The Concordia Story: A Fifty-Year History of Concordia Lutheran Church 1951-2001

THE CONCORDIA STORY
A Fifty-Year History
of Concordia Lutheran Church
1951-2001
by Ron Lammert

Thank you for your interest in this HPNbooks publication.
For more information about other HPNbooks publications, or information about
producing your own book with us, please visit www.hpnbooks.com.

THE CONCORDIA STORY
A Fifty-Year History of Concordia Lutheran Church
1951-2001
by Ron Lammert
Historical Publishing Network
A division of Lammert Publications, Inc.
San Antonio, Texas

CONTENTS
3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
4 CHAPTER I
20 CHAPTER II
34 CHAPTER III
50 CHAPTER IV
62 CHAPTER V
76 ADDENDA: CHARTER MEMBERS, CONGREGATIONAL
PRESIDENTS, CONCORDIA SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
77 ADDENDA: CONCORDIA’S PASTORS, ORDAINED
CONCORDIA MEN, VICARS TRAINED AT CONCORDIA,
CONCORDIA SCHOOL PRINCIPALS
80 CONCORDIA’S SENIOR PASTORS TODAY
THE AUTHOR
First Edition
Copyright © 2001 Historical Publishing Network
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing
from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Historical Publishing Network, 8491 Leslie Road, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (210) 688-9006.
ISBN: 1-893619-23-0
Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 2001095933
The Concordia Story: A Fifty-Year History of Concordia Lutheran Church
author: Ron Lammert
2 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I first came to Concordia as a college student in 1966. Having grown up in a small Texas town,
and having attended a small Lutheran church all my life, Concordia was an epiphany for me. It was
obvious that something very special and very wonderful was happening at this amazing Lutheran
church. Thirty-five years later, I am more convinced than ever that the Lord is using the ministry of
Concordia Lutheran Church in remarkable ways.
As the fiftieth anniversary of Concordia drew near, it occurred to me that someone needed to tell
the incredible story of Concordia. I recalled Dr. Merkens’ oft-repeated words: “If not you, then who?
If not now, then when?” I volunteered forthwith.
In my time, I’ve perused a goodly number of church histories. Most are about as exciting to read as the
phone book. The Concordia Story, I believe, is different. It is an incredible story of human emotion, vision, and
perseverance, juxtaposed against God’s amazing grace and care for His church. The obvious truth to any believer
is that Concordia’s accomplishments could never have happened, if they relied solely on human enterprise.
My research was based on primary sources, interviews with some of the main characters in the
story. I conducted lengthy taped interviews with Dr. Merkens, Dr. Thompson, David Seale, and Joe
Gorder. I also interviewed Bruce Rudi, Gary Lohmeyer, and Pastor Ebs.
In mid-2000 I asked a group of long-time Concordians to attend a planning meeting and subsequently
to share their stories about Concordia’s history on audio tape. They were enthusiastic about
the project and a delight to have on board. Members of this ad hoc committee have been extremely
useful in creating the book manuscript. These folks also reviewed the manuscript for content and
accuracy. They viewed photos for identifications. Among those who attended and added to the effort
were Clay and Eleanor Hammonds, Art Samuel, Margaret Stanton, Max and Esther Garza, Bill and
Adell Knippa, Mort and Margaret Roszell, Bill and Bobbye Wagner, Doc and Barbara Nelson, Lavern
Dirks, Jack and Bobbie Brown, and Bill and Lura Wurzbach.
I want to thank especially Bill and Bobbye Wagner for their great interest in the manuscript, the
many helpful suggestions they made, and the quotations they added. Art Samuel provided an important
suggestion that we include a strong mention of the contributions of Barbara Merkens and Rhoda
Canion. Eleanor Hammonds sat me down at her kitchen table and reminded me how important the
work of Concordia’s women has been, and how they deserve rich mention. Charlie Matthys correctly
pointed out that I had written a good biography of Dr. Merkens, but that I should balance it by relating
some of the considerable work accomplished by the laity. I am also thankful to Sharon Devora,
who has been secretary to two senior pastors and two interim pastors at Concordia, for her help in
researching photos, names, and dates. Jack Brown provided a very useful set of critical comments.
Lavern Dirks, the only charter member still at Concordia, gave some great feedback on early LWML
activities. I also received helpful feedback on the manuscript from Dr. Merkens, Dr. Thompson, David
Seale, Joe Gorder, Pastor Ebs, and Pastor Reagan. A number of other Concordians have read the manuscript
and photo captions and provided constructive criticism and additional detail.
Most of the early photos are from Dr. Merkens’ considerable archives. Later pictures are from current
archives and scrapbooks kept at Concordia, many taken by Juergen Olson, Concordia’s church
administrator. The photo of the Sunday School class from 1952 on the cover was provided by Mrs.
Margaret Stanton. At the last moment, Cy Fergins and Jim Burghard found some photos of Concordia
youth activities. This helped fill a gap in the visual story. Many of the photos used in this book were
taken by photographers long forgotten. However, the scenes captured by these unsung photographers
will help tell the story of Concordia to the next generation.
Finally, I want to publicly thank God for calling me to the task of recording this history. If this
story inspires, educates or instructs even one soul, then the credit should go to Him.
Ron Lammert
September 2001
Acknowledgements ✦ 3

