"It was a chilly morning," longtime member Kitty Tessin remembers of the autumn day Redeemer Lutheran Church was born.
It was October 14, 1962, to be exact, and 130 people were gathered at this new building constructed of hope and love on M-52 in Owosso. Pastor Roy Nurse had knocked on Kitty's door, as well as many others in the community, to offer personal invitations to the brand-new church. Charter members, including Kitty's brother-in-law, Larry Eggleston, had diligently painted walls and tiled floors, working until 3 a.m. before the special day. Current member Ron Tomalia's father, John, had constructed the beautiful altar, pulpit and lectern of glimmering walnut. Bit by bit, a new house of God had come together. Then its people came together for the very first worship service that day.
The A pews were folding chairs, Larry's wife, Margaret Eggleston, remembers. Redeemer's own pews hadn't arrived yet. But God didn't care, the worshipers knew. Every necessary ingredient was already there - and in God's loving hands.
"I think they were all excited to be here ... happy," Kitty says of that first worship service. Kitty and her sister Margaret brought their families to the service, along with their parents, Bill and Thelma Mesler. Kitty's son, Mark Tessin , later became the first baby baptized at Redeemer.
A week later, on October 21, 1962, Redeemer's Sunday school opened, with 35 students attending.
Redeemer was instituted as part of the American Lutheran Church on December 2.
On December 16, the cornerstone of the new building was dedicated. "We put things in the church cornerstone like notes from us and bulletins and photographs, too," Kitty Tessin says.
Then, on January 20, 1963, Redeemer's church building was officially dedicated and Pastor Nurse was formally installed as its first spiritual leader.
And things moved right along for the church. In 1967, Redeemer began its nursery program to nurture children of the community.
One October 1, 1973, it was transition time for the church. Pastor Roy Nurse accepted a call to American Lutheran Church in Mt. Clemens. A few months later, on April 28, 1974, Redeemer found a new pastor, installing Paul Kruger. His time at the church was short, though marked, some members note, by his knowledge of liturgical renewal, social awareness and church history. He resigned in February 1975.
As Redeemer dealt with the departure of its second pastor, it took an important step. In a show of faith and commitment, the congregation voted to pledge 10 percent of all general giving to the benevolence ministries of the American Lutheran Church, for the greater mission of the church in the world. That decision laid the groundwork for a growing in giving program that has endured over the years.
Redeemer received its third pastor on June 29, 1975, when Jim Helman was installed. Helman, with his wife Sherri and young daughter in tow, inspired parishioners to become more involved in leading the worship and overall ministry of the church. Education became very important - especially the continuing education of the adults. Marriage enrichment retreats began for Redeemer's members in 1978. The church constitution was revised in 1979, incorporating the new emphasis on lay involvement and committees.
In the 1979 pictorial church directory, Helman expressed his desires for the direction in which Redeemer was going: "My prayer is that as partners in ministry we may continue to receive God's gifts and promises through Word and Sacrament," he said. "My prayer is that each of us can realize, develop and utilize the special talents we have been given to praise God's name and to serve each other."
In 1980, Redeemer sponsored a Vietnamese refugee family in Owosso, the Thai family. During their two-year stay in the community, they provided a learning experience for the congregation.
The tiny congregation had already come a long way by this point, growing in God's love - and with His guidance. Such wonderful growth, though, is often a mixed blessing, because as Redeemer got stronger in its scope and outreach, it soon became clear that the church needed more physical space! Some members will always fondly recall the joy of church potlucks where not everyone had a seat. "They could only seat 75, and it was like sardines being packed in that room," Kitty Tessin recalls. "We had to sign up or there wasn't seating. You couldn't get up and wander about." former Sunday school students, now all grown up, can remember every school grade filling into the small space of what is now the nursery, with the sweet sounds of an ever-beaming Donna Nault leading the kids in Jesus Loves Me or He's Got the Whole World in His Hands before class started.
In June 1980, the church formed a Building Investigative Committee, which eventually led to a full-fledged Building Committee and a significant physical expansion.
On March 6, 1983, construction began on a new fellowship hall, expanded narthex and new church offices. What was the tiny office of the pastor and secretary became a sort of library and sacristy. The new fellowship hall was a veritable convention hall compared to that minuscule Sunday school room! Finally, the pastor and secretary had a little elbow room in their new offices. A lot of the work for this expansion was done by Redeemer members: drywalling, insulating, painting, trimming. The congregation dedicated the new addition to the glory of God on January 22, 1984.
