St. John’s Lutheran Church Celebrates 160 Years
On the border of Corcoran and Maple Grove along County Road 101 sits a church that’s a fixture in its community.
“St. John’s is a faithful church,” said Pastor Matthew Moss, who’s spent the last six and a half years at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.
It’s a small blip considering the church’s long history.
“The German immigrants wanted a place where they could receive the word in sacrament and raise their children in the Lutheran faith,” he said.
Those German immigrants established the church here in 1864 during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln in the middle of the Civil War.
“And we’ve only endured this long by the grace of God and Jesus Christ,” Moss said. “This is a congregation of sinners. If it was left to our own devices, we would’ve made a mess of it a long time ago. It’s only by Him that we can endure.”
Not just endure, but thrive.
A continuing legacy
The building not only houses a school, but Moss says the congregation’s size is somewhere between 700 to 1,000 people.
“Some of the original founding families of this church still have descendants living and attending and involved, and some of their ancestors are buried in our cemetery as well,” he said. “And so those are truly our most prized possessions in the church.”
This weekend, the church plans to celebrate its 160th anniversary with a guest preacher, a special luncheon and a plethora of historical photos for visitors to view.
The church, much like the surrounding neighborhood, looks much different than it did in 1864. Yet despite all the changes, the mission has remained the same.
“These are faithful Lutherans,” Moss said. “Not all of German descent, from a variety of nationalities around the world, who have a common savior and a common mission to have their children raised with that same Lutheran faith.”
The church plans to have even more events this summer to continue the celebration of its 160th anniversary.
A flyer advertising the church’s 160th anniversary celebration this weekend.
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