The congregation was formed by a number of Brown County citizens who dissented from the Norwegian Lutheran community.

They found Kristofer Janson, who also had some dissenting opinions from the Lutheran Church of Norway and who was visiting the Midwest on a lecture tour.

By the fall of 1882, the congregation had raised enough money to build a church.

Janson spent his summers at the church in Hanska and spent his winters in Minneapolis, and he called the Nora church a refuge from city life and a "paradise".

The successor pastor, Amandus Norman, served until 1931, and the church has continued to grow and flourish since then.