The following December, Redeemer had to say goodbye to its third pastor. Jim Helman accepted a call to St. John Lutheran Church in Romeo, Mich. Pastor Eugene Nissen of Ann Arbor stepped in for the next several months, preparing the church for this latest transition. Fortunately, Helman had well-equipped God's people: the lay ministry went of after his departure, and Bible studies and marriage enrichment retreats continued under the guidance of Redeemer's many lay leaders.
On April 21, 1985, Redeemer voted to call Paul Larson as its new pastor. Larson became the church's fourth pastor on July 14, 1985. With him came a revitalization of the Luther League program and a revision of the confirmation program for teens.
The following year, in 1986, Redeemer made a renewed commitment to hunger ministries. Members already had been participating in CROP walks for a few years, but now gave the loose quarters in their pockets to the ALC Hunger Appeal. It increased the congregation's annual contribution to this program fivefold. In November 1986, the church voted to become a Covenant Church with the Christian lobbying organization Bread for the World.
In 1987, Redeemer celebrated 25 years as a family of God and a living solace in our world of sin. Meanwhile, the American Lutheran Church merged with two other Lutheran sects to become the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As it began a new fund appeal to retire the building debt, Redeemer gave 10 percent of its efforts to the brand-new ELCA's commitment to support new congregations.
Members gave special gifts to construct Sunday school classrooms in the church's basement and to complete a new church kitchen in the expanded fellowship hall.
Also in 1987, Redeemer members began partaking in Via de Christo retreats. These spiritual walks with Christ inspired many small-group ministries in the congregation - as well as the joyful Ultreya songfests.
The year 1988 brought a new outlet for Redeemer that has endured: a video ministry, facilitated, in large part by member Tom Manke. Suddenly, the church had a modern way to bring the Word to those who could not be at Sunday services. With a money gift came new equipment and a higher-quality telecast on local cable television.
In a spirit of giving to those less fortunate, Redeemer members started what they fondly termed the Shepherd's Field, turning a parcel of the church's land into produce for the Salvation Army's pantry. The warm-hearted Buddie Stroub (warm-hearted - due to the new ticker a Redeemer fund-raiser helped him obtain on April 14, 1987) took the helm and got the work done, with a hand from other parishioners. And since there was now a harvest to celebrate, the church launched its first fall Harvest Festival in 1992. Many visitors have enjoyed this relaxed day of family fun over the years. The event, along with that crazy, bubble-gum-pink Elephant Ear booth at the summertime Curwood Festival, have put a friendly, accessible face on Redeemer for the greater community.
In 1993, Redeemer built a new parking lot on the north side of the building and resurfaced the existing lot to the south. Gone were the worries of old. "The bottom would go out on the parking lot," Kitty Tessin says of the original lot, "and you often would get the car stuck parking out there. We all got so we would park along M-52 so we could leave the at the end of the service and not have to have five good men push your car out of the mud."
In that year, the worship format also changed slightly. Before that point, Redeemer had offered only one worship service on Sunday mornings during the typically busy summer months, when vacations and sunny weather often meant sparse attendance. In a faithful move, though, the church committed to a full schedule of two services year-round. And, since God provides, the church members came. The 8 a.m. service was kept as a traditional worship, using the ELCA hymnal. For the 10:45 a.m. service, though, things had been shaken up a little for some time, with guitar music instead of the heavy organ, fast and friendly singing instead of floating, ancient harmonies.
The church constitution got a new revision in 1995.
In 1996, Pastor Larson instituted the Cross Trainers program, a community-based nondenominational Christian men's support group meeting weekly. Their mission, from the March 1997 issue of Redeemer's Herald newsletter: "To encourage and equip men with spiritual tools to enhance their relationships with God, their wives, their children, their church and their community."
In his statement in the church's semiannual report in November 1996, Larson took stock of where the church had been, and how it had gotten there: "Truly, it is exciting to see all that has happened and continues to happen here at Redeemer!" he said. "Through the hard work, creativity, resourcefulness, perseverance, dedication and sacrifice of God's people - dedicated to serving Christ - so much has been accomplished for the work of our Lord Jesus."
In 1997, Redeemer got new computers for its church offices. Not long after, the church launched the very web site you're visiting. Technology moves fast, and Redeemer marches its ministry along with it!
