The Church Where I Grew Up
While I was in St. Louis over the weekend, I attended the church where we grew up along with my brother Dan and sister Cindy and my parents. It has been many years since we have all been there together, possibly over 30.
The building is still the same and it is still beautiful. The outside is red brick with the arched entry ways and the bell tower on one side. The current building was built in 1923. The original church, started in 1838, was known as the Deutsche Evangelische St. Johannes Gemeinde Zu Gravois Settlement Missouri. It is now known as St. John's Evangelical United Church of Christ.
The old church has kept with tradition as much as possible over time. Growing up, the culture stayed pretty much German to the point of having one of the services in German every Sunday.
The website says they stay with the old evangelical and reformed traditions in worship. Since everything changes, I'm not sure how that translates into practice today except they used liturgy such as responsive readings and printed prayers and the pastor wore a robe and stole. He preached a Biblical message.
The inside of the building has high arched ceilings and beautiful stained glass windows. On the right are 8 windows with scenes from the life of Jesus. On the left are 4 windows, one showing each kind of ground the seed that was scattered fell on. The front of the church has a rose window high up divided into 12 "petals" each with a different picture and symbols representing each of the disciples. The back of the church has a large, colorful window with a life sized Christ in the center beckoning or encouraging those in the church.
There is a large pipe organ with pipes on both sides of the front plus large pipes in the balcony. On Sunday, the organist did not choose to use the full range like I remember Gene playing.
The front of the church is beautifully carved wood. The altar is white marble and has a mosaic lamb on the front of it. The baptismal font has a lid with a lamb carving on it. This church practices infant baptism, which is true to the reformed tradition. Children of believers are a part of the family of God.
The pews, which used to be full, are now only partially filled. There were still 270 people in church the previous Sunday, split between 2 services, so the sanctuary is big. The attendance for 2 services used to be over a thousand, maybe even 1,200 to 1,400. Oddly, it was bigger than I had remembered but the pulpit did not seem as high up or as large. It is possible they changed it since the sanctuary was bigger than I remembered.
We had a ball field, tennis courts, a gym with a basketball court, a large fellowhip hall, an overflow room in the sanctuary for big crowds that was used every Sunday when I was in college and a balcony.
Outside of the church is a fairly large, old cemetery with tombstones dating back into the 1800's. Many of the tombstones are quite large and ornate and have extra things writtne on them. You can go through and see who families died in the various flu epidemics and other sweeping sicknesses.
A janitor, who took care of the church and also took care of the cemetery grounds, lived in a trailer right behind the church along with his family. Problems were taken care of immediately and nothing stayed broken more than a few days, if that long. That is part of the St Louis suburban cultural practice. You do not leave broken things sitting around, you fix them immediately.
The road to the church, called St John's Road, has changed a lot. The old entrance is closed and the road just goes around the back of the church now. It is much harder to find and get to than before because of all the highways and buildings around it. The property is land locked. What was once a predominant landmark is now almost invisible because of everything built up around it.
Years ago, so many people came to the church that they had parking lot attendants to help people park in rows, much like they do at the huge churches and big events today. No need for that today. They just park wherever they find a spot.
It was interesting visiting the church. There was almost nobody there that I recognized and nobody recognized me at all that I know of, although a few did recognize my parents. Other than the people, there was much more the same than different.
I can see how the Lord has been leading me to the ordained ministry (ministry as a vocation in addition to the ministry activities of all believers). Some in my youth group went to seminary and entered the (ordained) ministry, including females. I can see God's sense of humor too. There were 80 of us in my confirmation class. We took oral exams in front of 1,000 friends and family in that congregation. I was the only one who froze up so much in front of the group that I did not speak at all. (With a lot of prompting I did say something quietly) Each of us went around 3 times and I froze every time. I could not speak in front of groups and I barely spoke in front of individuals and small clusters of people unless they were my immediate family or close friends. (Then I talked a lot.)
