St Paul Lutheran Church 160th Anniversary

St. Paul Lutheran Church th

Anniversary

THE

essenger December 17, 2023

Welcome Pastor Meyer St. Paul’s Lutheran Church will be celebrating their 160th anniversary on December 20th. The church and school have been a fixture of the Fort Dodge community for all that time, and at the head of this congregation is Pastor Kendall Meyer.

Born in 1968, Pastor Meyer’s journey to St Paul’s started right out of college. Pastor Meyer said “So I was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and I went to University of Columbia for college and then I graduated from University of Omaha college, I split time between those two schools. Then I started Seminary right after that. So, I graduated from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in 2005.”

Pastor Meyer continued by saying “ My first call was at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Urbandale, Iowa.

By Brandon Brueschke 2

St. Paul Lutheran Church 160th Anniversary • 2023

I was there for four years. Then in 2009, I went to Mount Olive Lutheran Church and school in Des Moines till 2015.

Then I took a call through the Lutheran Church of St. John in Quincy, Illinois, and I was there for four years until 2019.

I received the call to come to St. Paul Lutheran Church and school here in Fort Dodge in 2019, so I would officially installed on November 3 of 2019” Pastor Meyer is a family man, having married his wife Lynn Meyer in 1995. They have three children, Michaela, Benjamin, and Abigail who are 23, 20, and 18 respectively.

When speaking about how being a part of St. Paul’s and the Fort Dodge community has impacted his and his family’s life, Pastor Meyer said “St. Paul and also Fort Dodge have allowed us to feel like we’re at home. This is our home. We feel that we have been accepted into the family and that we have made a lot of friends and acquaintances and have gotten to know a lot of different people. The reason I say Fort Dodge is because I have friendships with the other pastors, not just necessarily Lutheran, but the other pastors in the area than I’ve ever had in any other congregation that I’ve been in. I’ve been able to work with a congregation that is encouraging and supporting.

And from that my wife Lynn had been very active in the church and doing a lot of different activities and that has encouraged us in our ministry and also in our personal lives.”

Pastor Meyer’s work with St. Paul as the senior pastor has allowed him to become a fixture of the Fort Dodge community.

Being a leader for his congregation, Pastor Meyer has been able to guide people within their faith and education to help them flourish.

St. Paul Lutheran Church 160th Anniversary • 2023

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St. Paul Lutheran

By Brandon Brueschke

St. Paul Lutheran Church is celebrating 160 years of operation within Fort Dodge.

Located at 400 S. 13th St., the church and school branch were formed on December 20, 1863.

The original church, called Old Stone Church, was located at 615 Third Ave. S. with the first resident pastor being the Rev. Gottfried Enders.

The church is a staple of the community, providing education and religious services for Fort Dodge.

When speaking with the current pastor, the Rev. Kendall Meyer, about the legacy and impact St. Paul has had on the community, he said “Our service to the community and to the congregation by having our school. St. Paul School is one of the oldest and longest continuously running private schools in the area. I would say that that is an important legacy with our preschool and also with our K through eighth grade school. There's a lot of people in the Fort Dodge community that have gone through the preschool, and I hear that all the time. So I think that's an important legacy as far as education is concerned.”

“I think another part of our legacy would be the continued service for the community with many and various projects that we've done to help better the community,” he added.

“Over the years that has been a priority like with Pastor Henderson and his beginning SOS (Serving our Servants) 4

St. Paul Lutheran Church 160th Anniversary • 2023

to help with the firefighters, police officers, and the first responders to how we make meals for the Beacon of Hope.

And we have different kinds of activities. We have a food pantry and we help to support some of the social activities that are around town. To help as much as we can, I think that is an important legacy. And also just the fact that we are you know, that we faithfully, continually have worship services provided every weekend.”

Though the history of St Paul is looked back upon fondly, there is a dark spot that persists within the congregation.

On May 13, 1999, an arsonist burned down the church.

While St Paul was able to rebuild, the event has lingered in the minds of the congregation. Though Meyer wasn’t the pastor at the time, he was able to provide a feel of how the event continues to impact the church.

“The people I’ve talked to have said a variety of things,” he said. “They’ve said it humbled the church and made them realize that things could change in the blink of an eye.

