St. Paul's honors past, plans for the future
SARVER — The 150th anniversary of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 409 Sarver Road, is a chance for the congregation to look back on the church’s long history.
But the 200-member congregation’s recent decision to demolish its original church and replace it with a new structure shows church members also are looking to the future, said John Miller, president of the church’s building committee.
“Well, we don’t have a firm date in place. We are working on engineering the land. We are going to go into a detailed design phase with our design/building company,” said Miller when asked when the building project would break ground.
The Rev. Shawn Smith, St. Paul’s pastor, said the church plans to have a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony Nov. 20 coinciding with a visit from North American Lutheran Church Presiding Bishop John Bradosky.
The fellowship hall will host church services after the old church is demolished and while the new church is being built, said Smith.
Plans call for the new church building to be connected to the existing fellowship hall.
Smith and Miller said the upkeep on the present 150-year-old church was becoming prohibitively expensive. And the old church wasn’t air-conditioned.
“No air conditioning was an issue,” Smith said, as were the church’s features which made it hard for the very young and very old to navigate.
“The size and nature of the structure inhibited our ability to grow and serve the community,” said Miller.
Miller said former pastor Emery Barnett started a capital campaign in 2001 that “raised a fairly substantial amount of money, but not enough to complete the building.”
Burnett’s ill health sidelined building plans for a time, but Smith said steady giving on the part of the congregation and some recent significant bequests have given St. Paul the financial means to move forward.
Smith said the congregation hopes to have construction begin in the spring or summer of 2017.
“We’ll quit using the old church after Christmas with demolition set for in the spring,” said Smith. “Easter will be a challenge.”
Smith said the total cost of the new construction hasn’t been fully reckoned yet, but it will certainly be more than the $4,000 it cost to build the original church which was dedicated Sept. 24, 1871.
Smith said not all of the old church will be discarded. Its bell, the stained-glass windows and possibly the pews will be saved and used in the new church.
Smith said the church’s anniversary and plans for a new building embrace the motto of the 150th observance: “Gratitude for the past, joy in the present and embracing the future with hope.”
