As we celebrate our 125th anniversary in 2025, we’ve been spending time putting together the booklet that documents some of the places the church has been and the people that have been part of that journey. Yes, we have all sorts of pictures of the church, the parsonage, new additions and remodels. But the building is just a shell without the people that make it a church. I’m intrigued by the pictures of people, of seeing the names I still recognize, of seeing the faces of all the people that loved this community as much as you love it today.

People are the driving force behind what makes a building a church. A church is about the hands and the hearts and the witness of the community – serving, stepping up, giving sacrificially of time and talents and resources. There have been good and bad choices along the way, times of feast and times of famine, times of fear and times of being bold and fearless and faithful. That is the best we can offer up as fallen people in a fallen world. Honestly, if the church depended solely on us, we might not have made it 125 years. Thankfully, we know that “the Lord is our Shepherd” and has been since God put the idea of St. Paul Lutheran Church into the hearts and minds of a small group of people so long ago. We’ve practiced faith and forgiveness, we’ve been motivated and challenged, comforted and confronted. Through it all, God has continued to will this place into being what it is today, a place called to love and serve our neighbors as Jesus first loved and served us.

I’ve heard it said that we all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. That truth is what has gotten us down the road these last hundred years plus. Celebrating an anniversary is always a good chance to look back and see what has gotten us to this place and time. What lessons have we learned, what good have we done, and how faithful is our Lord and our God? Thanks be to God for the years of blessings behind us and the years of blessings ahead!

~Pastor Luke