The first fifty: Area church celebrates golden anniversary

Fifty years ago Oct. 6, 104 Lutheran adults and 73 children gathered around a flatbed trailer at Kingshighway and Cape Rock Drive, in what was then the outskirts of Cape Girardeau, and held a church service. A makeshift pulpit and altar were on the flatbed, along with the choir. The congregation sat on benches facing the trailer.

That was the first service of St. Andrew Lutheran Church, which had recently formed from Trinity Lutheran Church. Several charter members who are still active in St. Andrew -- and one "charter kid" who grew up in the church, as David Hahs calls himself -- recalled those early days in anticipation of the banquet coming up Oct. 6 and the festival service the following day. Hahs' father, Luther Hahs, was one of the founding members, along with Carlston Bohnsack. The two presented the petition to form the church at the Missouri Synod headquarters in St. Louis. Hahs also was the first chairman of the congregation.

The anniversary committee has been collecting written memories from some of the charter members, Hahs said. One came from Bessie Nagel, the oldest living charter member, who recalled that for the first year services were held "in a borrowed building, on borrowed chairs with a borrowed coffee pot."

Following that first outdoor service, St. Andrew met for services in the old Jefferson School which the Carpenters Union owned and made available to the church. Sunday school teachers would meet in their homes to prepare for lessons.

"We really wanted to do that right," said charter member Mary Kasten.

Kasten's late husband, Mel, was the church's first treasurer. At the very beginning, before there was a church building, he kept the church's treasury in a shoe box, she recalled. To lend the box some formality, she said, one of the members painted it black and painted Mel Kasten's name on it in gold.

After meeting in the temporary quarters for a year, led by students who drove in from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and a retired pastor, the Rev. Leopold Dippold, the church broke ground at its current location and soon thereafter called its first pastor. The original church is now the fellowship hall of the present expanded church building.

The split from Trinity Lutheran was an amicable separation. "Many of us wished to have a smaller church," Kasten said.

Throughout the last 50 years, St. Andrew has been a progressive congregation, Hahs said. It was the first Lutheran Church to allow women to participate in congregational decision making. It was the first Lutheran Church to introduce a contemporary worship service along with the traditional services. It was the first home of Saxony Lutheran High School until the school building was finished. It is the present home base of the newly formed Love INC (In the Name of Christ). Its progressive attitude and friendly spirit have set it apart.

"From the very beginning we would hear people mention who visited this congregation time after time that everyone is so friendly," Kenneth Bender said. "We started out that way and have never let up."

The friendliness and loving atmosphere is why the charter members believe the church has grown to its 1,100 members today. That and the leadership's willingness to let new and younger people lead, commented lay minister Jim Hicks, who has been employed with St. Andrew for more than 30 years.

As St. Andrew concludes its yearlong celebration, the members have much to look back on and to look forward to -- keeping uppermost in mind who made it all possible.

"The Lord is good to all," said Kenneth Bender, "and certainly to St. Andrew Lutheran Church."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160