About Grace
Pastor Erhart begins Grace Church PDF Print E-mail
Written by Perry Lund   
Friday, 15 October 2010 17:08

This is a reprinting of Pastor Julius Erhart's own story about his work as General Missionary to Iowa during the time he lived in and around Oskaloosa in 1945 - 1949.

 

Pastor Julius B Erhart
1945 – 1949 General Missionary to Iowa and Surrounding States

erhartThe Mission Board Chairman of the West Wisconsin Synod, Pastor Gustav Krause, sent a Call to me to become General Missionary to Iowa and the surrounding states in the spring of 1945. Several congregations had been started in Pueblo and three in the Colorado Springs area during my ministry in Colorado. Those congregations had been started in Pueblo were Grace in north Pueblo, Minnequa, and Our Savior, plus a store building in south Pueblo and Park Hill and Our Savior in east Pueblo. Pastor James Schaefer, a new graduate, blew up Park Hill and the Mission Board closed it.

Our Savior was doing well in the adobe church on the east side. Then Pastor Siffring built a new church on the south side and housed the assembly of the store building in it. When my successor at Grace Church closed the east side, Pastor Siffring took the name “Our savior” for his new church. Finally, my successor at Grace Church closed all churches except Grace, and he drove many from Grace Church, where he stayed until his death. The Minnequa Mission, on the south side, did not receive another pastor after the newly-graduated Pastor Art Wantoch died shortly after arriving.

Grace Church voted unanimously that I should return the West Wisconsin District Call to Iowa. At that time the various Pueblo churches gave great promise. We had a nice new church and parsonage on the north side, Grace Church. We did want to stay there. However, again in the fall of 1945 the Mission Board urged that I should go to Iowa. They promised me and the family a nice place to live and said God had given me the ability for the work that no one else that they knew of had.

We also considered the three congregations at Colorado Springs – one at Colorado City, near Manitou, in a basement; one in the north part of the city of Colorado Springs, on the main highway; and the main one on Cache Le Poudre, which was lost by Pastor Krenke when Pastor Kock was pastor there. Then there were the fields we had helped – Golden and Mancos (where we built churches) and Ordway, where I had carpentered on the parsonage. The field, in the fall of 1945, looked good in Colorado.

So we agreed that the Lord was calling me, my wife Mayme, and our five daughters to leave Pueblo and move to Iowa to start and build congregations in Iowa and surrounding states. The West Wisconsin Mission Board Chriaman, Gustav Krause, rented a house for us a Sigourney, Iowa. They paid moving expenses, by van for us, and we drove our car. We arrived first at Sigourney and refused to move into the 2-1/2 story square house, which had no insulation, a very poor building on the south edge of Sigourney. Also, there was not enough of a population to work there.

The Mission Board then let us choose our house. We chose to move into the empty half of a duplex, the other half of which was occupied by Pastor Wendland of the Wisconsin Synod, pastor of the church at Washington, Iowa. Pastor Ernst Wendland later became a missionary to Africa and then professor at the seminary. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod later took the church from the Wisconsin Synod.

I began preaching at Sigourney and Hayesville, Iowa. Attendance was good, but the people wanted an ecumenical church with people of all religions in attendance. It seemed to me that the church was welcomed only as entertainment in the small town. Such being the case, I decided to start elsewhere.

The Lord led me to Oskaloosa and brought the Steinke family as first members. They lived in Gibson. An old Missouri Synod friend, Pastor F.J. Oetjen, was the pastor in Oskaloosa at the Missouri Synod church there, St. John’s Lutheran Church. There was room for both churches. Pastor Oetjen and I were great friends. At one time when I was sick, Pastor Oetjen took over my services for me, even in the light of objections from officers of the Missouri Synod. He was a real friend.

We needed to find a house and move into Oskaloosa. We found a house that we could rent, but someone appeared with the money and bought it before we could rent it. What heartbreak for me and Mayme and the five girls. They cried and said, “Now we don’t even have a house to live in.”

However, Mayme came to the rescue, as she did so many times before, and, by God’s guidance, she said, “Let’s go see Cousin George Scheperle at Millbrook, Missouri.” That we did, and George gave us a blank check with only our signatures and no collateral on the note and told us to buy a house in Oskaloosa. We went back to Oskaloosa and bought the house at 415 North A Street and held our first service in Oskaloosa on March 25, 1945, Palm Sunday. Sixteen people were present. Rent money from Synod was used to pay the interest.

