This article is first in a series during the Centennial Year at Trinity, chronicling our celebrations. . .

 

Trinity Observes 100^th Anniversary on January 9th, Inaugurating A Year of Celebration!

 

 

On January 9^th, 2010, Trinity Lutheran congregation, Springfield, Missouri became a one hundred year old church.  Because January 9^th in 2010 was a Saturday, a special Centennial Inaugural Service was conducted the next day to give thanks to God for His century of grace upon the Trinity family. A special two part, two week Bible class was conducted on January 10^th and January 17^th to teach the 2010 congregation the details of their church family history.  Senior Pastor Rev. Bill R. Marler presented the story of Trinity, and the centennial committee (TLC-100) Mr. Steve Koehler led a group discussion in which many long-time members of Trinity were able to share their remembrances and stories to help “fill in the blanks.”

The TLC-100 was appointed by the Church Council early in 2009 and began meeting in the spring of 2009 in order to plan a year’s worth of special services and events, monthly displays of Trinity’s history, the production of an updated history and a new pictorial directory, souvenir sales, and much more.  The Committee includes Leona Fischer, Phyllis Hansen, Steve Koehler, Bob and Katherine Neely, Juli Sarff, Ruth Seboldt, and Earl Viets, with the Pastors serving as advisors.  However, as the month of January is only the beginning of the centennial celebration, this committee views itself as only the original organizer of a year long process.  “We are hoping to recruit many of our members to get involved in the celebration of our centennial.  It is a year long celebration.  Not only do we need volunteers to help us with our monthly displays, with the planning and pulling off of our major events, but we hope new ideas can be added to the schedule,” explains Chairman Koehler.  “The more people who get involved, the greater a year of celebration we will have.”

In addition to bringing keepsakes and memories for the monthly displays, the TLC-100 will need volunteer “teams” to design and assemble the displays.  In December, 2009, many members brought their items to the TLC-100, who carefully labels, organizes, guards, and keeps each item they borrow for the history displays.   Volunteers are also needed to help with planning and organizing the major events that will happen in June and October, locating past members and friends to invite to these events, helping research for the updated history that will be produced by the end of the year in booklet form and on DVD (the TLC-100 will make a DVD history available to every household), public relations and publicity efforts.

Trinity will welcome a number of guest preachers to the pulpit during the centennial year, including Missouri District President Dr. Ray Mirly, Rev. Gene Wyssmann, and a representative from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, along with former pastors, vicars, and sons of Trinity, including Pastor W. Mart Thompson, Mike Zeigler, Rev. Dar Karsten, and Rev. Dr. Martin Conkling.  On January 31^st, Trinity welcomed back to the pulpit its most recent “former Pastor,” the Rev. Manny Rodriguez, who came with his wife Letty, to report on the progress of the ministry of our partner mission church, Amigos de Cristo, Sedalia, Mo.  Pastor Rodriguez, a second career pastor who spent 20 years in law enforcement as a homicide detective in Miami, Florida, came to Trinity in 2006 as a graduate of

JANUARY CENTENNIAL ARTICLE—page 2

 

Concordia Seminary, called as a Missionary-at-Large to Hispanic emigrants and families in the Springfield area.  Trinity was able to establish a full time Hispanic ministry until economic conditions forced most of the members to relocate, at which time the Rodriguez’s moved to Sedalia where the opportunities were greater for full time work.  Indeed Amigos has already tripled in membership and has become a chartered congregation of our Missouri District.

Pastor Marler reiterated in the January Trumpet the need for all members to pitch in with the coming year’s centennial celebration.  “This is only the beginning of a year-long celebration.  Together we will remember and literally compile the history that we will write, produce, and distribute at the end of the year.  We will sponsor events especially for long-time Trinity members to come and share their memories, as we collect pictures and historical items to be considered for inclusion.  Together we will celebrate the blessings and gifts of God that have brought us to where we are today.  Together we will project and plan our future as God desires to continue to use at Trinity, to build His Church.”

Marler also appeals to young families and newly joined members of Trinity.  “I especially appeal to members who have recently joined our congregation, and to all young families to step up and get involved in this celebration!  God has brought you here, at least for now, because it is His desire that we continue into the twenty first century to be a congregation faithful to His Word at a time in history when so many churches and church bodies struggle with the whole concept of doctrinal purity and truth. . .those of you who are younger will hear the stories of those who are older, how they raised their children as you are now doing.  How much we can all learn from each other!” 