CHAPTER 1
✦
San Antonio, in the early 1950’s, was
a most unlikely place to expect a
Lutheran church to grow as fast as did
Concordia. This scene of Houston
Street was shot when the downtown
was the main shopping and business
area and before freeways interlaced
the city. Basse Road, in 1951, was
only partially paved and was in the
outer northern limits of San Antonio.
On June 15, 1951 a young Lutheran pastor just
out of the seminary, not yet ordained, arrived in
San Antonio. His task was to gather a flock and
build a new Lutheran church in a city dominated
by Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist tradition.
On that late spring day Guido Merkens and
his bride of a year, Barbara, sat at a booth in Earl
Abel’s restaurant and began laying plans to build
what Merkens was convinced would be the
largest congregation affiliated with the conservative
Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.
That afternoon Merkens met with the mission
director of the Synod’s Texas District. Dr. Al
Rast gave Merkens a box of prospect cards and
prayed with him for the success of his efforts.
By evening Merkens was making calls on
prospects on the city’s growing north side.
From that unlikely start, a seed was planted
that grew for the next 50 years beyond what even
the optimistic, young pastor had envisioned, an
obvious testimony to God’s blessing and power.
Concordia Lutheran Church became the
largest congregation in Synod and, under
Merkens’ leadership for 42 years, the church
touched tens of thousands of lives through an
innovative, evangelical ministry founded on
solid Lutheran ground of word and sacrament.
During Merkens’ tenure as pastor Concordia
confirmed 5,581, was the first congregation in
Synod to confirm over 100 adults in a year, grew
to a membership of over four thousand, held the
largest Sunday School in the church body, and
was the first Missouri Synod congregation to
have an annual budget in excess of $3 million.
It was named as one of America’s “great churches”
by the Billy Graham Association.
Concordia became a model emulated by
thousands of Lutheran and other Christian con-
4 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

gregations across the U.S. and in many foreign
countries. Merkens took his unique style of
church growth on tour in the 1960’s and 70’s
under the banner of Living Lutheran Leadership
and later Creative Church Management.
Merkens’ decision in 1993 to “reposition,”
(his term for retirement from active parish
ministry) could have been devastating to
Concordia. By the 1990’s the San Antonio suburb
in which Concordia had been built 42
years earlier was in serious decline. Most members
lived miles from the church property,
reflecting the development of San Antonio
even further north.
Like they used to say about Tom Landry being
the only coach the Dallas Cowboys have ever
had, Merkens was without doubt the only coach
Concordia had ever had. His departure caused
many to wonder whether there was a future for
Concordia without the magnetic leader.
The man called to replace Merkens was
William Thompson, a native Texan, who had
served as senior pastor of another of the Synod’s
largest churches, in Michigan.
Thompson quickly unified the flock around
the obvious need to relocate the church to a
place more accessible to its members. Within
four years Concordia had purchased and constructed
a completely new 50-acre campus on
Loop 1604 on the city’s booming northern
outer reaches.
All this was accomplished in the midst of
other dramatic changes, with worship taking on
more contemporary trappings, youth and other
ministries flourishing, and the day school moving
toward self-sufficiency.
At the new Huebner Road location, membership
continued to grow, as new families discovered
the full church menu offered by
Concordia. But Thompson, citing clergy
burnout, resigned in April 2001. As the church
moved toward its jubilee celebration, a search
was under way for a new senior pastor to lead
into the next 50 years.
✦
Above: Organizing members of
Concordia gather around for the
laying of the cornerstone of the first
sanctuary on September 16, 1951.
Below: This building, which housed
worship, Sunday School, and
eventually Concordia Lutheran School
kindergarten, was dedicated on
November 4, 1951.
Chapter I ✦ 5

