Worship 101 Who is St. John Lutheran Church?

St. John Lutheran Church has been a congregation in Mars, PA since 1897. As you can imagine, there have been a lot of changes over the years, but there have also been some things that have remained constant in the identity of the congregation. Hear some of the stories of the history of the congregation and how these stories shape the values of the congregation and the way St. John worships together. 

Learn more about St. John Lutheran Church at stjohnchurchmars.org or follow us on Facebook.

Scripture quotations from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. © Copyright 2011 COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Hello, and welcome to week two of our Worship 101 series of Facets of Faith. Now, you might have noticed that we called this series uh Worship 101, but last week we started off with a bunch of history about the Reformation and the Lutheran Church, and we're gonna keep going on with the history of the congregation, and that might seem disconnected from worship, because worship is what we do every Sunday now in 2026. But really, the foundation, the history, all of that leads us into how we worship today and the identity of the congregation. Because one of the things that is true of Lutheran theology, at least, and I know lots of other theologies too, is that the context of the congregation matters immensely. It changes how worship is formed, it changes the culture of worship, it changes a lot of things. So, how did St. John Lutheran Church get the culture that it has today? Well, I'm standing outside of our building right now. Fortunately, the weather is cooperating with us today, and I'm actually standing next to the cornerstone here. The cornerstone of the building, this says 1897 to 1951. This was originally the 1897 cornerstone of the original building, which means that this church has been around for almost 130 years. And all of it started with a few men, yes, men, a few men gathering together on a regular basis in town just to talk about what's currently going on in the world. And then as they were talking, they were talking about all these different churches they went to. They would go to Evans City, they would go to Pine Creek, they would go all over to these different churches. And so what they said was, hey, we need to have something more local, because the only way they were getting to these places was horse and buggy and walking. So they wanted a Lutheran church that was local. And so they and some others came together in May of 1897 and they said, We're gonna start a congregation. And 40 some people signed the original charter, and then by September of the same year, so think about that, May to September, they went from deciding to have a congregation to having an actual building built. And all of that happened in those few months. And these men were all of German descent, and that's important because in the first, oh gosh, 20, 30 years of the congregation, German was a required language of the pastor. Fortunately for me, it's no longer required. But they would do German services every morning and English services in the evening. And they would come together and they were a group of people who just made things happen. A lot of the work to build the original building was done by volunteer work. It was done by people just coming together and making things happen. Now, some interesting things about how this all began. Uh, way back when in 1897, as they were kind of figuring out what they needed to be a church, there's a couple of things that were of first priority. Number one was um obviously finding the people and making the charter, but the very first thing they ordered before the plans for the building were even built was the bell. And the bell, it is a 40-inch diameter bell. I forget how much it weighed, a lot. Um, it cost them $100, it came with a two-year guarantee. And that's actually the same bell that we use today. We ring it every single Sunday before service, during service, and we ring it at funerals, we ring it at weddings. It's still used actively today, which is absolutely incredible. The other thing that I noticed is that as they were forming this new church, before they installed, before they dedicated the building, they actually had their Sunday school teachers all lined up. So faith formation and kids and all of that was absolutely essential to the identity of this congregation. So one of the kind of burning questions when you look at a church, especially one that's been around for as long as St. John has been, is why that name? Where did that name even come from? And honestly, in our records, all that it says is on such and such a date, the people met together and decided to call this new church Saint John. Now, a lot of Lutheran churches will name their church, especially in that time era, will name their churches after one of the gospels. It's to connect us to the mission and ministry of Christ. Because as Lutherans, we do believe that it is God's work in our hands doing the ministry and mission, continuing and partnering with God and mission and ministry in this world. So, as I was mentioning outside, the bell was one of the first things that was purchased here. And the bell actually got used because this was all farming country. And so before service began, we would ring the bell to kind of call people in and to say, come to church, it's time, because clocks were, you