Faith Lutheran Church in Lincoln hosts a joyous 50th Anniversary celebration

 

[September 13, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

On Sunday, September 9th, Faith Lutheran Church in Lincoln was full and overflowing with current and past members of the congregation and members of the community on hand to celebrate the church’s 50th year.

The day began with traditional church services led by the current church pastor, Mark Peters. At the end of those services a meal catered by Nuthatch Hill Barbecue was provided. Inside the church, tables and chairs were set up in two separate areas and a large tent with tables and chairs was set up outside to accommodate all the guests. The weather was perfect for being outside on Sunday. After days of rain it appeared that God had cleared the skies, bringing in bright sunshine and a cool crispness in the air that whispered gently fall is coming.

Guests enjoyed pulled pork or Italian beef with carrots, potato salad, and fruit salad. Added to the meal was red velvet or white cake made by Donna Vaughn.

After the meal everyone was invited back inside the church for a special hour of remembrance and celebration of the church’s 50 years of service to the community.

In the history of the church, the congregation formed in 1968 as a ‘daughter’ church to Zion Lutheran in Lincoln.

At Zion Lutheran the membership was growing, and discussions began as to whether or not there should be a daughter church that would take part of the Zion congregation to form another church. The choice to change churches was entirely up to the Zion membership and many chose to be a part of that new congregation.

On Sunday, Faith members like Gail Apel-Sasse shared that the decisions to move were not always strictly by family. For example, she said that she and her parents moved to Faith, but other members of her immediate family were old enough to make their own decision and decided to stay at the ‘mother’ church.

Another Faith member, Lyle Read, said that he too had been a Zion member. He had moved out of the area for a time, but when he and his family returned to Lincoln, they chose to go to Faith instead. He said that at the time his father asked him why he would want to move his membership. Read said that he told his dad that Faith was where God wanted him to be and that he needed to follow God’s direction in the matter.

Sunday it was pointed out that there is still a very loving relationship between the two churches. That statement was reinforced with David Opperman representing Zion Lutheran. He presented Adam Campbell with a commemorative wall hanging congratulating the church on its longevity.

The largest and most joyous part of the afternoon was a slideshow of photos collected at the church over the last 50 years. The history of the church was reflected well showing children, now grown, participating in church programs; VBS events with adults who have now aged just a bit. Comical pictures of several members brought howls of laughter from the audience, and photos of those people who have passed brought sighs and moments of happy remembrance.

As Pastor Peters introduced the slideshow he explained that there would be some audio included that may leave some a little shaken. A member of the congregation had found an audio recording that included the voice of a beloved pastor, the late Larry Clemetsen.

In the history of the church, the first services were held at the Seventh Day Advent Church in Lincoln. It was explained that to start the church, the congregation sought out a temporary location. Because the Seventh Day Advent congregation worshipped on Saturday, the church was made available to Faith Lutheran, which was first named Peace Lutheran, for its Sunday services. On that first day, the services were led by Donald Heideman, and the church heard its first message from preaching candidate Larry Clemetsen. Clemetsen was assigned to the church from the St. Louis Seminary and for the next several years, he became a beloved pastor, a good friend, and the source of many silly stories.

After the slideshow presentation, which lasted more than 30 minutes, Pastor Peters commented that the work to get all the photos digitized had become a huge undertaking. There had been hundreds of photos scanned and digitized. There had also been boxes of old style slides that had to be sent away to be digitized. Pastor Peters noted that though they felt they had gotten everything digitized, after the work was done, yet another large box of slides was found, so that will be a project for another day.

With the slideshow completed, the floor was open for those who wished to speak about their personal history with the church.

The first person to share was Bob Alberts, who was the contractor for the building of the new Faith Lutheran building. Anyone who has been to or driven past the church on North Kickapoo Street will know that there is a very tall wall facing the highway. Alberts talked about the challenges of building that portion of the church and special ordering the two-inch by four-inch studding’s that were about 16 feet long.

Another who spoke was the one of Pastor Clemetsen’s daughters. She recalled her dad’s abhorrence for bugs, snakes, and mice and how that disdain had impacted his service to the church. She recalled the day that her dad halted church services in the middle of his message because he had seen a bug on the pulpit. Another story mentioned the pastor finding a snake in the yard at the church.

Finally, the best story was that of a mouse in the church. The daughter recalled the pastor being at the church and calling home to report that he had killed a mouse and the family needed to come assist him in getting rid of it. She recounted that when they arrived at the church, the mouse was at the back of the church. “There was the mouse, and all the hymnals were on it! He had killed it within the first three hymnals!” The congregation roared with laughter as she finished up saying “and mom just said – get rid of all the hymnals!”

For more than a half hour folks talked about their good memories of the church with many of those memories revolving around the beloved pastor. Others did make note of fun times and special events. For example, David Sasse noted that he had met Gail Apel in the church, and that had led to their marriage.

Others talked about fellow members who participated in church activities and the personality quirks that made having them in the congregation special for everyone.

At the conclusion of the day, Pastor Peters asked that everyone join in the singing of the doxology, then he wanted all the charter members of the church who were present to come to the alter for a photograph.

The charter members gathered with Angie Sandel at the center of the photo. Gail Apel-Sasse explained that Angie was the oldest charter member of the church, and a ‘first-generation’ member. The others in the photo she said would be charter members, but second generation. In other words they were members who were children or young adults at the inception of the church who joined the membership with their parents.

In the history of the church, approximately 3,000 members have come and gone. Suspended from the exposed timbers in the worship hall is a paper chain with the names of all 3,000 of those members. The blue links represent those who were baptized in the church, the green links represent those confirmed in the church, and the yellow links represent all those who have over the years transferred into the church.

Gail Apel-Sasse commented that the chain has been up since spring and that many have tried to locate their name on the chain. She said that the funniest part of this is that church member Lyle Read and his wife Phyllis typically sit in the same seat every week. When Lyle went looking for his name, it just by coincidence happened to be the link directly above the seat where he always sits.

On Sunday, the 50th anniversary committee was overjoyed by the attendance for their special day. They reported that they had planned for about 150 people, but at their last count there were over 200 who came out for the celebration.

Congratulations to the church for 50 years of service to God and our community.

[Nila Smith]