Our History

When Pastor Richard Gerberding founded Mt. Carmel in the early 1920s, Northeast Minneapolis was then at the far-flung fringes of Minneapolis. Pastor Gerberding held Mt. Carmel’s first service on Dec. 6, 1925, in the glassed-in front porch of Eling Larsen. A year later on Dec. 12, 1926, the growing congregation met for dedication services in their own new church building. The church continued to grow slowly, struggling through the Great Depression and later WWII.

The 1950s and early ’60s were an exciting time for Mt. Carmel. Membership boomed and building updates flourished, including a new sanctuary dedicated in 1954 and a new parish hall a few years later. Members stayed busy in the community.

The 1960s and ’70s were decades of social change. Women gained the right to sit on the church council and become ordained. The congregational demographics began to change as the Northeast neighborhood changed. Families moved farther out to the suburbs, leaving an increasingly older congregation. Although membership numbers declined after 1982, morale and community involvement remained high. Mt. Carmel opened the Mt. Carmel Child Care Center in 1989.

The congregation continued to ride the ups and downs found in any church through the end of the 20th century. The early years of the 2000s saw renewal and the adoption of our mission statement: Learn, Live and Share God’s Word. We continue to discern the part we play in God’s work in the world.