✦
Right: Pastor Merkens utilizes a
makeshift speaker’s stand during the
cornerstone laying, September 16, 1951.
Below: Sunday School began at
Concordia on the day of the first
service, November 4, 1951.
Although the host of miracles that comprise the
50-year story of Concordia Lutheran Church started
at that booth at Earl Abel’s, the founding pastor
was well equipped to make his dream a reality.
Merkens was born in Aberdeen, South
Dakota, son of a Lutheran pastor who, at one
time, rode on horseback to serve a circuit of
churches on the Midwestern prairie.
Merkens’ father, Dr. A.G. Merkens, was soon
called to a city parish in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, where young Guido spent his
childhood and youth. First Trinity Lutheran
Church was a typical eastern urban Lutheran
church, serving primarily second and third generation
immigrant families. The church was
older than the Missouri Synod, having celebrated
its 100th anniversary in 1937.
For Merkens the church was his life from
birth onward.
“The Wednesday after I was born I was baptized
and then I was in church every Sunday
from then on,” he recalls. “I never did really
seriously think about being anything else but a
pastor. I had in the back of my mind that if I
didn’t do that I wanted to play baseball or be a
lawyer. But the ministry prevailed.
“My father was a good model and I just always
loved the idea of serving the Lord full-time.”
While in seminary, Merkens had an opportunity
to play professional baseball for the Detroit
Tigers organization. He turned it down, however,
to continue preparation for the ministry.
Merkens began his formal education at the
University of Pittsburgh and Concordia College
in Bronxville, New York. Then he entered
Concordia Seminary in St. Louis.
“At that time you went to the seminary for
four years,” he said. “I wanted to follow in my
father’s footsteps, and planned to earn a doctorate
in communication. I really liked the academic
environment.”
But a summer experience changed his ministry
direction.
“After two years I was ready to go out on vicarage.
I was in line to be the first campus pastor,
as a vicar, at Stanford University. I was really
excited about that. Then I went to Detroit with
a friend of mine on a short vacation and I met
his father, who was a pastor there. The father
had missed getting a vicar that year and he
6 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

✦
Left: The original chapel served as a
Sunday School room in addition to
being the worship sanctuary. This
photo is from November 1952.
Below: Sunday School classes were
also held in the Merkens’ home in
1951 and 1952.
asked me, if he could arrange it with the officials,
would I consider coming as his vicar.
“I really liked Detroit. It was right after World
War II and the city was booming and very innovative.
I accepted the vicarage at Peace Lutheran
in Detroit.”
The pastor, Enno Claus, became Merkens’
mentor and bishop, and the experience in
Detroit forever changed Merkens’ life.
“Pastor Claus had a great influence on me. I
saw his love of people, his faithfulness to the
Word, and his attention to detail, and all of that
really had an impact on me.”
Merkens also met Barbara during his year at
Peace in Detroit. The couple was married a year
later. Merkens recalls that he was among the
first to be allowed to marry while studying at
Concordia Seminary.
“In fact,” Merkens notes, “for a hundred years
you couldn’t even get engaged until your third
year of seminary. ”
The experience at Peace also helped shape
Merkens’ vision of what a growing, inventive,
soul-winning Lutheran church could be.
“I remember going into the church, robed for
the first time, walking with the pastor behind
the choir on the first Sunday in September. That
was the first time I saw a Lutheran church that
was packed to the walls. You just don’t see that
in the East, where I had spent most of my life.
So I wondered how it would be at the second
service. It was the same thing: packed to the
walls with enthusiastic people under Pastor
Claus’ wonderful leadership.”
Chapter I ✦ 7