Others have said how it taught them not to take things for granted and how transient material things really are.

Others have brought up watching it happen and hearing the stained glass breaking because of the heat. Overall the sentiment I’ve seen is that we’ve learned that life will still go on and the community will come together in the midst of tragedy.”

When speaking about the future goals of St Paul, Meyer said “Moving forward, one of the biggest focuses we want to continue to do is to build relationships with families that have younger children. We've seen that families with young children have kind of dropped off the map a little bit when it comes to worship services, or you know, for worshiping and also for participating in church life in general. And so, one of our focuses, moving forward, is to continue to build that relationship with families of young children. We also want to continue to strengthen what we're already doing with the

St. Paul Lutheran Church 160th Anniversary • 2023

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senior members of the congregation you know, especially visiting those that are not able to come to worship and continuing to allow them to feel that they are still part of the family of St. Paul.”

“Outside of the congregation, we want to be able to continue to improve the quality of the education we provide,” Meyer said “I mean, we already have a good quality education at St. Paul, for our school, but we want to continue to grow in that and continue to make more of an impact in the community with our school. And so we are planning on different ways that we can do that. When I first got here some people would say that St. Paul School is the best secret in town, and I don't want it to be a secret anymore, I want people to know that there is good quality education that can be provided at St. Paul School. And then also continuing to work with some of the social services here in town. One of the things that I've done is I've been working in partnership with other churches, the first Thursday of every month. Many of the pastors from the other churches get together in the afternoon to talk and encourage each other to pray for each other.”

“We want to continue to do things in partnership with other churches for social services and providing for need in the community,” he added. “And we want to continue to be a place where different organizations can use our facility for events and for different activities that they may need a bigger space to be able to do them in. Celebrate Recovery continues to have their meetings here. And when I first got here three years ago, we just had one meeting on Sunday. And now we've gone to three meetings where we have Sunday, Monday and Thursday. So that's a wonderful opportunity for us. So continuing to provide opportunities for people to utilize our facilities in ways that would be beneficial for them.”

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St. Paul Lutheran Church 160th Anniversary • 2023

St. Paul Lutheran Church 160th Anniversary • 2023

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St. Paul Lutheran Church 160th Anniversary • 2023

St. Paul’s Legacy With St. Paul Lutheran Church and School’s 160th anniversary on the horizon, the conversation of legacy is a prevalent one. St. Paul’s is a fixture of the Fort Dodge community and throughout the years has done much to cement that status.

When speaking with Pastor Kendall Meyer about the legacy the church has built in Fort Dodge, he said “I think the number one part of our legacy is our preschool and school. There aren’t very many days that go by where I don’t meet someone that has graduated from the school. That legacy is important. It’s an opportunity to show how we have reached out into the community through the education piece.”

Pastor Meyer continued by saying “When I mentioned that I’m the pastor at St. Paul, people know immediately where the church is. A lot of people know the church and the school. They know the location, they know somewhat about history and the work that’s been done, whether it’s working with the beacon or through Serving Our Servants, the SOS project that Pastor Henderson had that started that helped to serve the first responders, police officers and firefighters. There is also the Vacation Bible School that we’ve had, for about two years. The influence of being able to serve and to reach into the community whether it’s through our education through the school or through the church, I think is one of the greatest legacies that we have at the congregation and school.”

When speaking with Pastor Meyer about the legacy of St Paul, he made it a priority to mention how the congregation is also looking towards the future, saying “Our vision right now is that we are disciples of Christ making disciples for Christ by glorifying God and impacting the community St. Paul Lutheran Church 160th Anniversary • 2023

through being the hard hands and feet of Jesus.

That’s our vision right now, but now that we’re finishing up 160 years, in April we’re going to be starting to work on new visions and what things will look like moving forward. You know, what are some goals that we want to achieve as we seek to impact the community? We’re getting excited about those opportunities.”

