The Wagner St. John Lutheran Church will celebrate their 125th anniversary Sunday, June 9th. To commemorate this special occasion, there will be a service held at 3:30 p.m. followed by a meal.

The history of the church was thoroughly researched by Ernie and Linda Johannsen and some of the following information has been taken from the centennial booklet that the church created in 1999.

The St. John Lutheran Church began as a worship service held on the Henry Evers’ homestead in 1898. The service was conducted by Reverend H. Lange who at the time was the pastor of the Zion Lutheran Church in Avon. The charter for the St. John Lutheran Church was officially signed June 4th of 1899. Among the original signers of the charter were William Walking, Conrad Hennies, Henry Cavier, Henry Evers, Fritz Raabe, Otto Walking, Adolph Walking, Will Ritter, Fred Ritter, Carl Mundt, Henry Iverson, Carl Denker, Charles Radmer, J.A. Heil, E.A. Ehrismann, Fredrick Ritter, Emil Misterek and Ed Schnose. Services were originally held in a school house south of what was then the Village of Wagner or on congregational members homesteads. Reverend Lange along with Iowa native, Reverent Albert Kraft, and Lange’s successor, Herman AmEnd served St. John Lutheran Church until 1906. In 1906, Reverent Albert Kraft was formally installed as the pastor of the Wagner St. John Lutheran Church.

Unfortunately, some of the history has been lost from 1906 until 1944 with some varying and conflicting stories. According to the Register of Deeds, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church bought two lots of land in Wagner on 3rd and Sheridan June 17th of 1907. A church was built on the north lot and would house the congregation for the next 40 years. By 1944, the congregation of St. John Lutheran Church had grown in spite of the 40 members that left the Wagner area in search of other opportunities. The church was becoming crowded and began looking for a new space to expand. In April of 1945, Carl and Amanda Rehwaldt bought and presented the lots to the St. John Lutheran Church. The lots were located where the church is presently located on 110 High Ave NW in Wagner. Ground breaking began on the new church on an early morning in June of 1947 by Vernall Kreeger and Harvey Johannsen. Members of the congregation gave their time and skills to the building of the church with the balance of the labor being hired out. In total,

the cost of building the new church totaled $25,000.

By 1955, the church was able to extinguish their mortgage. The lot across the street from the church was purchased by the church May 2 of 1956 to be developed into a parking lot. The church eventually made plans to build an addition in order to provide more room in the church basement and to better serve its congregation. On August 19 of 1984 ground broke for the new addition and the project was completed October 13, 1985. The cost of the new addition was $65,000. In January of 1989 the church was able to pay the addition off in full.

One of the unique pieces of the St. John Lutheran Church is the bell. The bell has a history all of its own. It was first donated by charter member, Conrad Hennies in 1920. The bell was originally installed in the entry way of the church that was located on 3rd and Sheridan. It initially had two ropes; one for the bell and one for the funeral toller. With the many decades of South Dakota wind storms, eventually the steeple had to be shortened which meant disassembling the bell and storing it in Albert Drogmiller’s garage. When the plans were made for the current church, a belltower was omitted. In 1957 the bell was bought by Kendall Rehwaldt from the congregation. He had the bell shipped to Pasadena, CA to be given to the Mount Olive Lutheran Church. Once the Mount Olive church decided to get an electronic bell in 1971, the original St. John Lutheran Church bell was returned back to the congregation in Wagner. Somewhere between the storing of the bell in Drogmiller’s garage and its trip to California the toller was lost. The task of designing and constructing the current bell tower became Kendall Rehwaldt’s project. Ole Olson donated his labor and crane work to place the tower and bell where it stands today.

The St. John Lutheran Church is currently led by Pastor Bill Heermann; he has been their pastor for the past six years. In total, Heermann has been serving as pastor for 11 years. He felt a call to this line of work through small promptings from God through his people. Before becoming a pastor, Heermann attended a technical college to earn his degree in carpentry. From 2000-2013, Heermann attended Concordia Seminary School of St. Louis where he received his ministry training.

What Pastor Heermann enjoys most about his congregation is that he gets to be a part of a big family of believers. That is a large part of what he enjoys about being a pastor in general, being able to connect with people. Being a part of the process of watching people’s faith grow as they hear the word of God brings joy to Heermann. In regards to the future of the St. John Lutheran Church, Pastor Heermann sees the church as continuing to stand strong as the true word of God is preached and taught.

As a pastor in a rural community, Pastor Heermann feels that one of the challenges that the world is facing right now is that many people are not putting God first in their lives and feels that they run the danger of rejecting the Holy Spirit’s work in their life. Heermann’s final thoughts for his congregation and the community are that although the St. John Lutheran Church does not worship Luther, he was a great theologian who continues to guide Christ’s church to the truth, through the gospel of Holy Scripture.

Congratulations on your 125th Anniversary and wishing the church and its congregation many more anniversaries to come.