Small congregation celebrates a big milestone
Special service Sunday for St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church in St. Jacobs, which is dealing with a demographic shift
ST. JAMES EVANGELICAL
LUTHERAN Church in St. Jacobs celebrates 150 years this Sunday. For Marie Scheffelmeier, who’s always been a member of the congregation, it’s important to pause and recognize the milestone.
“My roots are deep in this church,” Scheffelmeier said.
She and other members of the anniversary committee have been busy planning a celebration to recognize the church’s history and the struggle to continue to keep it open. Bishop Michael Pryse will be there, as will some previous ministers of the church.
“The way churches are going nowadays, many of them are closing up or declining so badly and ours is one of them. We don’t know if we’ll be here another 25 years the way it’s going. Everything is declining and we don’t even have a minister right now,” she said.
With no minister since May, Rev. Hans Borch from Elmira has been helping as their interim minister if they need one. They’ve also had retired Lutheran ministers come in and students who are in seminary to preach on Sundays.
“We’re a small congregation and we can’t afford big dollars [to pay a minister], which a lot of churches are at that point now too. The congregations are getting smaller and smaller because the young people are not going to church and the old people are dying,” she explained.
Scheffelmeier still lives in the house she was born in and has strong ties to the church. She was baptized there, confirmed there and married there. Her two sons and her two granddaughters were also baptized there. And she comes to church service every Sunday, without fail.
“I just don’t feel right if I haven’t been to church,” she said.
The struggle now is to get more people – young people in particular – to attend church. Their church membership lists more than 100 people, but she says they’re
lucky if they get 50 people on a Sunday. Usually it’s between 35 and 45.
“We’ve been a strong congregation up to this point and I would like to see it continue, so I’m really working hard on this to keep it going,” she said.
She noticed the drop in attendance when more options for activities became available on Sunday. When she was growing up, church and youth group were the only options.
“The church started to decline when Sunday shopping came in and Sunday sports came in. Nowadays the kids have hockey practice Sunday morning, they can’t go to church or Sunday school. Or they’ve got soccer practice or they’ve got ringette practice, or they’ve got games,” she said.
They don’t have any members in the church with young children. There was one couple with three children but they ended up moving away.
She’d like to see some collaboration between the Lutheran churches in the area, like having the youth join together to create a youth group.
“There’s just so many things that the young people have nowadays that church does not interest them. We didn’t have that when were young. We didn’t have any options. We had our youth group and that was our thing,” she said.
The church itself has not always looked the same. The current building has been there for more than 50 years. The second church was built almost overtop of the first church. The original cornerstone is still displayed at the front of the church.
She’d love to see the church get more use than it does by renting it out, a common choice for churches these days trying to stay afloat.
“We’ve got such a beautiful church here. We’ve got a beautiful downstairs. I could see our church being rented out or leased out for different functions like spaghetti dinners or harvest suppers or sauerkraut suppers. We’ve got a beautiful Sunday school room,” she said.
Despite her concerns for the future of the church, she remains optimistic.
“God has given me a lot to be thankful for and I’m happy with it all.”
The 150th anniversary celebration at St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church in St. Jacobs runs Oct. 30 from 2-4 p.m. on Reformation Sunday. This is also the 499th anniversary of the Reformation.