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135th Anniversary

This year Christ Lutheran Church celebrates its 135th anniversary. Someone mentioned to me a while ago that they did not recall any formal celebration of the congregation's 125th anniversary. This didn't shock me. We are a church giving fully in the present, and we are just so darn busy living in the presence of Jesus today that sometimes we forget to stop and remember where we have been.

But 135 years is a long time, and worth noting. Our congregation traces its origins to the founding of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Glencoe in 1875. Our congregation has had several names throughout our history, but our current name comes from Christ Lutheran Church of Montana founded in 1887. St. John's in Glencoe, Christ in Montana and a small gathering in the village of Arcadia were served by common pastors during the late 1800's and early 1900's.

The 1870's were eventful times for the German immigrants who had arrived in Wisconsin. Many of the middle aged people must have been war weary. Germany had fought a bloody war with France ending in 1871 and the United States was recovering from the devastation of the Civil War. Ulysses S. Grant was finishing his second term as president and his policy of expanding rights for black citizens in the south was facing stiff opposition from southern lawmakers. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were desperately trying to preserve the traditional way of life of the plains Indians. They would defeat General Custer in the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. The country was being transformed by the industrial revolution and many American cities were expanding rapidly. The telephone was invented in 1876. In 1875 the Page Act was passed, restricting immigration to the United States for the first time. The Page Act was a reaction to the influx of Chinese immigrants who moved to the west to work on the railroads. Harvard and Tufts faced off in the first organized college football game.

We often assume that "back in the day" times were simpler and less stressful. But our first church members faced huge challenges. They had been uprooted as immigrants.  They were homesteading and acquiring land. They faced language barriers and prejudice. Even their church was not immune to conflict and turmoil. In these years the Lutheran churches in America were divided by the slavery issue, the use of English, cooperation with other protestants, how to interpret the Lutheran Confessions and the doctrine of predestination. Christ Lutheran was served at times by pastors from the Iowa Synod and at times by more conservative Wisconsin Synod pastors and several pastors left or were forced to leave due to congregational disunity. In fact, two factions of the congregation actually called two different pastors in 1904, but only one of them showed up!

If there is one thing a person learns from a look back into the past, it's that the church has faced challenges, stresses and even a little turmoil in nearly every age. Thank God that Christ is faithful through the changes and chances of human life. As psalm 103 says:

As for mortals, their days are like grass;
they flourish like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children's children,
to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.


Peace Pastor Peter
 

 


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