Many lessons can be learned from Trinity’s history.  The congregation had a very difficult time getting founded, much less established.  In the early years Trinity was a small group of households who struggled to find the resources needed to begin a church and to afford a Pastor.  There were many set-backs and frustrations.   Pastors from other congregations donated their days off to minister to the Lutherans in Springfield until Trinity reached a point where they could call their own Pastor.  In 1917 Rev. A.F. Woker came to Trinity.  Within a few years, they bought property and built their first church building, which served them for thirty years.  God works in mysterious ways; when they tried to buy adjacent property to expand their growing needs for space, neighbors would not sell, and a Plan B was forced, a plan which took them to the south “extremes” of Springfield, our present location.  This turned out to be a big factor in the phenomenal growth Trinity experienced in the 1950s and 1960s.

The history of Trinity is the history of long-term Pastors, each of which were both good, sound, doctrinal teachers, and capable administrative leaders.  A.F. Woker, E.H. Koerber, and C.W. Heilman served faithfully nearly 70 years total!   Trinity would survive the turbulent times of the 1970’s in our Synod, and the divisive charismatic and church growth movements of recent decades precisely because they had been molded into a church in the Word, with many lay theologians.  This produced fruits of character in the congregation, so that there were also capable lay leaders who guarded the doctrine, as well as the fruits of zeal for expanding the kingdom.  Trinity planted over a dozen new congregations and ministries in the area, including a full time campus ministry and a Lutheran school. 

Current Pastors Marler and Tessaro want the congregation of 2010 to know, appreciate, and celebrate this family history so that Trinity can use this centennial year for immediate and long-range planning.  “We can embrace God’s grace on our past—what a blessing this story is for us today—as we ask ourselves this year, ‘where would God have us go and what would God have us do’ here at the beginning of our second century, “ Marler said. 

 

Next month:   Baptisms in the history of Trinity/Boy Scout Troop 31/Trinity history highlight!!!!

..

 

This article is first in a series during the Centennial Year at Trinity, chronicling our celebrations. . .

 

Trinity Observes 100^th Anniversary on January 9th, Inaugurating A Year of Celebration!

 

 

On January 9^th, 2010, Trinity Lutheran congregation, Springfield, Missouri became a one hundred year old church.  Because January 9^th in 2010 was a Saturday, a special Centennial Inaugural Service was conducted the next day to give thanks to God for His century of grace upon the Trinity family. A special two part, two week Bible class was conducted on January 10^th and January 17^th to teach the 2010 congregation the details of their church family history.  Senior Pastor Rev. Bill R. Marler presented the story of Trinity, and the centennial committee (TLC-100) Mr. Steve Koehler led a group discussion in which many long-time members of Trinity were able to share their remembrances and stories to help “fill in the blanks.”

The TLC-100 was appointed by the Church Council early in 2009 and began meeting in the spring of 2009 in order to plan a year’s worth of special services and events, monthly displays of Trinity’s history, the production of an updated history and a new pictorial directory, souvenir sales, and much more.  The Committee includes Leona Fischer, Phyllis Hansen, Steve Koehler, Bob and Katherine Neely, Juli Sarff, Ruth Seboldt, and Earl Viets, with the Pastors serving as advisors.  However, as the month of January is only the beginning of the centennial celebration, this committee views itself as only the original organizer of a year long process.  “We are hoping to recruit many of our members to get involved in the celebration of our centennial.  It is a year long celebration.  Not only do we need volunteers to help us with our monthly displays, with the planning and pulling off of our major events, but we hope new ideas can be added to the schedule,” explains Chairman Koehler.  “The more people who get involved, the greater a year of celebration we will have.”

In addition to bringing keepsakes and memories for the monthly displays, the TLC-100 will need volunteer “teams” to design and assemble the displays.  In December, 2009, many members brought their items to the TLC-100, who carefully labels, organizes, guards, and keeps each item they borrow for the history displays.   Volunteers are also needed to help with planning and organizing the major events that will happen in June and October, locating past members and friends to invite to these events, helping research for the updated history that will be produced by the end of the year in booklet form and on DVD (the TLC-100 will make a DVD history available to every household), public relations and publicity efforts.

