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St. John’s Lutheran Church in Trosky will hold its final service on Nov. 2. The church was organized in 1911. Photo by Kyle Kuphal
This sign along U.S. Highway 75 is owned by St. John’s Lutheran Church in Trosky. It’s not clear what will happen to the sign after the church closes. Photo by Kyle Kuphal
The final service at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Trosky will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 2.
The church was organized in 1911 and in 1913 the congregation purchased land and built the first church. The church building that exists today was built in 1942.
Sharon Johnson, a long-time member of the church, said she thought the peak of the church’s membership might have been in the 1990s to 2000s. She said the most communicant members the church had was probably around 70 to 100. Church attendance declined over the years to as low as 10 people on some Sundays, she said.
In 2017, St. John’s Lutheran Church in Trosky joined Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Pipestone and Trinity Lutheran Church in Jasper to form the Three Strands Lutheran Parish. Johnson said the churches joined together so they could afford to hire a pastor. Pastor Robert Moeller served all three churches.
“Pastor Moeller was really instrumental in the tri-parish to get that started, and then he also started the Easter egg hunt and we had a carnival every summer,” Johnson said. “It was a free carnival and a lot of parents told us that it was one of the nicest things because you could bring your kids there and everything was free.”
Eventually the three churches took turns hosting services. More recently, Johnson said, Our Saviour’s and St. John’s would take turns, with St. John’s hosting services the first two Sundays of the month and Our Saviour’s the last two. Pastor David Petrich from St. James Lutheran in Holland was their most recent pastor.
Our Saviour’s held its last service on Oct. 26 and is being sold to another church called Iglesia De Dios Manantial de Agua Viva [Church of God Spring of Living Water], which has been holding services there and is expected to take possession of the church property in November. The St. John’s Lutheran Church property has been listed for sale and Trinity Lutheran is being used by the congregation from a church from Hardwick, which is remodeling and unable to use its church during the process.
“Hardwick was doing a remodel over there, so their pastor offered to do services in Jasper in exchange for their congregation being able to worship there while their church was closed,” Johnson said.
Johnson said it’s been hard for her to face the closure of St. John’s Lutheran. She’s been involved in the church for many years. Her children were baptized there.
“After hearing that it’s going to close, I’ve had a really hard time going back,” she said.
Johnson said St. John’s was active, serving at the food shelf, and making and donating quilts. It had an active ladies aid group, Sunday School and Vacation Bible School (VBS). Johnson said it felt more like a family than a church. She said it made an impact on people’s lives and that many memories were created there, such as Christmas caroling at rest homes, hospice and the homes of shut-ins, and making egg coffee for events.
“We still always made egg coffee for all of our funerals and gatherings, so we’re kind of noted for good egg coffee,” Johnson said.
Another of her memories is when the church opened up its VBS to the community. Johnson said it started when there were some kids sitting across the street watching kids at VBS at the church.
“It was like, we can’t just let them not come to our Bible school when they’re right there, so we went across and asked them to join our Bible school and from then on it became a community Bible school,” she said. “It was really nice.”
She said this past year was the first time the church hadn’t had VBS.
“That was kind of a sad realization that we couldn’t do it any more,” Johnson said.
She said it hasn’t had Sunday School for quite a few years because there weren’t young kids anymore.
One thing the church did that was noticed by many was install an electronic sign with Biblical messages on it along U.S. Highway 75 in 2005. The sign was donated by Larry Brockberg, who died of cancer at a young age with the hope that it would spread the word of God. It remains today, but Johnson said it’s future is unclear now that the church is closing.
With the church’s final service just days away, Johnson said she and her husband, Dennis, aren’t sure where they’ll go to church in the future. They do, however, have a church home in Lake Havasu, Ariz. where they spend their winters.
“We have a very very nice church down there,” she said.