Soon our house was full of church people and Sunday School children. Celestine, our eldest daughter, was especially good at providing the music and teaching Sunday School. Antonette and Mary also helped. All give girls formed a vested choir with other children who came. Soon there was not room in our house for church and Sunday School, so we rented the YMCA. The rent was very low. I urged the “Y” to raise the rent so my people would be more willing to get a church home for themselves. The “Y” didn’t want to do it, until they understood that they were hurting the church by letting us stay in the YMCA when it was overflowing. Then they raised the rent, and we planned a church for the congregation.

We saw the Presbyterians building a new church and contracted them to buy there old one, just one block east of the town square. The city officials had asked me where I would like to locate, and I had told them “at the bandstand in the middle of Oskaloosa.” That, of course, they knew was a joke. This old Presbyterian church building was close enough. They asked $18,000 for it; there was a time limit to the offer. The Mission Board Chairman, Krause, had told me that the Wisconsin Synod had no money to buy it. One evening when the time limit was near the end, I called Pastor Krause. I asked him if the $18,000 would be ready. Pastor Krause said, “There is no money, and I have no hope of getting it.” I turned from the phone, called the Presbyterians, and told them to have their lawyers make out the closing papers – that the money would be there. When I retuned to the dining room table, where an old friend of mine, Pastor Blakewell, and his family and mine were sitting, he really took me to task, claiming I did not have the money and “had no right to do that!” I insisted that we needed the church; the Lord knew we needed it; and He would see to it that the money was there. In a few days, Pastor Krause called me that the money was there.

The officers and lawyers of the Presbyterians met with me alone. I paid them. They gave me the deed, etc… Than I said, “I hope you gentlemen realize that we own the pipe organ also.” They looked at me astonished, then sat quietly. The organ was worth more than the building and had beautiful chimes above the ceiling. Then they tried to claim they were not to sell it. I explained that the law states that build-ins go with the building. The lawyers had to agree. I told them I would not steal it; they should name a price. They said that under the circumstances as they were, if I could give $1,200 for it, on my terms, it would help them out. I agreed. I asked my church ladies, and they offered one free-will payment per month. Thus the building was acquired and all soon paid for.

Then I personally converted a number of Sunday School rooms and other spaces, which were many, into our living quarters. We had a very nice apartment. I also built a porch with garage under in on the north side. Now we had all as nice as we could want. We paid for much of it ourselves. Mayme and the firls all worked. Even little Particia, who was only seven years old when we moved to Oskaloosa, go a job shelling peas in Neiswangers Restaurant, where Mayme cooked and Antonette and Mary waited tables. Celestine was window decorator for Sears. Paula detasseled corn. And thus we all worked together as a team.

Note – during his missionary work in Iowa, Pastor Erhart worked to start a church in Ottumwa, but the Mission Board had no one to take over. Next, mission starts were begun in Newton, Charles City, Fort Madison and Burlington.

 
Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 October 2010 06:54
 
Grace Organization PDF Print E-mail
Written by Perry Lund   
Thursday, 24 September 2009 11:25

The people of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church are part of the invisible Christian Church on earth who believe and confess the Lutheran Confessions as informed by the innerrant Scriptures in the Holy Bible. Members of Grace Lutheran serve in a variety of roles including a synod called pastor, locally called workers and volunteers to help with worship, ministry, evangenlism and stewardship. Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church is a member of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod headquartered in Milwaulkee, Wisconsin.

 

Grace Lutheran has called Pastor Neumann as their shepherd from the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The voter's assembly, under the authority of church's constitution, has called people to serve in the positions of president, vice-president, 3 elders, 3 trustees, financial secretary and treasurer to serve the congregation. Volunteers for organists, Sunday School teachers, choir and musical leaders also serve the church. Volunteers also serve the congregation in unseen ways by preparing communion, making coffee, cleaning church, publishing the newsletter and performing many other services.

