Our Leadership

Staff 

Tim Bjorge

Pastor

All are loved and all are welcomed!
Hi, my name is Tim.
I am a child of God, loved and welcomed in baptism, and
I am a child of Jim and Fran (a pastor & English teacher- in heaven).
I am a husband to Amy, blessed since 1992.
I am a dad to three grown children: Anna, Johs and Jens.
I am a brother to 3 brothers and 1 sister, and
I am a brother in Christ to a wonderful church family called First Lutheran.
I am a pastor (since 1991), and have been at First Lutheran since 2006.
What about you?  We welcome you and I look forward to getting to know you.

Karen Christopherson

Secretary

Hi!  I’m Karen Christopherson! It’s been my honor and privilege to serve on staff as Church Secretary here at First Lutheran for more than 27 years.  I’m a lifelong member--I was born into this Church and was baptized, confirmed, and married here.  Having been instrumental in my faith formation, this Church Family is very special to me!  My husband, Terry, and I have been married for 46 years, and we were blessed with 4 children.  Now we are blessed beyond measure to be grandparents to wonderful grandchildren! 

Liz Bowman

Youth Director & Media Coordinator

Liz is an Amery native, graduating from AHS in 2007. Throughout college she worked as a camp counselor at Luther Point Bible Camp, and she continues to spend every summer at camp, but now at Wapo! She has served as Youth Director from 2012 - 2021.  You can find her often times on Wednesday night playing games with our Hi-League kids!  You can also find her cooking up something new and exciting in the kitchen, playing board games with friends, watching Netflix with her cats, occasionally sitting behind the wheel of a school bus, or traveling the world. 

Ellen Forrest

Financial Coordinator

Ellen grew up in the Chicago area and moved to Amery in 2008.  She has been a member of First Lutheran since 2008 and the Financial Coordinator since 2015.    She is an accountant for a company in Delaware, wife to Terry and mom to Ashley, Kate and Brett.  She loves reading, road trips, hanging out with friends and family, and walking her dog, Cooper. 

Gwen Wold

Financial Secretary

Gwen joined the church staff in 2019.  I’m a life long member of First Lutheran, being baptized, confirmed, married to Steve Wold and our three boys were baptized at First. I recently retired (6/2019] after working 40 years at the clinics in town initially and continued with the clinic/hospital as they merged.  Steve and I are blessed to have our boys & their families relatively close; we have six granddaughters!
I enjoy reading, golfing, walking and especially time with family and friends.

Beth Ray

Music Coordinator

Hello! My name is Beth, or sometimes Feather.
I am a daughter of a UCC minister, confirmed and baptized in that faith
and in more recent years a member the Unitarian Universalist church in River Falls, WI. My  spiritual path now is a lot of meditation, love and devotion and finding God within. I am a child of David and Isobel Railsback, both deceased, and was born 67 years ago. I was raised by  my father and step-mother Florence with 5 other siblings. I am divorced and mother to Michaela, Samara and Jordan Ray. I am grandmother (Nana--I called my grandmother that) to Sartori and Sawle, boys ages 6 and 4, and have a granddaughter on the way.
I have been pianist/organist at First Lutheran since 2015. I am enjoying working with the choir also and getting to know many of you.
One of my favorite verses is Proverbs 3:6:  "Acknowledge Him in all thy ways and He will direct thy paths."

Julie Hanlon-Johnson

Music Coordinator

Julie grew up in a musical family in a small town in South Dakota. She started playing the organ for her home church in high school, succeeding her grandma. She met her husband, Matt, in pharmacy school at South Dakota State University and together they have two grown children. Outside of practicing pharmacy, Julie likes to express her artistic side with music, gardening, digital scrapbooking, and cooking. She is fascinated with the parallels between gardening and life. Julie is currently working on her piano skills, trying to re-learn the things she brushed off in piano lessons 40 years ago.

Mick Larsen

Custodian

Mick was born in Milltown in 1940 and moved to Amery in '48 where he's remained since (with the exception of his military career from 1962-1966). Many know Mick from his long career at M&M Barbershop in downtown Amery from 1970-2010. Mick started working here at his home church in 1994. Mick and his wife of 52 years, Les, have three grown children: Melissa (Peanut), Andy (Boom), and Jon, and is grandfather to Bits, JW, & Squeaks, and Elijah & Amelia.

Steve Wold

Custodian

Our Leadership

Church Council

Officers & Committees

Neil Pickard                     President
Tony Aizpurua                Vice President/ Youth & Parish Education
Jessica Smith                  Secretary / Evangelism
Gwen Wold                     Worship / Life / Long Range Planning
Trudy Mattison              Worship / Life / Long Range Planning
Matt Johnson                  Life Endowment & Stewardship
Elaine Meyer                   Evangelism
Andrea VanSomeren     Evangelism
Dave Curtis                     Property / Audio Visual
Gary Ganje                      Property / Audio Visual
Del Schalz                        Property / Audio Visual
Dianne McLeod              Church in Society
First Lutheran Church © 2019