Photo courtesy of Brad Klukas St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church was founded 140 years ago in Balaton. Church members have been working to prepare for anniversary celebrations this weekend. A siding project on the church was finished this summer.

BALATON — This is a milestone year for St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Balaton.

The congregation is celebrating the 140th anniversary of the church’s founding.

And this weekend, both present and past church members will be gathering to celebrate more than 100 years as a community.

“It’s certainly a blessing of the Lord,” pastor Eugene Andrus said.

An anniversary service will be held Sunday at St. Peter’s.

“I think we’re going to have pretty much a full church,” said St. Peter’s member Lowell Wichmann.

This week, church members reflected on their experiences at St. Peter’s, as well as some of the church’s history.

St. Peter’s Lutheran Church had its roots in the faith of Lutheran settlers who came to southwest Minnesota in the 1870s. At that time, congregations in the Balaton area were served by traveling ministers known as circuit riders, according to a church history. The congregation of St. Peter’s Lutheran was founded by area families in 1884.

At first, church services were held at the homes of congregation members, church member Jerry Schlenker said.

St. Peter’s also reflected the culture of the German immigrants who founded it.

“They called it the German Lutheran Church,” Schlenker said “All the services were in German.”

Services in English gradually became more popular through the 1920s and 30s, according to the St. Peter’s church history. The last confirmation class to be confirmed in German was in 1929.

St. Peter’s went nearly 20 years before it had its own permanent home. The church building was constructed in 1900, and dedicated in 1901. However, in 1939 the church was raised off its foundation so a basement could be built underneath. Today, the church building’s cornerstone reflects both dates – “A.D. 1900” is carved on one side of the corner, and “A.D. 1939” is carved on the other.

St. Peter’s congregation members have helped update the church over its history. In the 1930s, the church remodeled its pulpit and altar, and church member Alvine (Mitzner) Weede added a painting of Jesus to fill a formerly open panel on the altar. New stained glass windows were installed at the church in 2009.

Another major building project came this summer, when the church got new vinyl siding.

“It was a $90,000 project they started collecting for last year,” Andrus said. The project was delayed a little by the rains earlier this year, but work started early enough to be finished in time for the anniversary celebrations.

Members of the congregation have also been responsible for decorating the interior of St. Peter’s over the years. Lois Ahlschlager is part of a group of women who sew banners that are hung in the church.

“I think we’ve probably made about 60 banners for different seasons,” and even passed some banners on to other churches, she said. “We like to get together. Sometimes we can get one (banner) put together really fast.”

The banner-making group has created a banner for the 140th anniversary, Ahlschlager said. “They’ve made a stand for us, out front,” she said.

St. Peter’s opened a parochial school in the 1970s. “It started in the church basement,” before a school building was constructed, Wichmann said. The school operated until 2005, when it closed due to low enrollment. The former school building eventually became the Panthers preschool, Wichmann said.

Some Balaton area families have been attending St. Peter’s for generations.

“Folks come in and they stay,” Andrus said.

“I’ve been here my whole life, and my dad was a lifetime member,” Wichmann said. Wichmann’s great-grandfather was one of the original church founders, he said. “There still are several families that are descendants of the originals,” Wichmann said.

Ahlschlager said she’s attended St. Peter’s since 1970. “I married into the church,” she said.

Schlenker said his family had ties to St. Peter’s for many years, too. His mother Lovilla was a church organist for 60 years, he said. While Schlenker hasn’t lived in the Balaton area his whole life, he was baptized at St. Peter’s and has attended church there since coming back to the family farm.

St. Peter’s congregation isn’t as large as it once was. Church members said Sunday services usually draw about 30 people. But church members have grown close connections, said Ahlschlager and Andrus.

“We’re small enough that we’re pretty close to all of them,” Ahlschlager said of church members.

“It feels like family,” Andrus said. “We stand with each other.”

In addition to the congregation feeling like family, Lowell Wichmann said the music and the preaching at St. Peter’s stood out to him. “Music is a big part of our church,” he said. St. Peter’s has also had some very good pastors in his lifetime, he said.

Anniversary services at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church will be at 10:30 Sunday morning. The celebration will include a guest preacher who is a fifth-generation descendant of one of the church’s founding families, as well as a guest organist from Martin Luther College in New Ulm, church members said.

“We’re excited to hear the organ again,” Ahlschlager said.

“It seems like we have a good turnout coming,” Ahlschlager said. Church members were looking forward to seeing people return to St. Peter’s for the anniversary. “It will be interesting to see who comes back.”