St. Paul has had its tragedies in its past. In 1999 the church was burned down by an arsonist, hence the ‘From Ashes to Glory’ found on the side of the church. Another tragedy that the congregation faced was the murder of Pastor Allen Henderson in 2019. Pastor Meyer spoke briefly about the late Pastor Henderson saying “ He and I were looking forward to working together. Sadly that did not happen. So I went from coming to a congregation where there would be a team ministry to a congregation that was grieving. We were both greving, the congregation and myself. We were all grieving the loss of Pastor Henderson, I had been friends with him for quite a while.”

With 160 years soon to be under their belt, St Paul’s Lutheran Church and School is looking forward to continuing its legacy of helping and bettering the community and guiding its congregation in faith.

By Brandon Brueschke

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What We Believe We believe in God as revealed to us in Holy Scripture as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is Triune, meaning three persons but one God. He creates, redeems and sanctifies us.

Father We believe that God the Father, in love, created the universe and all there is, from nothing.

In love He sustains His creation and desires to restore His relationship with all people through His Son. Son We believe that because of His love for us, God the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ to earth. Being fully divine and fully human, He lived the perfect life of a servant, and in His death on the cross Jesus suffered the punishment we deserve for our sin. Through His death and bodily resurrection, Jesus won for us victory over death and the devil. Only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ can we have forgiveness of sins, be made acceptable to God, and receive eternal life.

Holy Spirit We believe that God the Holy Spirit works in the lives of people and brings them to faith in Jesus Christ. He works through the Word of God to accomplish this work. And dwelling in us, He empowers us to serve God and bear witness to others Bible We believe that the Bible is the living Word of God, divinely inspired by God, without error, and therefore the only source of true teaching and the final standard for evaluating all doctrine. In the pages of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testament God reveals His will for us and plan of salvation through Jesus Christ.

St. Paul Lutheran Church 160th Anniversary • 2023

Sin We believe that sin separates us from God. Sin is our rebellion against God and is what we do in thought, word, and deed, that is contrary to His will. We are born sinful and in need of daily forgiveness.

Grace As sinners, we cannot earn eternal life for ourselves. But God in His love for us gives us His grace. He doesn't give us what we deserve, instead He gives us the promise of eternal life, through the gift of His Son, Jesus.

Faith We believe that the only way for us to have the gift of salvation is by putting our faith in Jesus Christ. This means we trust in Him as our savior from sin and Lord of our lives. Faith is knowing and confessing as true, what the Bible says about Jesus to be true.

Good Works We engage in actions of love and mercy as a demonstration of God's love within us. We do this, not to win God's approval or salvation, but because we are thankful for the gift of eternal life, which we have already received as a free gift in Jesus Christ.

Baptism We believe that through The Sacrament of Holy Baptism, which is commanded by Jesus, God adopts us as His children.

We affirm the practice of baptizing infants, as well as adults, because all human beings are born with a sinful nature.

The Lord's Supper We believe that in The Sacrament of Holy Communion God offers us His grace and His love. As He promised, Jesus is truly and really present in, with, and under the bread and wine of the Sacrament to give us forgiveness for our sins and strength for our faith.

Prayer We believe that because Jesus Christ died for our sins, we have the privilege of praying directly to God. Prayer is our opportunity to thank and praise God, to seek His help in time of trouble and need, and to determine His way and will for our lives. Since prayer is a two-way communication in which we listen to God, as well as speak to Him, regular reading of the Bible is an integral part of daily prayer.

The Church We believe that those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are the Church, the Body of Christ in the world.

God empowers those in the Church with different gifts for the purpose of serving Him and others.

Jesus' Return We believe that Jesus Christ, as He promised, is coming back to earth at a time known only to God the Father. He is coming to judge the living and the dead and to fulfill His promise to give all believers eternal life.

Heaven We believe that at the time of death the soul of the believer is at once received into the presence of Christ and that, at the Last Day, the believer will live with Christ, in body and soul, in eternal joy and glory.

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St. Paul Lutheran Church 160th Anniversary • 2023

Hearing the word of God Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. (2nd Corinthians 5:17)

We believe that those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are the Church, the Body of Christ in the world.

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Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.

Thank You For 160 Years

St. Paul Lutheran Church & School 400 S.13th Street, Fort Dodge, IA 50501 Phone 515-955-7285 stpaulfd@stpaulfd.org 16

St. Paul Lutheran Church 160th Anniversary • 2023