History of Spirit Alive!

March 2001

St. Mary’s Lutheran Church leads a collaborative effort of other ELCA Lutheran congregations in Kenosha (St. Paul’s, St. John’s, Grace, Trinity, Lord of Life and Holy Nativity) to form a new mission start Kenosha Outreach West in the Kenosha area west of Green Bay Road. 

November 2001

Founding Pastor Larry Harper renames Kenosha Outreach West to Spirit Alive! and holds the first worship services at the RecPlex in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.  

June 2003

Spirit Alive! outgrows the allotted space at the RecPlex and begins worshipping in the cafeteria of Pleasant Prairie Elementary school.  

May 2006

Founding members of Spirit Alive! Church approve their Constitution and Bylaws, sign the charter and vote to organize as a congregation of the ELCA.  

June 2006

ELCA Milwaukee Synod officially receives and welcomes Spirit Alive! as a new congregation.

July 2011

Spirit Alive bids farewell to Pastor Larry.  

March 2012

Spirit Alive calls Rob Zahn as its new pastor.  

June 2015

Pastor Rob leaves Spirit Alive! to take a new call in the Detroit area.  

March 2016

Jennifer Carlson accepts a call to become the new pastor for Spirit Alive!.  She brings a passion for nurturing and expanding Spirit Alive’s! efforts at reaching out and serving the community, especially the ELCA Outreach Center in Kenosha.  

August 2017

Spirit Alive! signs a 3-year space sharing agreement with St. Paul’s substantially solving a nagging setup and teardown issue that had plague Spirit Alive! in other rental spaces and burned out our volunteers.  

October 2017

Jennifer Carlson leaves Spirit Alive! to take a new call.  

November 2017

Sue Ruehle joins Spirit Alive as interim pastor.  

June 2018

Cindy Aasen joins Spirit Alive as interim pastor.  

September 2019

Kevin Beebe accepts call to become the new full time pastor for Spirit Alive!  Kevin is driven by an understanding that God’s Love is constantly breaking into our lives, pulling us into deeper relationship with the Divine and the rest of creation. He is drawn to the ways God’s grace trusts us into the world to live out God’s justice and proclaim that the Kin-dom is at hand.