Congregational and Building History of Resurrection Lutheran Church

Resurrection Lutheran Church began as a mission church of the Red River Valley Synod of the Lutheran Church in America.  In June 1965, Pastor Darold Smidt came to Pierre to gather interested residents and start a new church.  The first meetings were held at Buchanan Elementary School.  Resurrection Lutheran was chartered February 13, 1966 and organized in March 1966.  Pastor Smidt was installed as the first pastor of Resurrection Lutheran Church a year after his arrival in Pierre on July 14, 1966.  While the church met in the gymnasium of Buchanan school, members set up chairs and tables for Sunday school and then again for worship afterwards.  Smaller group gatherings for church council, women’s groups, and youth groups were held at the church parsonage.   The parsonage was located on N. Monroe, a few blocks east of the school. (4 photos of meeting at the school, as group of tiles or slideshow)

Text of the original charter:

• We, the undersigned, believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and accepting him as our personal Savior, desire to form a local expression of the church which is the body of those on whom the call of God rests to witness to the grace and truth of God.  We recognize that the function of the church is to glorify in adoration and sacrificial service the God who calls us into being and that we are God’s missionaries to the world bearing witness to His redeeming grace in Jesus Christ.
• As God’s spirit guides us, we commit our lives and destiny to Christ and give Him a practical priority in all the affairs of life seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness!
• We further endeavor through God’s guidance, regardless of the expenditures of time, energy and money, to become informed mature Christians.  We believe God is the total owner of our lives and resources and that we are the sowers.
• Because God is a lavish giver, we too shall be lavish in our regular gifts.  We will seek to be Christians in all our relations with our fellow men with nations, groups, classes and races and to bring every phase of our lives under the Lordship of Christ.
• We, therefore, promising this petition the Red River Valley Synod of the Lutheran Church in America to become an official congregation of The Lutheran Church in America and there to affix our signatures…

“The first worship services included people of many different faith backgrounds, including people who had never attended another church.  Yet all became one in membership around the Lutheran liturgy.”  – Norm Weaver, Resurrection Review (April 2001), 2.

The church began right away holding Sunday school and Confirmation classes in the gym and hallways of the school. The congregation raised funds to build a new church building from a design by Roy D. Murphy & Associates of Urbana, Illinois.  The general contractor was Kelley Construction Company of Pierre.  On October 15, 1967, the congregation met at Buchanan school and paraded to the site of the future building for a ceremony of ground-breaking.  Construction began ten days later.  The church was completed and the first service held in the new building on Mother’s Day on May 12, 1968 with 112 people in attendance.  On May 26th, they dedicated their new house of worship.  (6 photos of building construction, as group of tiles or slideshow)

Resurrection has been actively involved in ecumenical ministries of Christ since the early days.  Our first vacation bible school was held in June 1967 in partnership with St. Michael’s Episcopal Church.  Pastor Norm Schomper initiated ecumenical services with the local Presbyterian and Episcopal churches in about 1976.  Resurrection has also participated in the long tradition of holding early morning worship services at the Oahe Chapel on the Oahe Dam.

In 1988, the church faced a big transition as the Lutheran Church in America merged with the American Lutheran Church and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

In 1991, a new Education and Fellowship Wing was constructed on the north end of the church. (1-2 photos of construction of new wing)

Stained Glass Windows

The windows that are set at the roofline along the east wall of our sanctuary are special works of mid-century period modern liturgical art that were installed at the church’s construction.

(photos of each with associated name and verse)