Welcome to Living Shepherd!
We’re a confessional Lutheran church located on the south end of Laramie, Wyoming.
CONNECT THIS SUNDAY
Worship at 9 a.m.
&
Bible study at 10 a.m.
Pastor Pankow
Tristan Pankow, son of Pastor Joel and Rebekah Pankow, was born on July 19, 1997, in Holdrege, Neb. He was baptized on August 3, 1997, at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Norton, Kans., marking the beginning of his lifelong journey in faith. He moved with his family from Topeka to Bay City, Mich., in 2012 and graduated from Michigan Lutheran Seminary in 2016. He earned his B.A. from Martin Luther College in 2020 and his M.Div. from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in 2024. During his vicar year, Tristan served at Good News Lutheran Church in Mount Horeb, Wis.
On May 23, 2024, Tristan was assigned to serve as a home missionary at Living Shepherd Lutheran Church in Laramie, Wyo., a mission congregation serving about 80 souls. On June 6, 2025, he married his wife, Lauren.
An avid outdoorsman, Tristan enjoys fishing, hiking, backpacking, and college sports—interests that make Laramie a fun fit for him. Pastor Pankow looks forward to connecting and growing with his congregation while embracing the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead as he shares the gospel in the Laramie community.
What’s on your mind?
We're happy to have you as our guest! It's our goal as a Lutheran church to share God's good news with you. We pray that your visit with us leaves you comforted by the message of God's love for you, strengthened in your faith, and encouraged to face the challenges of daily life.
We worship every Sunday morning at 4835 Fort Sanders Road in Laramie, Wyoming at 9:00 AM. Use the FAQ to learn more.
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Our worship services usually last about one hour.
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At Living Shepherd, we strive for confessional Lutheran worship. We seek to preserve the best of classic Lutheran worship, while also blending in more contemporary accompaniments with some of our songs. We follow a structured pattern of worship (a liturgy), both giving confession of what we believe and allowing visitors to see what's ahead. Our worship service is always printed out in full, so you'll never struggle to follow along. In our church setting, our worship, and our sermons, we strive for both reverence and relevance, communicating the timely and timeless truth of a holy God who restored His relationship with sinful man through the life and death of His Son, Jesus Christ.
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Our goal is to give you something when you visit, not take something from you. Although you will see an offering gathered during the worship service, it's done as an opportunity for our members to express their faith and thankfulness for what God has done and to support the ministry of our church as we reach out to others. Visitors need not feel obligated to contribute, and are not expected to do so.
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We want our worship services to be a welcoming and comfortable way for our guests to get to know who we are and what we teach. Aside from a friendly welcome from our pastor, we'll let you become comfortable with our worship service without being singled out. You will find registration sheets in the chairs, and we’ll invite you to provide us with as much information as you feel comfortable giving. We just want to be able to contact you and thank you for joining us. Included in our worship registers is a way for you to let us know if we can continue to serve you in any way!
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At Living Shepherd, we certainly want you to end up at the Lord’s Table with us. However, guided by our Lord’s words in Scripture, congregations of our Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) practice member communion. That means we celebrate communion with those who have expressed their agreement with the teachings of our church through their membership. God's Word (see 1 Corinthians 10:14-17) tells us that when we gather together at communion, we are confessing to this world that we stand united in faith. As our guest, we don't want to put you in a position of confessing unity with us until you know what we believe. In addition, God warns us that taking the Lord's Supper in an "unworthy manner" or receiving it "without recognizing the body of the Lord" is actually harmful for us (see 1 Corinthians 11:25-34). We can't read hearts. And we don't know what someone believes unless they tell us. Because we care about you and don't want to put you in a position that could be sinful or harmful, we ask that you take some time to study God’s Word with us and see what he has to say about the Lord's Supper before communing at Living Shepherd. Our pastor is always more than willing to talk to you about the Lord's Supper. Feel free to contact him at any time!
LEARN MORE
“What does this mean?”
In this class, we’ll see how the answers to life’s most important questions – questions that everyone wants answers to – are all found in God’s Word, the Bible. Not only that, but God’s answers to those questions are always good news.
This class is a great opportunity for Living Shepherd members to review the teachings of the Lutheran church; it’s also a class designed for anyone interested in membership at Living Shepherd.