HISTORY OF GRACE LUTHERAN CHURCH
[1974-Present]
A New Beginning for Grace
On October 27, 1974 Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church opened its doors to it faithful Congregation and new
members. After a decision to move from it previous location Grace moved into its new building with some
familiar soundings. As you enter the Sanctuary you notice the stain glass windows, both the Good Sheppard
window and the four Apostles windows graced the walls. The Baptismal Font was also moved to the new
sanctuary. The red carpet was chose to represent the blood of Christ as it leads us to the altar area.
The building was much smaller than that of the previous Superstructure, but proved to be home and adequate
for us. We moved into the new building with great hopes of growth and praises to God and his blessings to
our congregation.
The following years brought many changes to our church. We had a great debt to be paid off and a second
church which we hoped would sell and be paid for. God answered those prayers also. The old church sold
after one year to The Church of the Nazarene. Five years later, the Church of Nazarene paid the church off in
full. From this sale and the unselfish giving of the members, plus many memorials, Grace was able to pay off
the debt of $500,000 in seven years. The mortgage was burned in 1981. Some of the debt was paid for by the
Women of the Church with their "Miles of Pennies". The Women's groups saved their pennies and when they
had saved 84,480 pennies they had one mile and it was donated to the building fund ($844.80). We have no
history as how many miles were collected, but it was many miles, all going to the building fund and mortgage
pay off.
Pastor Harold Kettner moved us to our new building and stayed until his retirement 2 1/2 years later. A call
went out for a new Pastor and Pastor John Harder answered that call. Pastor Harder came to Grace in August
1977 along with his wife Ruthe and son Paul. Pastor Harder saw several changes during his time with us. We
had groups form and groups end. We went through a rough period where the church split due to changes
that were coming with the Lutheran Church in general. Some of the members of the church wanted to leave
the present Senate and become independent and others wanted to stay. It was a very disturbing time for the
Congregation and for Pastor Harder. In the end the church voted to stay with the Senate and about half of the
Congregation left the church. Our faithful organist, Fred Haas, retired after serving 56 years. After some time
of grief, and the church not rebuilding it's Congregation, the Bishop asked Pastor Harder to except a new
position in another church giving Grace a chance to heal.
In 1993Pastor John Boldt answered the call from Grace to serve as our Minister. John came with his wife Lois
and young son Sean. John was a breath of fresh air. He had so many new ideas! He added a Wednesday
night service, a Contemporary service with drums, keyboard, guitars, violins, and horns. John asked us to call
him John, which was not easy for older members. This was a look into the new life in the church. John was
young and brought with him the changes that were taking place in the Church. John loved music and the
energy it added to our services. A new organ was purchased during his years with us. We started to use
bulletins that contained the entire service including the hymns. During his time with us new banners and some
altar paraments were purchased, Christmas, Advent, Lent, Pentecost, Ephany, Baptismal, Communion, and
Funeral. We also used oil filled candles, and new hymnals with contemporary music. John was a modern
pastor that related well to the teens in our church. He understood well the importance of the youth and their
roll in the further of the church. However, John seemed to be searching for something he couldn't find with
our congregation and he left us after 5 years.
In 1999 we had a team of Ministers come to Grace. Pastor Clarence Gall and his wife Diaconal Minister Sharon
Gall came to Grace. Grace was looking for a minister team that could work with both the youth and the adults
of the congregation. Sharon was hired to go out calling on our shut-ins, sick, elderly and those missing
services. She was also going to work with the youth group and the Sunday school freeing up Pastor Gall for all
other duties of the pastor concerning the church service and the congregation. They worked to bring the
office and our church into the 21 century by bringing in the computer system. The Gall's were not a good
match for our congregation. Our families with youth left the church and our services dropped to below 50
members attending a Sunday. Through a vote of the congregation the Galls were asked to leave only after a
year and a half.
In 2001 Grace was once again being served by an interim minister, Pastor Dave Birnbaum. Dave came to us
during a time that we needed a great deal of healing. The church had dropped to less than 50 members
attending a Sunday, no young people attending and some very hurt members. So Dave introduced Bridge
Builders and a lot of caring and understanding. Within his year of interim we were once again building our
congregation and once again there was happiness felt and seen in our congregation. Dave had done so much
for our church and brought us back together once again and the congregation asked him to except the call and
become our Minister. Dave and the congregation has gone through many struggles for many reason. First we
needed to rebuild our congregation after the Galls left. Once Dave became our minister he and the
congregation dealt with a life threatening time with his cancer. Dave was told he had a very life threating
cancer and we all stood behind him as he went through a great deal of treatments and healing. Once again we
faced a time of trial as Dave announced he and his wife Mary were getting a divorced. This brought a great
unease in the congregation and healing once again needed to take place. Dave took a sabbatical with his new
wife Cindy and returned to us with renewed spirit. We lost members again and as we have always done we
began to rebuild and become a family again.
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