 

Grace Lutheran has a voter's assembly the includes all male confirmand members who have signed the church's constitution. Voter's assembly meets quarterly and to prepare a budget in early December. There are also groups serving the Lord at Grace that include the local Ladies Aid and LWMS (Lutheran Women's Missionary Society) meeting monthly. The high school Youth Group consists of the 9th - 12th grade students and friends who meet for activities once a month.
Last Updated on Monday, 17 January 2011 13:19
 
Getting to Grace PDF Print E-mail
Written by Perry Lund   
Wednesday, 23 September 2009 06:37

Grace is located on the southeastern quadrant of Oskaloosa along the west side of Highway 23. There is a Casey's General Store on the east side of Highway 23. The church driveway is the first driveway off 9th Avenue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Last Updated on Monday, 15 March 2010 19:53
 
Grace History PDF Print E-mail
Written by Perry Lund   
Tuesday, 22 September 2009 20:23

1945-localepresby-localeGrace Lutheran Church was organized in Oskaloosa, Iowa in a house north of downtown during 1945. The location was at the northeast corner of B Avenue West and North A Street. Soon, a better meeting location became available as Presbyterians had just built a new worship building and let the older church building open for rent.

 

From 1946 until 1963, Grace Lutheran Church held services in the old Presbyterian Church on 3rd Street south off Highway 92. With changes to the downtown area and Grace's congregation growing in numbers, a new location was searched for to build a new church facility.

 

grace1963In 1963, a new church was constructed on a site off then Highway 63 South and 9th Avenue. The new location provided space for the church building and parking for about 35 - 40 vehicles on a gravel lot north of the church with an entrance off of 9th Avenue. This location continues to service today's congregation.

 

In the mid-1980s, the congregation at Grace decided that a parsonage for the pastor and his family could be build south of the church on property that had just come up for sale. The parsonage was built with the help of a Lutheran Association for Church Extension (LACE) loan.The highway numbering changed in the late 1990s and the current address of the church is Highway 23 and 9th Avenue. The parsonage is located at the corner of Highway 23 and Burlington Road.

 

Eastern_Cross

In 1998, a new addition to the west side of the church was completed which added handicap access, a space for fellowship time and Bible study, and additional classroom space in the lower level. In 2009, the church completed a major rennovation to the roofing, adding 4" of insulation over the sanctuary and new Decra metal shingles over the entire roof span. LACE funding was extended to provide funding for the project with energy savings helping to pay back the funding.

 

In May of 2010, the parsonage was re-roofed with church members supply the labor for the project. In early fall 2010, the windows of the original church building were replaced with fixed vinyl-clad windows from Pella Corporation. These windows were paid for with congregational member gifts and labor.

 

For a period of years from 1995 to 2007, a sister congregation named Our Savior held services in Pella, Iowa at the Pella Memorial Building on the west side of the downtown square. With as many as 7 families attending services during the duration of the congregation, God blessed the church.

 

Pastor Roger Neumann has served Grace Lutheran Church as pastor since 1980 to the present day.
Last Updated on Monday, 23 August 2010 10:29
 
Grace Leadership PDF Print E-mail
Written by Perry Lund   
Tuesday, 22 September 2009 20:18

Grace Lutheran is served by several individuals from in our congregation who are called and voted on by the Voter's Assembly. The President and Vice President have 2 year terms, Elders and Trustees have 3 year terms, and the Financial Secretary, Treasurer and Secretary all have 2 year terms.

Grace Lutheran is blessed with a musically talented congregation who are lead by organists and music directors who give of their time and talents endlessly to the service of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

  • Organists - Barb Van Haaften (contact), Margaret Kistler (contact), Gloria Steinke (contact)
  • Music Director - Renae Van Zomeren (contact)
  • Music Helpers - Steve Schemm (contact)

 

Grace has many volunteers not listed specifically here. The names of other members can be found in the website's main menu under "People".
Last Updated on Sunday, 22 January 2012 16:42
 
More Articles...


Grace Calendar

02-26-2012
Lent 1

02-26-2012 09:00 - 10:00
Worship Service

02-26-2012 10:00 - 11:00
Sunday School / Bible Study

03-01-2012
Bday: Brad Schlesselman

03-04-2012
Lent 2

03-04-2012 09:00 - 10:00
Communion Service

03-04-2012 10:00 - 11:00
Sunday School / Bible Study

03-06-2012
Ann. Michael & Tonya Den Hartog

03-06-2012 19:00 - 20:00
Elder's Meeting

03-07-2012
Ann. Roger and Mary Gutch