Posted 4/25/01
Prayer will mark the day of beginning for First Lutheran congregation in Rush City
By MaryHelen Swanson
With an eye to the future, and a possible new church building, the congregation of First Lutheran Church in Rush City looks back this week 125 years to the beginning of the congregation. The folks will celebrate with prayer on Thursday and jubilation at Sundayís church services.
The First Evangelical Church of Rush City was organized April 26, 1876 by settlers in and near Rush City.
At a meeting that day, 35 people met with Rev. Nils John Brink, pastor of the Fish Lake Lutheran church, and organized the congregation by adopting papers of incorporation and petitioning the Augustana Synod for admittance, adopting its constitution as the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Rush City.
Membership consisted of 35 adults and 30 children in that first congregation; 10 years later it had grown to 50 adults and 52 children.
The first couple married was John A. Finne and Martina Theresa Peterson, who were united in matrimony in 1876.
First order of business, the new congregation agreed, was to build a church.
A corner lot (5th and Harte in Rush City) was donated to the church and the congregation purchased the adjoining lot to the east and three lots in the rear. The first church building was erected in 1877 and was 22í x 35.í As noted in historical information, ìall men members were subject to call for labor at an agreed price of $1.25 per day as part of their subscription towards the church building.î
In the Sanctuary, the women were seated on the left side of the aisle and the men on the right.
The church was heated in the winter with a wood stove. On extremely cold Sundays, the folks kept their coats on and the organ was moved closer to the stove so the organist could keep his fingers warm.
There was a barn below the church for sheltering horses during the services.
From 1876 to 1894, services were led by a pastor every third Sunday and deacons were in charge of the service on the other Sundays.
As one story goes, Mr. Nels Lindgren, a deacon in the church, was reading a Good Friday sermon and he read a second sermon by mistake when he turned two pages instead of one in his book of sermons.
It was remembered as lasting three hours. It probably seemed much longer to the people sitting on the hard plank benches.
In 1878, a two-point parish was formed with Rush Lake church (now Calvary Lutheran). The agreement was for a two-third and one-third pastorís service. Rush Lake provided the parsonage and received two-thirds of the services and Rush City one-third.
It was in summer of 1879 that a student, J.A. Levine, took charge of services later becoming the parishsí pastor after his ordination in 1880. He accepted the call and was given stockings, food and clothes for a year, but no cash salary.
Pastor Levine waked from Rush Point to Rush City most of the time.
The church also got its first organ in 1880.
The early years of the church were hard on both the congregation and the pastors. Salaries were meager, and getting back and forth from church to church was difficult.
Services were conducted in Swedish until sometime in the 1930s when Reuben H. Ford was pastor.
By the 100th anniversary, 1976, the congregation numbered 844 baptized, 640 confirmed members. There were 309 households with an average weekly attendance of 234.
In the year of the 50th anniversary, 1926, the congregation celebrated with a concert ìThe Great Lightî presented by the choir accompanied by the pipe organ purchased in 1915.
There were Swedish services on both Saturday and Sunday and a history of the church was given in English by Hjalmar Anderson at a Sunday evening service.
The church shared pastors with several congregations over the years until 1945 when the Rush City congregation ìwanted to go it alone.î
It was not to happen, however, until 1954, when Pastor Howard Lindstrom resigned as pastor of the Rush City and Rush Point churches.
A call was extended to Rev. Carl A. Zimmerman who began his work with the congregation in September 1954.
Because he could devote all his time to one church, he initiated two worship services a Sunday.
And in 1958, live broadcasts of the second half of the early service were begun over WCMP radio in Pine City.
The east side addition to the church building was added in 1957.
During the service of Rev. Oscar W. Mattson (1961) steps were taken to complete the transformation of the church from a Swedish Lutheran to an American Lutheran church.
First, the congregation adopted the Service Book and Hymnal as the book of worship.
This was followed by the merger of the Augustana Lutheran Church with the United Lutheran Church forming the Lutheran Church in America in 1963.
First Lutheran in Rush City thus became part of the largest Lutheran church in the country.
In the early 70s, the congregation began to plan yet another addition to the building, going west and south.
During the service of Rev. Thomas L. Delk, this addition was completed and included the comfortable ìfiresideî room.
Today, Laurie OíShea is pastor of the congregation with its 995 baptized members, 110 Sunday School children and 65 confirmation students.
The congregation, invites everyone to join in the anniversary celebration this coming weekend. A congregational picture will be taken at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. St. Paul Area Synod Bishop Mark Hanson will be the guest preacher at the worship services and a potluck dinner will follow at noon. A Sunday evening service will reflect the Swedish heritage of this 125-year-old congregation.