Trinity will welcome a number of guest preachers to the pulpit during the centennial year, including Missouri District President Dr. Ray Mirly, Rev. Gene Wyssmann, and a representative from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, along with former pastors, vicars, and sons of Trinity, including Pastor W. Mart Thompson, Mike Zeigler, Rev. Dar Karsten, and Rev. Dr. Martin Conkling.  On January 31^st, Trinity welcomed back to the pulpit its most recent “former Pastor,” the Rev. Manny Rodriguez, who came with his wife Letty, to report on the progress of the ministry of our partner mission church, Amigos de Cristo, Sedalia, Mo.  Pastor Rodriguez, a second career pastor who spent 20 years in law enforcement as a homicide detective in Miami, Florida, came to Trinity in 2006 as a graduate of

JANUARY CENTENNIAL ARTICLE—page 2

 

Concordia Seminary, called as a Missionary-at-Large to Hispanic emigrants and families in the Springfield area.  Trinity was able to establish a full time Hispanic ministry until economic conditions forced most of the members to relocate, at which time the Rodriguez’s moved to Sedalia where the opportunities were greater for full time work.  Indeed Amigos has already tripled in membership and has become a chartered congregation of our Missouri District.

Pastor Marler reiterated in the January Trumpet the need for all members to pitch in with the coming year’s centennial celebration.  “This is only the beginning of a year-long celebration.  Together we will remember and literally compile the history that we will write, produce, and distribute at the end of the year.  We will sponsor events especially for long-time Trinity members to come and share their memories, as we collect pictures and historical items to be considered for inclusion.  Together we will celebrate the blessings and gifts of God that have brought us to where we are today.  Together we will project and plan our future as God desires to continue to use at Trinity, to build His Church.”

Marler also appeals to young families and newly joined members of Trinity.  “I especially appeal to members who have recently joined our congregation, and to all young families to step up and get involved in this celebration!  God has brought you here, at least for now, because it is His desire that we continue into the twenty first century to be a congregation faithful to His Word at a time in history when so many churches and church bodies struggle with the whole concept of doctrinal purity and truth. . .those of you who are younger will hear the stories of those who are older, how they raised their children as you are now doing.  How much we can all learn from each other!” 

Many lessons can be learned from Trinity’s history.  The congregation had a very difficult time getting founded, much less established.  In the early years Trinity was a small group of households who struggled to find the resources needed to begin a church and to afford a Pastor.  There were many set-backs and frustrations.   Pastors from other congregations donated their days off to minister to the Lutherans in Springfield until Trinity reached a point where they could call their own Pastor.  In 1917 Rev. A.F. Woker came to Trinity.  Within a few years, they bought property and built their first church building, which served them for thirty years.  God works in mysterious ways; when they tried to buy adjacent property to expand their growing needs for space, neighbors would not sell, and a Plan B was forced, a plan which took them to the south “extremes” of Springfield, our present location.  This turned out to be a big factor in the phenomenal growth Trinity experienced in the 1950s and 1960s.

The history of Trinity is the history of long-term Pastors, each of which were both good, sound, doctrinal teachers, and capable administrative leaders.  A.F. Woker, E.H. Koerber, and C.W. Heilman served faithfully nearly 70 years total!   Trinity would survive the turbulent times of the 1970’s in our Synod, and the divisive charismatic and church growth movements of recent decades precisely because they had been molded into a church in the Word, with many lay theologians.  This produced fruits of character in the congregation, so that there were also capable lay leaders who guarded the doctrine, as well as the fruits of zeal for expanding the kingdom.  Trinity planted over a dozen new congregations and ministries in the area, including a full time campus ministry and a Lutheran school. 

Current Pastors Marler and Tessaro want the congregation of 2010 to know, appreciate, and celebrate this family history so that Trinity can use this centennial year for immediate and long-range planning.  “We can embrace God’s grace on our past—what a blessing this story is for us today—as we ask ourselves this year, ‘where would God have us go and what would God have us do’ here at the beginning of our second century, “ Marler said. 

 

Next month:   Baptisms in the history of Trinity/Boy Scout Troop 31/Trinity history highlight!!!!

..