Pastor Larson served Redeemer for 14 years, his wife, Kristi, leading the now-Christian-themed nursery program - as well as the contemporary music for the 10:45 a.m. Sunday service. During his tenure, the church made a massive reduction in its six-figure congregational debt. Also significantly, church members accomplished a grand show of faith: a wildly successful pledge drive that launched some badly needed building renovations.
But transition time came again: Larson accepted a call to First English Lutheran Church in Mansfield, Ohio. He announced his decision on November 1, 1998, All Saints Sunday. Howard Buchholz of New Baltimore stepped in as interim pastor.
Redeemer promptly formed a new call committee, and pushed on with the $200,000 renovations. Ground broke on April 18, 1999. Soon a new sanctuary roof emerged, as well as new entrances, carpeting, windows, wiring and interior design. What Redeemer's flock saw, as the work was complete, was that the sanctuary that before had shown its 1960s sensibilities now shone with new-millennium brilliance. Stained-glass windows by church member Arlon Humphrey danced along two walls of the worship area. A peaceful sea-green carpeting matched the new pew upholstery. The beautiful walnut altar, lectern and pulpit, fashioned so long ago, returned to their place of honor. Above them a cut-away window with the shape of a cross upon it provided a gentle reminder of Jesus' sacrifice - and a glimpse of God's blue sky beyond.
The church had advanced far beyond its early days. "I remember the heating pipes," Kitty Tessin muses of Redeemer's building at the beginning. "The heating pipes were put in the cement-poured floor, and whenever there was a problem, they would be there with pickaxes and tearing up the floor, looking for that elusive leak. Once, they were way out into the hallway."
With these new improvements and this new chapter in Redeemer's history came a new pastor: David Woodby of Canton, Mich., was installed as the church's fifth spiritual leader in January 2000. He brought a fresh eye to a congregation facing a new millennium: a third church service on Sunday evenings to attract the community's young people, expanded adult Sunday school programs, a seniors group called God's Golden Gems, a drama group, and a step toward new technology with video projection equipment and a format that included new sights and sounds. Pastor Woodby's wife, Harriet, became instrumental - literally - to the contemporary music of the second and third services with her singing and guitar playing.
Over the years, many have come to know Redeemer as a warm and friendly congregation, reaching out in Christs love to welcome all who entered its doors. The church's mission has helped Lutheran World Relief, Habitat for Humanity, the local Relief After Violent Encounter (RAVE) program and so many others. In years of packing boxes for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter the church has helped feed many area families.
Through the ministry of God's Word and the Sacraments, through study, worship, fellowship and prayer, the people of God who have gathered at this church have been fed in spirit. In the midst of numerous series of Bible studies, of men= s prayer groups and women's prayer groups, of Redeemer Lutheran Church Women and Faith Circles and Rachel Circles ... strangers have become friends, members of other area congregations have been welcomed as visitors during midweek Lenten services. Fellowship has given rise to faithful programs such as the Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) and Weigh Down Workshop. Kids have enjoyed Vacation Bible School in the summer months, and youth have had good, clean fun together through the Junior and Senior Luther Leagues. The men of Redeemer have shared their beliefs with others at Promise Keepers events.
Members have come and gone, of course. Squabbles have reared their heads, politics have threatened God's vision ... and yet His house remains.
Now, nearly 40 years after those 130 people gathered on that chilly fall morning for its very first church service, Redeemer endures. Several of those very first faithful folks still attend Redeemer, here at the beginning of a new millennium. They've had their children, even grandchildren, baptized there. They've made their lives there. They've found the things that are most important to them there.
"I wanted my kids and family to be raised in the church community," Kitty Tessin says of her years at Redeemer, "and I needed to be with these people."
The last paragraph of the Who We Are statement of Redeemer's 1990 pictorial church directory says it well:
"We are people of undying optimism because through God's love, we share in Christ's victory. We believe that we are called to reach out to our family, our community and God= s world and to share God's love. We covenant together to fulfill this mission, not for our personal gain, but for the glory of Christ and His eternal kingdom."
Written and submitted in God's love in February 2001 by Billie Rae Bates (baptized at Redeemer in April 1968!). Some of this material was drawn from a church history printed in the 1987 pictorial directory and some compiled for a story that appeared in the Argus Press in September 1999. Special thanks to Kitty Tessin, Paul Heimnick, Dan Jozwiak, Pastor Roy Nurse, Pastor Paul Larson, Pastor Howard Buchholz, Lorraine Weckwert, Buddie Stroub, Norm Witte, Pat Witte and Pastor Dave Woodby for their assistance in compiling material for this piece.
