The First Lutheran Church of Lake Andes will celebrate its 125th anniversary on October 22nd of this year. They will hold a celebration to commemorate this monumental occasion on Friday, November 1st, 2024 with a 10 a.m. service at the church which is located at 205 N. 4th Avenue. The theme of the celebration will be “Christ Be Our Light”. Though all of the details of the event are not completely planned out, the church is hoping to have a meal after the service. It is a community wide celebration, with everyone being welcome. The church plans on inviting former members and will have the service done by former church member, Aaron Madsen, who is currently the Communications Director and Companion Synod Coordinator at the South Dakota Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The celebration may not be a huge event, but church members are going to make it a memorable one.

The churches history was documented by Darleen Nelson in their Centennial Celebration book in 1999. In 1899, Reverend E. Nielsen was a mission pastor in Charles-Mix County. The Reverend would spend much of his time visiting homes in Moore and Goose Lake Townships. For Reverend Nielson to come to visit, it meant a lot to the people who were starting their new journeys on the South Dakota prairie. Many of the new settlers were young adults from Norway that were just starting to have families of their own. Reverend Nielsen first began holding services in various area school houses. On the day of October 22nd of 1899, a group of eight families gathered together at the Parker school house which was four miles north and one mile west of Lake Andes. The eight families included Mr. and Mrs. Lars K. Langeland, Mr. and Mrs. John H. Jensen, and Mr. and Mrs. Maans Nelson, Mr. and Mrs. Anton Lockhart, Carl Paulson and Ole Slettebak. The service that night held three baptisms including Blain Nelson, Bodil and William Larson. Thus began the new congregation that was named “Vestre Lake Andes Evangelisk Luthers Menighed in Charles-Mix County, South Dakota.”

The first confirmation was that of Knute Langeland and Jule Arshem on April 8, 1900. The first marriage of the church was that of Oscar Halgren and Marie Berg on July 16, 1906. Anders Johanneson was the first burial on December 31, 1907. At the first church service a committee as appointed to locate land for a cemetery, but it was not until 1904 when John Jensen offered a parcel of his land to be used for the church’s cemetery that the project came to fruition. Interestingly each year one church member was selected to go out and request “subscriptions” to pay the pastor. In 1906, the pastor was paid a $48.00 annual salary. In that same year, it was decided that services would be held once a month alternating between the Parker and Nelson school houses. It was not until 1907 that the building of an actual church was first discussed. Three people attended the meeting that was held to discuss the building project and $300 was raised at that meeting. John Jensen donated an acre of land in 1908, and the church paid $50 for another acre of land to build the church upon. In 1909, the congregation raised $500 for the church building with the building contract given to Frank Bruning of Lake Andes. On July 25th of 1909 the first service was held in the semi-finished building. The building was completed in the fall of 1909 with a dedication ceremony held on June 16, 1910.

The churched decided in 1923 after the resignation of their pastor, to ask the East Lake Andes Lutheran Church if they would like to join together in the hiring of a new pastor to serve both churches. This was the start of a joining of the churches which became official in 1952 when the church changed its name to First Evangelical Lutheran. This relationship and collaboration would last until 2003 when the sister churches dissolved that partnership. Over the years, the church like any other rural church struggled, but the congregation loved God and worked together to keep the church thriving and teaching its congregation Christian values.

At an annual meeting in 1930, a committee was appointed to look into the possibility and steps needed to move the church to the town of Lake Andes. At that time, the church held Sunday School in town. The following year, 1931, the church changed its name to the West Lake Andes Lutheran Congregation in Charles-Mix County. As the 1930s was a time period of global economic decline, also known as the great depression, it was hard for the church to make ends meet. Nevertheless, in 1935 the church was gifted $200 from Mrs. Jens Erickson to build a church or parsonage in Lake Andes, but it was not until September of 1945 that the church voted unanimously on moving the church to town. The church was put on wheels and pulled to town by a caterpillar tractor by VanderPol Moving Company. The church was set upon blocks after arriving in town, in order for a basement to be dug. The total cost of moving the church was $2000. After moving to town church services were held every Sunday with an average attendance between 50 and 75. The church had another official dedication on September 8, 1946.

Over the years, there were many changes, remodels, additions, a new sound system etc. to the church, but some traditions have not changed. One church tradition that was started in the early years of the church was the Christmas program. It was always the big social event of the year for the community. They even had a committee that would gather trees and treat donations from the congregation and community to be given out at the program. Recent Christmas programs have been led by Becky Thaler and her family and are still quite the affair. The church gets decorated, congregation members play Christmas songs using bells and everyone goes home with a traditional sack of fruit and candy.

Other activities/ groups that have formed throughout the years in the church include Sunday School, summer Bible School, Lutheran Ladies Aid (beginning in 1902 and tapering off in the late 1980s), confirmation classes, fall teas, Mother’s Day Programs, a very active youth group, baptisms, funerals, weddings, etc. Though many of these activities have become just memories, the church does still try to offer extra activities to its members when possible. The church currently is offering a six-week bible study about the topic of lent.

Since the splitting of the West and East Lake Andes Churches, the First Lutheran Church has not had a full-time pastor serving the congregation. Instead, services are led by lay people and retired ordained pastor, Marlaine Goldhammer Doidge. The church has also partnered with Lake Andes First Presbyterian Church, sharing their weekly ministers as well as trading off weekly services every other month at each church and rotating holidays. The church currently has over 50 members, with about 20 of those attending worship on a regular basis. The weekly services do not at this time offer Sunday school, but they would love to see more young people and children attend the church as there is a weekly children’s sermon and would like to revive Sunday school.

The church is always working on maintaining the building, having done many recent renovations including putting on a steel roof, sidewalk repair, updated plumbing, new carpet, etc. They are hoping to get some more sidewalk work completed before the 125th celebration as well as to add a solar light to shine upon the cross and sign located on the front of the building and repairing the fence.

The mission of the First Lutheran Church is much the same as any other church. They want to provide fellowship, continue the work of the Lutheran Church, build friendships, and comfort those that need it in the community. Some interesting aspects of the church is just how long they have survived throughout the years without having a permanent minister, and another being that Marvin Gall is the oldest member of the parish. Current church council members are David Herrold, President; Ann Novotny, Secretary; Mary Jo Parker, Treasurer; Marilyn Larson; Karen Herrold; Kristin Dvorak; and Becky Thaler. The church’s organist is Evie Houseman and pianist is Andy Williamson.

Congratulations on 125 years of serving the Lake Andes community through faith, fellowship, and friendship.

If interested in attending the event please RSVP by calling the church or leaving a message at 605-487-7638 by the first week of October.