodeled church.

Through the years, the children of God who call Holy Trinity their "home" church and church "family" have changed. The faces have changed. Some have moved, others have left, still others remain and grow. The lines on their faces tell more of a story than we can report here in a brief history. For they have been baptized here...confirmed...married...raised their children up in the love of Jesus...they have even had to bury their loved ones. As a family, they have laughed, loved, cried, consoled, suffered, and rejoiced...always serving their One true God and His Living Word. When challenged by changes in the institutional church, they stuck with the Word of God alone and did not alter their belief and practice. Those present did not weaken to the temptation to conform to society, but rather depended daily on the on-going transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit. That faithful decision has been a significant mark on their history and their foreheads--marked by the Cross of Christ forever.

Through all of history, Holy Trinity has belonged to God. It was, is, and forever shall be His church. Those who call it "home" are not members of an institution but rather disciples of their Lord. As God's family, there are only members here and no visitors...Welcome to life in His Word!