About Us

In 1856, just two years after the Nebraska Territory was created and Omaha City founded, a new resident from Ohio, Augustus Kountze, wrote to his former pastor asking for a Lutheran minister to be sent. Within the next two years, church lots were purchased at 12th and Douglas, Rev. Henry W. Kuhns arrived and, with 14 residents, Emanuel Evangelical Church, the first Lutheran Church in Nebraska Territory, was established.
Early beginnings of community partnerships allowed for new church locations at 16th and Harney before landing in its present location in 1906. The Kountze sons, though not members, gave funding in memory of their parents, thus ensuring financial stability for the church. The congregation was renamed Kountze Memorial. The early years produced a number of satellite churches and Sunday School Missions throughout Omaha, and the congregation hosted area conventions and meetings for the larger Lutheran Church.
Kountze Memorial has continued to find ways to reach out with the message of Christ’s love, often developing community partnerships in the process. In 1962, a weekly television broadcast began of the Sunday worship. And in the 1970s, providing low-income senior housing in downtown Omaha, became an outreach ministry.
As the church continues to evolve, we give thanks for a new building, Kountze Commons Community Outreach, where weekly food pantries, the Healing Gift Free Clinic, a Methodist Health Clinic, and Lutheran Family Services Counseling meet the needs of area residents. Traditional, sacramental Lutheran worship continues to ground members in God’s love, sent out to serve neighbors. Giving thanks for the 165 years of faithful ministry and looking forward to the ways of continuing to grow into Christ’s calling in the future, we listen for God’s call and respond with serving hearts.