Ministry under construction: Expanding a church on a budget

When members of Hanover Lutheran Church's building committee broke ground Nov. 4 for its proposed expansion, they didn't put aside their shovels after the ceremony.

Some of them, along with other members of the church, will pick them up again in the spring -- along with hammers, saws and paint rollers -- and help with the construction.

Submitted photo

Architect Amee Boettcher designed the addition and the church contracted with the group Laborers for Christ. LFC, subsidized by the Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod, will take care of getting all the building permits, appointing a site supervisor and seeing that all the city codes are met. They also use the projects they work on as an opportunity to witness for Christ.

The laborers of LFC are Christian men and women who do physical labor for Christ, working for congregations and other church-related organizations of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod to build churches, schools, parish halls, retirement homes and camp facilities, according to the organization's Web site, www.lcef.org/services/laborers_for_christ.

"These [typically] retired people come from all walks of life. Those with experience help those with less experience. Christian principles are applied on the construction site, and each worker does what he or she can. While some work on one or two projects a year, others choose to work all year," according to the site.

Laborers who are employed by a congregation attend worship services and take part in activities just as they would in their home congregations. When construction starts in March, a group of laborers from LFC will work for minimum wage. That, the volunteer help from the congregation and price breaks on supplies that some business owners in the church have promised will save on much of the cost of the building, said Dr. John Hall, the building committee chairman and a local urologist who grew up in the Hanover community.

"It will give us a lot of ownership and make people feel like they're involved," Hall said. "The program works well for this congregation."

It might not work for other congregations, he said, but Hanover worked with LFC in an earlier building project and looks forward to this new effort.

The congregation has been preparing for a new addition for about nine years, said Dale Steffens, president of the congregation. Now all the plans are in place for the 100-by-140-foot activity center that will add a high-school size gymnasium, classrooms, a kitchen, a youth room and offices. Excavation and dirt work have begun, and Steffens said it is the congregation's hope that its fall pork sausage supper will be one of the first gatherings to take place at the new center.

A casualty of the building program will be the old 1950s vintage Quonset hut which Steffens and Hall say has probably served out its usefulness. Some memories, however, are attached to the old building, which was once a roller skating rink for church and community young people.

"My wife remembers that old skating rink," Steffens said. "Her dad would pick up a whole carload of girls in the neighborhood. A lot of people who go back to the 1950s and early 1960s remember going roller skating in that hut."

Roller skating has given way to basketball and volleyball, which the children in the church participate in, Steffens said. They need a place for recreation and for their tournaments. Hanover is growing, he said, and the congregation needs to accommodate young families.

"Our Sunday school rooms are packed," he said. "We just need more Sunday school space."

The $1.2 million project will be paid for with some funds the church has already raised, through members' pledges and through some financing through a local bank, Hall said.

Hanover Lutheran Church celebrated its 160th anniversary in 2006. It is the oldest Lutheran church in the area and is the source from which many other Lutheran churches have sprung.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160