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RANDOLPH — Generations have been rooted in faith at Randolph’s St. John’s Lutheran Church in a history that has grown for 125 years.
“We still have families who started this church that their ancestors are still going here,” said Dwight Brummels, the church’s parish minister associate. “It’s a real family tradition but it’s also a real family atmosphere. It’s just like coming home. That’s kind of the attitude of people who come back, they’re coming back home. People just feel welcome here.”
Many of those families will be celebrating the church’s 125th anniversary with special events this weekend. The public is invited to join in the festivities which include a 7 p.m. church service Saturday with the worship music group Prodigal Sons and a free will donation hotdog meal following. Games for all ages will be held on the church lawn with the evening culminating in the showing of “The Sandlot” movie outdoors. Sunday’s church service will be led by Bishop Alan Johnson of the ELCA Nebraska Synod at 10 a.m. Jerry’s Hilltop will be catering a luncheon (RSVP required), followed by a 2 p.m. celebration service and then a social where people can reminisce shared history while enjoying refreshments.
The church’s humble beginnings trace back to 1898 when Rev. Fred Hefner made the trip to Randolph from Coleridge every three weeks by horse and buggy. Church services were held in members’ homes. That same year, the congrega- tion constructed the first church building, located on the current church site.
Services and religious instruction were conducted in German until 1918. Due to World War I, local pressure was unfavorable to anything German and the church shifted to its first English worship service, conducted by Rev. D.H. Franzen. But German remained the primary language and church council minutes were written in the language until 1930.
A new church was built in 1942 for $16,000, featuring twin towers and the interior arranged in cathedral style. A dedication was delayed until 1944 with furnishings being unavailable due to World War II.
Over the next few decades, church clergy came and went, a choir was formed with many cantatas and other musical events held at the church, and membership grew. The church underwent many physical changes over the years with extensive remodeling to its building, including an addition. The congregation remains committed to maintaining its building on West Broadway Street. Most recently, congregants planted trees and updated landscaping for the Q125 celebration.
A community-run food pantry was founded in 1990 and remains today as a combined ministry of Randolph’s three churches as well as other organizations and individuals. Another ministry, Vacation Bible School, remains a communi- ty-wide eort that began in 1997.
The church currently boasts about 200 members and an active youth program including Sunday school, confirmation and Luther League (youth group), as well as adult Bible studies.
“We’ve always put pride in our young people, trying to give them a Christian education through all the years,” Brummels said.
Traditional church services are provided Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 9 a.m.
More than 30 dierent clergy have served at St. John’s in Randolph, some interim or visiting pastors over its 125 years. Brummels has been leading the church for nearly two years as it awaits another clergy to call St. John’s home.
“There’s no availability of ordained clergy. All churches, all main denominations, are struggling with that, and there’s really not a light at the end of the tunnel,” Brummels said. “It’s up to God. It’s up to the congregation, but I have no intention of leaving anytime soon.”
Under Brummels’ leadership, the church has been focused on evangelism and service to those members who are homebound or in long-term care. Brummels visits Colonial Manor nursing home and assisted living residents every week to read scriptures and sing hymns.
The evangelism committee has also hosted special events to reach out and share the faith.
“When I was young, people came to the church. But today, the church has to go to the people. That’s a big change. We have to look at ways to evangelize people,” Brummels said. “When I was a kid, it was never ‘if’ we go to church, it was ‘when’ to go to church Sunday.
“Now it’s become more ‘if” we go to church. It was more of a priority back then and our culture has changed.”
Ninety-five-year-old Merle Schutt is St. John’s oldest living member.
His family wasn’t especially religious but you’d find them packed in a church pew nearly every Sunday, he said.
His most vivid childhood memory was grumbling to his mother about being hungry during church, with the service starting at 11 a.m.
“I got disgusted at my mom, ‘How come we got to go to church over noon?,’” Schutt said with a smile. At age 11, his priorities rested with his stomach.
His memory has held up well, still rattling off the names of most of the pastors in the church’s history and fellow students his 1942 confirmation class.
Schutt witnessed the laying of the church building’s cornerstone that same year.
In his adult years, he served on the church council for 11 years, 1978-1989.
“We had a choir and when church started, they had robes and they promenaded from the back of the church up the aisle and that’s when church opened,” Schutt recalled.
He attended many church suppers in his adult years, and even recalls who peeled the potatoes.
“We had the real potatoes. They weren’t artificial,” Schutt said with a smile, which possibly makes up for church cutting into his lunchtime routine in his younger years.
Now, Schutt is one of those Colonial Manor residents who attends St. John’s worship every week at the facility.
Brummels has been a St. John’s member for nearly 50 years himself, his parents and his grandparents members before him.
In fact, Brummels’ late father, Gilbert, told stories about how confirmation students would play marbles in the dirt street during instruction breaks.
So he’s just as excited as congregants’ for the Q125 celebration this weekend.
“There will be a lot of people who grew up in this church coming,” Brummels said. “We’ve gotten a lot of commitments already. We’re expecting a pretty good turnout.”