✦
Above: Concordia rented a tent in
1952 in which to hold Sunday School.
Below: Pastor Merkens and daughter
Karen carry food across the street
from the parsonage to the church for a
congregational dinner.
Merkens was still considering full-time campus
ministry, but the vicarage in Detroit, he said, “really
turned me on all the more to the parish ministry.”
Upon nearing completion of formal training
at the seminary, Merkens was interviewed as to
where he wished to begin his career in ministry.
“I have no preference,” he told the seminary
officials, “except to hopefully go where no one
else has been a pastor. North, south, east or
west, that’s up to you and the Lord, but I’d like
to start a parish from scratch, if that is possible.”
When calls were announced for the pastoral
candidates, Merkens was delighted to discover
that he had been chosen to start a new mission
church in San Antonio, Texas.
“Of course, we all joked that I hadn’t planned
on being in the ‘foreign’ mission field. And I
didn’t really know much about San Antonio or
Texas, but I was ready to go.”
This course of events brought Merkens and
his wife, pregnant with their first child, to San
Antonio in June of 1951.
By the early 1950’s San Antonio had already
overcome its reputation as a sleepy little village
on the banks of the winding San Antonio River.
Through the wartime boom of the 1940’s, San
Antonio’s population had increased by 61% and
stood at 408,442, according to the 1950 census.
The boom continued unabated through the 50’s,
as the city’s military bases continued to grow,
and as support and service industries sprang
from the increasing population base. The majority
of this growth was to the north, an area of
rolling hills and live oak trees. New subdivisions,
streets and commercial centers were constantly
under construction through this heady
period of expansion.
The area selected by the Texas District for its
new mission church was right in the path of
growth in north central San Antonio. Although a
site had not yet been selected for the church, the
District purchased a home for its mission pastor
at 1823 Basse Road. That home just happened to
be across the street from the lot ultimately purchased
as the home for Concordia.
Merkens’ meeting with Dr. Rast on June 15,
1951 was in the Basse Road home. In addition to
the home, the District paid Merkens’ salary of $165
a month and provided whatever support it could to
help the pastor prospect for new members.
Dr. Rast provided Merkens with a box of
prospect cards that resulted from a preliminary
canvass of the area conducted by Albert Grauer,
on behalf of the Texas District, earlier in the year.
As Dr. Rast briefed Merkens on what was
expected of him by the District’s Mission Board,
he assured the young pastor that he would be
supported, so long as he worked and was making
an effort to get the new congregation organized.
Merkens’ replied, “Well, I hope to be selfsupporting
in a year.”
This surprised the District official, as no mission
congregation had ever become self-sustaining
in such a short time. It was obvious to Dr.
8 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

Rast that this aggressive, young pastor was not
aware of the difficulty of planting Lutheranism
in deep South Texas. After all, of the nearly half
a million San Antonians in 1950, only 2,010
were listed as members of LCMS congregations.
Merkens recalls directions given by Dr. Rast:
“He said to go out and make calls, infiltrate the
community for Jesus Christ and build a church,
preferably Lutheran. I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ He prayed,
put his hand of blessing on me and left.
“Then at six o’clock that night I was trying to
help Barbara unpack. She handed me the box
and said, ‘Here are your cards. This is your job.
You’re supposed to be working.’ I said, ‘Yes,
ma’am’ and ‘Praise God.’
“I went out, got into the car and started looking
around the neighborhood. I had a Bible, a
catechism, and these cards. That was it. I looked
for a street that was romantic and memorable.
Suddenly I saw it: Mandalay Drive. You know,
The Road to Mandalay. I started knocking on
doors and that night found six prospects: one
Lutheran family, one leaning toward Lutheran,
one of the B’Hai faith. I had a long discussion
with them. Then there were three that were
nominal Roman Catholic, who were not worshiping
regularly.
“I would always ask at the door if they had a
church home and most would reply, ‘Yes, I’m a
Catholic.’ So, I’d say, ‘That’s fine, what parish do
you belong to?’ And, of course, in a lot of cases
the man would turn and say, ‘Martha, what’s the
name of that church?’”
Merkens said that at times he would laughingly
ask, “What kind of Catholic are you?”
If they replied, “Roman Catholic,” he would
tell them, “Well, that’s what I am. I’m roaming
the neighborhood looking for Catholics…unchurched
Catholics, de-churched Catholics…”
Merkens said he was at first reticent about
making calls.
“I didn’t think I would like it. I had never
made a cold call in my life. But I got excited
about it, I got pretty good at it, and I learned to
ask the right questions. I really got to love making
those calls.”
Merkens’ innate ability to communicate, his
deep-rooted persistence, and the guidance of
the Holy Spirit brought results. Within a few
weeks Merkens had assembled a group of
Lutherans and others who were interested in
forming the new congregation.
Added to the prospects Merkens uncovered
were a few given by Dr. Roland Wiederanders,
pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church, the oldest
LCMS church in the city. Some of the members
of St. Paul, located on South Presa, had moved
✦
Above, left and right: A school bus
became not only transportation to
Sunday School, but also a Sunday
School classroom in 1952.
Below: A cinder block building built by
the men of Concordia, the parish’s
second building, was dedicated in 1953.
Chapter I ✦ 9

