Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church is a congregation affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). We are nestled in the beautiful Des Moines River valley in Jackson, MN.
Jackson is a “STAR” community located in a rich agricultural area along Interstate-90 in southern Minnesota, approximately 90 miles east of Sioux Falls, SD and eight miles north of the Iowa border. Our community is proud of it’s agriculture, industrial and retail businesses, education systems, churches, parks, recreation, tourist attractions and service organizations. Beautiful, new walking trails meander throughout the community, connecting our scenic river valley, parks and tree-lined hills with the sense that Jackson is a good place to live and raise our families. We are proud to call Jackson our home. Visit Jackson’s website at: www.jacksonmn.com.
The community of Jackson has a rich ethnicity, with descendents coming from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, Scotland, England, Southeast Asia, and more. Numerous churches and denominations are found here, many of which were formed among their own ethnic backgrounds. Jackson is comprised of Lutherans (ELCA and LCMS), Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and the Assemblies of God.
Salem Lutheran Church has a rich German heritage. In its’ earlier days the German language was used for preaching, teaching and hymn singing. Back then, our congregation was yoked with St. John’s Lutheran Church, which was located about eight miles south of Jackson, in scenic Petersburg township. Though St. John’s congregation and church building no longer exists, it was located on the grounds of St. John’s cemetery, where many of our former members are buried.
Salem’s Affiliation
ELCA: We are a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The ELCA, with its national headquarters in Chicago, IL, is comprised of approximately 10,500 congregations located across the fifty states and Caribbean and within 65 synods.
Region Three; SW MN Synod; Shetek Conference: We are one of 269 congregations within the SW MN Synod, which is one of nine synods in Region 3 of the ELCA. Within the SW MN Synod we are one of 32 congregations in the Shetek Conference.
We are also a corporate member of Shetek Lutheran Ministries, located on the shores of Lake Shetek, north of Slayton, MN. SLC offers many intergenerational opportunities including camping, retreats, youth trips, recreation and more.
What We Believe
See the “What we Believe” page.
Salem is about “Family.”
The size of our congregation, having approximately 340 baptized members, affords us a comfortable, family atmosphere where people know and care about each other. Visitors are warmly welcomed. We look forward to having new members join our congregational family. Following worship services we love visiting and getting acquainted at weekly summer coffee fellowships and monthly fall-through-spring fellowships. An occasional potluck dinner brings out the best of what Lutherans love: good home cooking and visiting!
Ecumenical Participation:
Pastor Eric is a member of the Jackson County Ministerial Association, which helps plan various ecumenical events, including:
* Mid-week Lenten Worship: During the Lenten season several Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian congregations, including Salem, participate in a “round-robin” schedule that includes pulpit sharing with the pastors and a common theme of sermon texts.
* “Worship Word & Watermelon”: On Sunday evenings during the summer the community is invited to the historic Fort Belmont site for a free, informal worship service, followed by an outdoor fellowship. Participating congregations share the responsibility of leading the worship services and serving watermelon.
* Thanksgiving Eve Worship: We worship together with the other Jackson congregations including the Presbyterians and United Methodists, rotating pastoral responsibilities, locations and fellowship responsibilities.
* City of Jackson: The Salem congregation has participated in various community events, such as caroling at Jackson’s annual “Holiday Fest” the first weekend in December and serving free hotdogs at “Franks-A-Lot” in June.
Rev. Eric Hullstrom
As a graduate of Luther Seminary in 2004, Pastor Eric’s first call to Salem began on June 1, 2004. He has served Belmont Lutheran Church in rural Lakefield on a contractual basis since December 2005. He enjoys a diverse participation in various service organizations within the Jackson community, including the Jackson County Ministerial Association, the Lion’s Club as well as our congregational life in our synod and beyond. He is currently serving in a unique capacity as an evangelism advocate and trainer for our synod and serves on the Synod Council. Pastor Eric brings fresh ideas and enthusiasm to our congregation and community. His wife, Connie Hanson-Hullstrom, (click on the link, Parish Nurse) serves as our congregational Parish Nurse. She is actively involved in congregational life, leading music and Christmas programs for the Wednesday Night Live kids and serves on our Altar Guild. We love having both of them as a part of our congregation and community!
