Pastor's Update - August 1, 2023
From the August 2023 Church Newsletter
Dear Friends in Christ,
Since April 15, Trinity has gathered for worship in all kinds of places: the auditorium at Calvary Lutheran High School, our parking lot, another congregation’s sanctuary, and our gymnasium. In all these places we took to heart Paul’s Words to Timothy, “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. For it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:4-5). In these places the Word of God was preached and Jesus worked through his Sacraments to give and strengthen faith. Each one of us knew that something was different. We weren’t home.
Trinity’s sanctuary has been home for over sixty-two years. The number of services, baptisms, confirmations, funerals, and weddings would be almost impossible to count. For me personally, Trinity’s sanctuary is a place of great significance, because all three of my children were baptized in our sanctuary. Trinity’s sanctuary is a place where we have prayed, listened, sang, spoke, knelt, bowed, laughed, and even cried. So for members of Trinity, our sanctuary is a special place. And it is a place we all want to be back in soon.
So what’s the delay? For one, because of the fire, there was a significant amount of cleaning needed to reoccupy the sanctuary, necessitating the movement of pews and the replacement of flooring. Second, the church leadership prioritized cleaning in the school so that we could begin the 2023-2024 school year in as much of the building as possible. When we began cleaning the sanctuary it was quickly realized that because of damage to the pews, both from moving them due to the fire and from normal wear and tear, it was time to replace them.
Church council formed a committee to make recommendations about the pews and about other improvements to the sanctuary. Since Trinity’s sanctuary was dedicated in 1961 it has undergone a number of changes and renovations. The most recent renovation was in 2014 when the curtain was removed, the walls were painted, and the flooring was replaced. Since that time, there have been numerous discussions about opportunities to improve our sanctuary including conversations by the 150th anniversary committee.
Now you might ask questions such as what improvements need to be made and why do we need to make them? As with any structure, including your own home, improvements to a church sanctuary do need to be made. Flooring wears out, paint fades, and woodworking is dented and dinged. Sometimes the aesthetic choices made in generations past stand up to the test of time and some of them do not. Which leads us to where we are today, wishing to be back into our sanctuary, our home.
The sanctuary committee determined that the best course of action would be to begin the project by ordering pews. The voters’ assembly, based on the recommendation of the sanctuary committee, approved a $130,000 order for new pews in the sanctuary from Gunder Church Furniture out of Iowa. Gunder has worked with a number of LCMS congregations in Missouri including Christ the King-Lake Ozark, Immanuel-Wentzville, Immanuel-Washington, and Peace-Saint Louis. Gunder’s liturgical designer is an LCMS layman, and his services are provided to the congregation at no cost with the pew order. Gunder and their designer are presently assisting us with determining color choices for the pews, walls, flooring, and woodworking. They are also assisting us with ways that we might improve the sanctuary furnishings such as our altar, font, pulpit, and lectern.
We have also engaged with lighting specialists who are working on a proposal to update our lighting in the sanctuary, as well as the control systems. While we upgraded many of our sanctuary light fixtures to LED in 2014, we did not upgrade the control system. It is important to pair the appropriate lighting fixtures with matching controls in order for us to get the most out of our lighting. Finally, we’ve reached out to an acoustical engineer/designer for a proposal on improving the sound quality in the sanctuary.
This sounds like a complicated process and it is. Even without any changes, the task of cleaning our sanctuary, and our entire building, is a monumental one. The voters will be asked, as soon as the proposals are assembled, to vote on a sanctuary improvement plan to better our sanctuary. We come with this proposal because God’s house has been entrusted to us by previous generations. It’s not just our home, but God’s home among us. In the dedication rite for a church building from Lutheran Service Book we hear these words, “Beloved in the Lord, Christ Jesus is present wherever His holy Word is taught purely and the holy Sacraments are administered according to His institution. As the Lord said through Moses, ‘In every place where I cause My name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you’” (Exodus 20:24). Our sanctuary is where the font stands before our eyes. Our sanctuary is where God’s altar recalls Christ's sacrifice. Our sanctuary is where we hear “the Scriptures that proclaim Christ yesterday, today, the same, and evermore our Redeemer” (LSB 645).
The time has come for us to again invest in the house that God has given us for the proclamation of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments. It has been a challenging few months, but Christ’s words have continued to be heard and Christ’s gifts have continued to be given out and Christ will continue to be with us during this project. Please keep watching the bulletin, newsletter, and other announcements for more information about this opportunity that has been placed before us.
In Christ,
Pastor Powell