Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Lake Havasu City holds mortgage burning ceremony

On March 26, 2023, Mount Olive Lutheran Church held a commemorative mortgage burning ceremony at all three of its worship services to celebrate the milestone accomplishment of paying off their building loan.

They share their history and how this came to be in this post.

Mount Olive Lutheran Church was organized on December 16, 1966, in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Through the generosity of the McCulloch Corporation, developers of Lake Havasu City, a site slightly over five acres, were given to the congregation. Groundbreaking was on February 5, 1967, at 2:30 pm. Mount Olive was the third Protestant church to build in Lake Havasu City. In January of 1988, Mount Olive joined the new-merged Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, joining 5.3 million members of 11,000 congregations.

Mount Olive was thriving and growing beyond capacity. A new worship facility was added, but by 2012, we were ready to build again. Groundbreaking took place on February 18-19, 2012. In August, the debt limit for construction and furnishings came to a hefty 1.6 million with a 25-year loan for 1.25 million. On April 28, 2013, construction was completed.\

The congregation was delighted with the beautiful worship space we could offer the city. Mount Olive has been blessed beyond measure in the last eight years with three matching gift challenges that significantly reduced our building debt. In December 2022, a fraction of the original loan payment was left. In January 2023, 10 years from our original loan agreement and 15 years early of our payoff date, an anonymous donor gave the last dollars to pay off the building loan.

Mount Olive Lutheran Church ELCA held a commemorative Mortgage Burning Ceremony on March 26th, 2023, at all 3 of its worship services to celebrate this milestone accomplishment! On this day, we CELEBRATE! Praise the Lord God ALMIGHTY!

We pray this step will send us on a new mission with vision, focus, and discernment through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. May we continue to be blessed to be a blessing to our community. As we have been faithful in our earthly pursuits, may God bless us with entrusting true riches full of grace, welcoming, teaching, and love so that we may live and serve with free open hearts in our community.