About Who We Are

We believe that all those who claim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are part of the one Christian Church. The name "Lutheran" refers to our historical roots in the efforts of Martin Luther to reform the Church in the 16th Century. Lutherans are one of the largest mainline Christian denominations in the United States. Lutheran Christians have a unique identity that is rooted in the Lutheran Confessions, writings which help Lutherans understand how it is that God is at work in our lives, and which serves as an anchor to keep us firmly in Christ. The most famous of these writings is Martin Luther's Small Catechism.

On Thanksgiving night, November 26, 1953, at the American Legion Hall, the first Lutheran worship service was held in Twentynine Palms. The congregation called itself Immanuel Lutheran Church and affiliated itself with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. And on November 3, 1963, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church was organized as a congregation of the Lutheran Church in America, having begun worshipping in the American Legion Hall in October of 1962.

By 1971, Prince of Peace was struggling to pay their mortgage and approached Immanuel to see if they might use their building for worship. Arrangements were made for the two congregations to hold joint Sunday School classes, a joint Vacation Bible School and joint Lutheran Women's group meetings and Prince of Peace began worshipping in a separate service lead by Immanuel's pastor, Rev. Goetzke. The two congregations quickly discovered that two separate services were unnecessary. So, after careful planning and the working out of a special liturgy that combined the traditions of both churches, the two congregations conducted their first joint worship service on Reformation Sunday, October 31, 1971. Four weeks later, both congregations voted to continue worshipping together.

During the next year, the two congregations grew closer and closer together, until they were inseparable and indistinguishable. Their ministries become one. In October 1972, the two congregations elected a joint Church Council to handle administrative affairs of the now-united congregation. With each congregation responsible to its affiliate Lutheran body for mission and benevolence pledges, the people became very mission-minded. It was decided that both names should be kept instead of coming up with something new, to demonstrate to other Lutherans and to the community, the unique and special unity of Immanuel Prince of Peace Lutheran Church.

A person joining or transferring membership to the congregation officially still joins either Immanuel Lutheran or Prince of Peace Lutheran. Under the care and guidance of God's Spirit, the congregation has been an influence in Twentynine Palms and in the larger Church. But even more than that, the people themselves have grown spiritually, with a greater understanding of what it means to be a Christian - and in particular a Lutheran Christian.

In 1997, Immanuel Prince of Peace and Faith Lutheran Church in Joshua Tree, CA, 15 miles West, began sharing a pastor and the congregations continue to be yoked. Joint activities and shared programs, as well as a shared pastor, created the identity of a parish setting and has come to be known unofficially as the Morongo Basin Lutheran Parish.

Our Mission

Christ is the Resurrection and the Life! (John 11:25)

Baptized into Christ's death and resurrection, we commit ourselves to grow in daily lives of discipleship by providing and participating together in an enriching and stimulating life of worship, sacraments, and music from which our ministry and mission flow. Our discipleship is characterized by:

a multi-generational program of Christian education;

a hospitality that embraces the fullness of the human family, along with

a willingness to respond to the diversity within our congregation

and the world-wide church; and

a life of faith and thanksgiving in which we join our personal and

communal resources for the mission of God's church

and the well-being of all creation.

In all these ways, by the grace of God, we receive and proclaim Christ's resurrection, a gift that brings life to the world.