This is not the behavior that leads people to believe God is going to call that person to preach some day. But the Lord does not think the way man thinks or see the way man sees.
The building is still the same and it is still beautiful. The outside is red brick with the arched entry ways and the bell tower on one side. The current building was built in 1923. The original church, started in 1838, was known as the Deutsche Evangelische St. Johannes Gemeinde Zu Gravois Settlement Missouri. It is now known as St. John's Evangelical United Church of Christ.
The old church has kept with tradition as much as possible over time. Growing up, the culture stayed pretty much German to the point of having one of the services in German every Sunday.
The website says they stay with the old evangelical and reformed traditions in worship. Since everything changes, I'm not sure how that translates into practice today except they used liturgy such as responsive readings and printed prayers and the pastor wore a robe and stole. He preached a Biblical message.
The inside of the building has high arched ceilings and beautiful stained glass windows. On the right are 8 windows with scenes from the life of Jesus. On the left are 4 windows, one showing each kind of ground the seed that was scattered fell on. The front of the church has a rose window high up divided into 12 "petals" each with a different picture and symbols representing each of the disciples. The back of the church has a large, colorful window with a life sized Christ in the center beckoning or encouraging those in the church.
There is a large pipe organ with pipes on both sides of the front plus large pipes in the balcony. On Sunday, the organist did not choose to use the full range like I remember Gene playing.
The front of the church is beautifully carved wood. The altar is white marble and has a mosaic lamb on the front of it. The baptismal font has a lid with a lamb carving on it. This church practices infant baptism, which is true to the reformed tradition. Children of believers are a part of the family of God.
The pews, which used to be full, are now only partially filled. There were still 270 people in church the previous Sunday, split between 2 services, so the sanctuary is big. The attendance for 2 services used to be over a thousand, maybe even 1,200 to 1,400. Oddly, it was bigger than I had remembered but the pulpit did not seem as high up or as large. It is possible they changed it since the sanctuary was bigger than I remembered.
We had a ball field, tennis courts, a gym with a basketball court, a large fellowhip hall, an overflow room in the sanctuary for big crowds that was used every Sunday when I was in college and a balcony.
Outside of the church is a fairly large, old cemetery with tombstones dating back into the 1800's. Many of the tombstones are quite large and ornate and have extra things writtne on them. You can go through and see who families died in the various flu epidemics and other sweeping sicknesses.
A janitor, who took care of the church and also took care of the cemetery grounds, lived in a trailer right behind the church along with his family. Problems were taken care of immediately and nothing stayed broken more than a few days, if that long. That is part of the St Louis suburban cultural practice. You do not leave broken things sitting around, you fix them immediately.
The road to the church, called St John's Road, has changed a lot. The old entrance is closed and the road just goes around the back of the church now. It is much harder to find and get to than before because of all the highways and buildings around it. The property is land locked. What was once a predominant landmark is now almost invisible because of everything built up around it.
Years ago, so many people came to the church that they had parking lot attendants to help people park in rows, much like they do at the huge churches and big events today. No need for that today. They just park wherever they find a spot.
It was interesting visiting the church. There was almost nobody there that I recognized and nobody recognized me at all that I know of, although a few did recognize my parents. Other than the people, there was much more the same than different.
I can see how the Lord has been leading me to the ordained ministry (ministry as a vocation in addition to the ministry activities of all believers). Some in my youth group went to seminary and entered the (ordained) ministry, including females. I can see God's sense of humor too. There were 80 of us in my confirmation class. We took oral exams in front of 1,000 friends and family in that congregation. I was the only one who froze up so much in front of the group that I did not speak at all. (With a lot of prompting I did say something quietly) Each of us went around 3 times and I froze every time. I could not speak in front of groups and I barely spoke in front of individuals and small clusters of people unless they were my immediate family or close friends. (Then I talked a lot.)
This is not the behavior that leads people to believe God is going to call that person to preach some day. But the Lord does not think the way man thinks or see the way man sees.
posted by Peggy at 7:13 PM
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