Who We Are

Hephatha Lutheran Church takes our name from Mark 7—Jesus heals a man who is unable to speak and unable to hear with the word of prayer that gives us our name: “Be Opened.”  The man is.  We are….opened as a church to God and to our neighborhood….to you!
Hephatha began in 1913 as a neighborhood congregation formed by German immigrants.  We have been a neighborhood church our entire history, serving God and others on the north side of Milwaukee for 108 years.  In the 1960’s, Hephatha became active in the Civil Rights Movement and remained a neighborhood congregation by going from a body of largely German congregants to a body of largely African American congregants.  Hephatha remains to this day in  and of our neighborhood, a sign of how God’s care for us is particular in nature and a sign of how God calls us to be part of the community on 18^th and Locust.