Traditions
The church season begins when we welcome in the Advent/Christmas season with a Hanging of the Green service, followed by a time of fellowship. We enjoy Christmas caroling for some of our members every year. A traditional candlelight service with Holy Communion is held on Christmas Eve. Families can spend time with their families on Christmas Day.
During the season of Lent we share our Holy Week worship services with Belmont Lutheran Church. Easter is anticipated as a festive time to behold our beautifully adorned life-size cross, filled with fragrant Easter lilies. We celebrate Holy Communion at two worship settings with a hot breakfast served in between the sunrise service and second service.
On Mother’s Day we honor our ladies by giving them each a fresh flower. Dads are remembered in Father’s Day with a special gift, as well. In the spring our teachers are recognized and high school and college graduates are honored. High school graduates receive hand-made quilts from the congregation.
Summer time worship is generally held at 9:30 a.m. on Sundays, versus 10:15 a.m. from Labor Day through Memorial Day weekends. Occasionally, a summertime outdoor worship service in the courtyard offers an informal, relaxing time for “Lutherans, Lawn chairs and Lemonade.” On Sunday evenings in the summer we participate with our community in an ecumenical worship known as “Worship, Word & Watermelon,” at Jackson’s historic Fort Belmont site. Following an informal worship service in a “country church” building, refreshing watermelon and fellowship are enjoyed outside on the lawn.
Our fall schedule gets back on track sometime in mid-September, when education classes resume. Wednesdays are a busy day at Salem with Released Time classes for grades 3-5, confirmation classes for grades 7-8, family suppers, “Wednesday Night Live” (Sunday School) for ages three-grade six, adult Bible studies and monthly congregation council meetings.
A “Bible Sunday” takes place in the autumn when third graders receive Bibles from the congregation. On “Catechism Sunday” fourth graders receive a catechism. Affirmation of Baptism is held on the last Sunday of October, which is also Reformation Sunday.
In the fall we observe a “Blessing of the Farmer Sunday” during fall harvest, which includes a potluck dinner. We also observe “Mental Health Awareness Sunday,” with a candlelight prayer vigil for those with dealing with mental illness.
The first Sunday in November is All Saint’s Day and a time to remember the loved ones who died the previous 12 months by presenting a rose to family members. In November we celebrate Stewardship Sunday with a traditional roast turkey “Thanksgiving” dinner with all the trimmings, compliments of the congregation council.
In November we also participate in supporting an outreach ministry, The Banquet, which is a soup kitchen in Sioux Falls, SD. We and our sister congregation, Belmont, provide and serve a delicious supper to over 400 guests. We began supporting this very worthwhile ministry in 2004. Another outreach ministry we help support sometime during the year is a prison ministry in Appleton, MN. Members worship with inmates at Prisoners of Hope, an ELCA congregation behind bars. In the spring and fall of the year we clean road ditches along a stretch of highway that our congregation adopted.
Thanksgiving Eve brings us together to worship with the local Methodist and Presbyterian congregations, sharing the places of worship, coffee fellowships and rotating pulpit responsibilities.
We remember all of our members throughout the year by praying each Sunday for those who will celebrate birthdays and anniversaries week. Personal birthdays and anniversaries are celebrated on the first Sundays of each month with a coffee fellowship. Baptismal anniversaries are recognized on the second Sundays of the month at our worship service. We offer prayers regularly for those men and women serving in the armed forces. On the third Sundays each month we pray for brothers and sisters in our Companion Synod, the SW Diocese of South Africa. Those being baptized receive personal banners and a knitted prayer shawl from our prayer shawl ministry.
Specially designated offerings are received on the first Sundays of each month and at other opportune times. “Noisy Can” offerings help us to bring relief in times of disaster, support to ministries of the ELCA and gifts to our local community, nation and world.
The women are involved with the Women of the ELCA, having two Bible study circles and biannual business meetings. Women help support a variety of ministries. They enjoy getting together for “sewing days” to assembling hundreds of quilts each year and share in fellowship.
