“To equip the saints for the work of ministry,
for building up of the body of Christ” Ephesians 4:12
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Photo after worship at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Arenzville, March 25, 2012
Front row: Marilyn Copenhaver (President, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Mount Vernon), Ron Copenhaver (Prince of Peace Lutheran), Cindy Kiesow (Prince of Peace Lutheran), Judy Settle (Prince of Peace Lutheran).
Back row: Wes Hendricker (President, St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Arenzville), Pastor Cindy Krause (St. Peter’s Lutheran), Bishop John Roth, John and Gloria Hill (Prince of Peace Lutheran).
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On Sunday, March 11, 2012, St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Arenzville, and the Men’s Group of St. Peter’s Lutheran voted to gift to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Mount Vernon, $50,000 and $20,000, respectively, for mortgage debt reduction. This $70,000 constitutes roughly half of Prince of Peace Lutheran’s remaining mortgage debt. The two checks were handed to representatives of Prince of Peace Lutheran at the close of worship at St. Peter’s Lutheran on March 25, 2012. Have you ever heard of such a gift? Who are these churches?
St. Peter's Lutheran has existed more than a century longer than Prince of Peace Lutheran. St. Peter’s Lutheran is an open country church, just north and slightly west of the town of Arenzville, population 409 (2010 census). The congregation has been worshiping together at that site since 1850; you get there by turning west onto a country road from the hard road between Arenzville and Beardstown.
In the course of God’s constant faithfulness to the congregation, St. Peter’s Lutheran has repeatedly adapted to changing and challenging circumstances. The Wartburg Synod, which was organized in 1877 to serve the needs of German-speaking congregations in the largely English-speaking General Synod, was organized at this Arenzville church; yet within 40 years, in response to the needs of younger members and to the misgivings about the use of the German language created by World War I, the congregation transitioned to English speaking. Their stately, nearly 100-year-old church building was utterly destroyed in 1971 by a fire set by arsonists, and the congregation regrouped in a new building. An electrical fire took the congregation’s free-standing Parish Hall in May 2008, destroying the congregation’s Sunday School classrooms; the congregation turned this into an opportunity to replace them with enhanced Sunday School and youth facilities as an expansion of the current church building. Less than a year after that second fire, St. Peter’s Lutheran was rocked by the sudden and unexpected death of Pastor Deena Laird; again, the congregation regrouped and drew upon the promises and power of God.
For many years, both lay leaders and pastors of St. Peter’s Lutheran have taught and lived the truth that we are given life so that by the grace of God we may be generous with what God as gifted us with. In the words of the venerable Bethel Bible Series, we are “blessed to be a blessing.” In addition to providing for God’s work locally and beyond through the regular stewardship of the individuals and families at St. Peter’s Lutheran, outreach and ministry are expanded by income from church ground, including a 240-acre farm left as a bequest to the congregation, farmed by the Men’s Group.
Still, a gift of this sort to a sister congregation is a new venture in faith for St. Peter’s Lutheran.
The people of St. Peter's Lutheran have a heart for ministry to and with children and youth, and it moved them that Prince of Peace assumed its current mortgage debt out of a vision to engage the young people of Mount Vernon. In addition, St. Peter’s Lutheran recognized that the financial ability of Prince of Peace Lutheran to call a pastor will be significantly improved when the burden of their mortgage debt is lifted.
Mount Vernon is a small city with a population of slightly more than 15,000 residents. It is at the intersection of Interstates 57 and 64, 175 miles from Arenzville. Prince of Peace Lutheran sits on the south side of Broadway, the busy, four-lane road into Mount Vernon, about a mile from Broadway exit on I-57/64. The setting is ripe for renewal.
Prince of Peace Lutheran came into being in 1966. The congregation built its sanctuary in 1967. Prince of Peace Lutheran grew rapidly in its first decade, reaching its highpoint in average worship attendance in 1980. Gradual decline in attendance, with ups and downs along the way, followed for the next 25 years. It was within this 25-year period that the congregation sought to reach out to the community in a dramatic way with a Family Life Center.
In 1994, Prince of Peace Lutheran embarked on a building expansion plan to provide a Family Life Center suitable for Christian education classrooms, recreation, fellowship, and community activities. Sadly, though, Pastor Charles Luttinen, who spearheaded the building expansion effort, succumbed to cancer and died in 1995, as construction was underway.
Valiant efforts by succeeding pastors and lay leaders of Prince of Peace Lutheran to attend to the spiritual life of the congregation and to the debt load were followed by a significant internal conflict in 2005 that resulted in the congregation decreasing by half in a matter of months.
Today, Prince of Peace Lutheran is a relatively small band of believers with a conviction that God is calling them anew to their gospel-driven mission to young people and adults in Mount Vernon. This past year has been a good year at Prince of Peace Lutheran in terms of stabilizing numbers and lifting spirits. These surprising gifts from St. Peter’s Lutheran Church and St. Peter’s Men’s Group give Prince of Peace Lutheran not only a financial boost toward the day when Prince of Peace Lutheran can again call a pastor; the gifts also assure those at Prince of Peace Lutheran that they are not alone in their efforts at congregational renewal – that they are indeed joined in the body of Christ with those whose love for the Lord extends also to them.
In her letter of appreciation to the people of St. Peter’s Lutheran, Prince of Peace Lutheran Council President Marilyn Copenhaver writes, “We feel as though we have been uplifted and joined together through the love of Christ with those we have never met … We look forward to many years of friendship in Christ with you and all our many ELCA congregations.”