know, not as much of a thing back in the 1890s. And so the bell called people to church, and then if they couldn't make it because they were working in the fields or had some emergency on the farm, we ring it during the Lord's Prayer so people could join us in prayer from wherever they were in town. So and so another part that would be incredibly important to have as a congregation, a physical item that would be important to the congregation would be a baptismal font. Because in the Lutheran tradition, baptism is one of the two sacraments that we have. We'll talk about sacraments another time. But in baptism, we are washed of our sins, we are named and claimed as God's beloved, we are brought into the promise God gives us for life, we are joined with Christ in Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension, and all of this. So, as you can imagine, a congregation without a baptismal font would have been a little tricky. However, baptismal fonts were not necessarily cheap. And after pulling together to raise the money and you find the workers to make the congregation, to make the building and that bell, uh, they had to save up for a little bit before they could buy a baptismal font. And so in 1900, a couple years after they finished the building, they had enough money to buy a marble baptismal font. And actually, this is the same font that they bought way back in 1900. So every time I bring someone to baptism at this font, I like to imagine just how many people were named and claimed as God's beloved at this font in the past 126 years. I think I read something from the I don't know, 75th, 90th anniversary, that over 400 baptisms. I'm sure it's much more than that, but there are hundreds of people who've been baptized here at this font, which is neat when you think about the history of this congregation. So, with all these baptisms that were happening, at some point the original building that was built in 1897 just wasn't big enough. And they needed to build a new sanctuary that would uh last for longer, that would house more people, and that could better serve the needs of the congregation as it was growing. And so you saw when we were outside at the cornerstone that the cornerstone said 1897-1951. And so in 1951, the congregation set about to build a new sanctuary, and that's the sanctuary we're in now. And this sanctuary was built again with a lot of people coming together with volunteer hours to dig out space for a basement, to pull together supplies, and to just make it happen, because they saw that this was a need that they had, and so they just rallied the troops, so to speak, and made it happen. So when they made this part of the sanctuary, they uh actually had an electric organ at the time, um, probably because of financial reasons. Because again, this was a small rural congregation that was just kind of pinching things together to make it work, to do what they needed to do to be church. And so they got an organ because music was deeply important to them. Then, as the church continued to grow and as times continued to change, they did their best to keep up with the times, adding a PA system so that people could hear things better in the sanctuary. And then in uh the 1990s somewhere around there, there was another round of major renovations that happened. Um, first of all, they got this beautiful, beautiful pipe organ. And so that changed the way the front of the church looked, what we called a chancel. Um, and so that's the organ we use now. And then also at the 90s, they added an elevator because they had people, they saw that there was a need. There was people who couldn't come up the steps to get into the sanctuary. And so, as they were building, you know, office space and things like that, they said we need to make sure there's an elevator so that everybody can come to worship without barriers of accessibility. So from 1897 to 2026, this congregation, as you can imagine, has seen a lot of shifts and changes, but there's also been a lot of things that have stayed the same. For instance, when we go back and we look at that charter document for those 40-some people who came together and said, we need a Lutheran church in Mars, when you look at the names on that list, we actually still have members today that are part of those families. Either they hold the same name or it is in their history and they can draw their connections back all the way through the years. And that's part of what is so special about an older congregation like this is we have this rich history, we have this rich background, and we also have this pattern of accompanying people through every stage of life, from birth to sickness to wellness to marriages to kids to divorces to death. We accompany families through it all. And that's one of the things that some of our members have highlighted as being a special part of being part of this congregation for a long time.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Um my name is Sally Foster, and um I I and my family, my Hespenhide family, have been members of this church um probably a told a hundred years. Well, I remember when they um burned the mortgage in church, and they I think they used a baptismal font and they actually lit a fire and burned it. Um before that, I mean I was pretty young then. Before that, um I remember coming to Sunday school, and we had a good time in Sunday school. They made it interesting. We had little leaflets with the story on it, and I remember one of them that was my favorite, had a picture of Jesus sitting on a rock, like in a meadow, and little children sitting around him. And um, I'll never forget that one. I think that this has always been a family. Whenever one person hurts, everybody hurts. Um, everybody was very close because they had all been together for a pretty long time. When I come here, I love the music. I love singing the hymn.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Um my name is Sam McCormick, and I have been a member of St. John's my entire life, 73 years, and my grandchildren are the fifth generation to be member baptized at St. John. Um, my grandfather was baptized and confirmed here. My dad was baptized and confirmed here. My brother and I were both baptized and confirmed. Both of my kids were baptized and confirmed here, and four out of five of my grandchildren have been baptized here. So we're one of the few five-generation families. Probably the church picnics that we used to have in the side yard before the old parsonage was torn down. Um, there was the area in between the church and the old parsonage. They would put up a big tent and they would have church picnics there. Uh being with family and a lot of friends, and just the fellowship of everybody together. I feel this is the one time that I can come in and get the spiritual blessings and message that our pastor Katie gives so wonderfully. I can remember when we used to get uh two or three kids for the children's sermon. And now I will count some Sundays I count 11 kids or more in such a variety of age, from little teeny tiny ones to teenagers. And I think we're so fortunate that you give a message that reaches out to the young and the old. Today I looked around, you know, so much diversity we have in this congregation today. And I just think that that's wonderful. I think it's absolutely wonderful. And I saw people welcoming them.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

My name is Janet Senka, and I've been a member here at St. John for approximately 70 years, maybe even a little longer, but I was too young to know my mom would bring me to church. But when we're talking to Pastor, we talked about like what did St. John mean to me. Um, I gave it a lot of thought. Um, no matter where I lived and what was happening in my life. Um marriage, divorce, marriage. There was one cast in my life. My heart. No matter what I was feeling or what my needs were, there were five different cafes during that period of time. Each one was very different. Your idea for what we're talking about. Um we're gonna have to for three and four-year-old, of course. I think so. They make fun when people make fun of things. Oh, here you go. There's always something that I can do. And when someone can we do this, it really means a great deal. I mean, whether it was with money or with um things that I can do. And when you look at their little faces and you know that you've something well because they're smiling, it's important to me.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Now, that being said, as new members join, we have a lot of people who come in who are new to Mars and new to the faith and new to Lutheranism. And so when they become a part of this congregation, when they join as a member of St. John Church, they don't have the same bloodline back to the Charter members, but they are still grafted into this community of faith that has been a part of Mars since 1897. They become a part of the community just as much as those people who can trace their family history back to those charter members. And so as we look back across the past 129 years of this congregation, there are certain things that we see coming up over and over again that makes St. John what it is and that informs and forms the way that we worship and exist as a community in Mars. For one thing, worship is central, obviously. Worshiping God and celebrating God's creative goodness in this world is vastly important. Celebrating God's promises of life and love to us in baptism and communion is important. But also the way that we function as church is important. It's important for us to have connections with our kids, to have faith formation, to have Sunday school and learning opportunities. It's important for kids and people of all ages to be welcomed in worship. It's important to have for people to have accessibility to worship and to be able to get to this space, regardless of their physical abilities or whatever might hold them back otherwise. St. John is a congregation that has been in Mars since 1897. And as we look to the future, the next 129 years, I have a feeling that there will be some things that will change drastically, perhaps the building, as it has changed over the years. But one thing will stay the same: that this is a congregation that is grounded in Christ's call to acceptance and kindness for everyone, that this is a congregation that celebrates people of all ages, that this is a congregation that comes together and supports one another through every phase of life, from birth to death. So I hope all of that gave you just a little bit of insight into who St. John Lutheran Church in Mars is, where we came from, and how that history, how that tradition has helped to form us as to who we are today. So next week we will finally be getting into the actual way that worship looks and what does worship look like as this congregation in 2026.