✦
Right: Worship in the first chapel in
1954 featured “folding chair” seating.
Below: Conrad Wright tosses a shovel
of dirt during the groundbreaking for
Concordia’s main sanctuary on Easter
Sunday, 1955. Standing by are Pastor
Merkens and congregational officers
Jack Smith and Monroe Karcher.
north, and Dr. Wiederanders shared these
names with Merkens.
Merkens was ordained at St. Paul on September
9, 1951. In that same month a cornerstone was laid
on a 172 by 284 foot lot at 1826 Basse Road, which
had been purchased in July as the new church site.
“Church Extension loaned us $5,000 for the
lot and the vast sum of $15,000 to build a very,
very simple building of concrete block,”
Merkens relates. “We found a fine contractor
who hurried up the work and got it completed
by November 3.”
During the fall of 1951 the core group of
prospective members met at Merkens’ home to
make plans for the new church. At one of these
meetings the name “Concordia” was selected.
“There were twelve of us there,” Merkens said.
“The first vote came out six to six; six for Concordia
and six for another name. All I could think of was
to take another vote. By the grace of God it came
out seven to five in favor of Concordia.”
Smiling at Barbara, Merkens added: “Of
course, it is only between me and God, but I
know who switched her vote.”
Merkens views the selection of the name as
providential. It is a name widely used in naming
institutions of the Missouri Synod. But, according
to Merkens, it has paid dividends from those
not completely familiar with the name.
“Some people would see a book from
Concordia Publishing House,” Merkens said,
“and they’d be amazed to think that our congregation
had its own publishing branch. The same
with Concordia College. A lot of people thought
that was our own college up in Austin.”
Concordia is a Latin word meaning “harmony”
or “peace” and a fitting name for a church
10 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

that would express God’s love through Christian
concord for 50 years.
The first service was held at Concordia
Lutheran Church, 1826 Basse Road, on
November 4, 1951, a day after the first building
was completed.
There were 64 people in attendance at worship
and 22 in Sunday School.
“Each Sunday more people came and they
invited others, so we had steady growth from
the first week,” Merkens said.
The first child to be baptized at Concordia
was Tanya Lynn Tinker at the Sunday service of
December 9, 1951.
A week later, December 16, 1951, the charter
meeting was held, the official birth date of
Concordia congregation. Signing the corporate
charter that day were 37 charter members. At
the charter meeting and service Merkens was
officially called as the pastor, officers were elected,
and the Lord’s Supper was served for the first
time. Major Herman Bretzer was elected as the
first congregational president.
“It was a wonderful, memorable day,”
Merkens relates.
With Concordia Lutheran Church formally in
place, the small congregation, led by Merkens,
set about winning new souls and becoming an
institution unique in Lutheranism.
Although Concordia’s early members had no hint
of how large the church could become, Merkens
remained focused on his personal goal of being one
of the largest in Synod, God willing, “but a truly
Lutheran church, Bible-based and Christ-exalting.”
✦
Above: Pastor Merkens presided over
a ceremony to lay the cornerstone of
the main sanctuary in 1955.
Below: Groundbreaking for the main
sanctuary was on Easter Sunday, 1955.
Chapter I ✦ 11

✦
Right: The last junior confirmation
class to be confirmed in the original
chapel, 1955.
Below: Ground is broken for the office
building and classroom, 1956, the first
air-conditioned building at Concordia.
With shovel is Fred Huntress. Ralph
Hall is on the right.
“I had seen in Detroit a little bit of what a
large church can be,” he said. “That is to offer
more services and reach more people, all other
things being equal.”
“I had read a book titled The Church In The
World, which was a life-changing book for me. It
was written by one of our seminary profs. It
really got me excited about turning ministry
over to people in the church and training lay
people to be effective ministers. The pastor then
becomes the leader and the feeder and motivator
of the ministers.”
Merkens said as planning was under way for
the chartering of the congregation he often tried
to calculate how many thousands of members it
would take to really impact the city.
“I thought it would take a staff of 10 pastors
and other theologically-trained leaders to serve
the congregation, and I wasn’t even thinking of
a school then.”
The initial growth came from a combination
of Merkens’ persistent daily cold calling in
neighborhoods around Concordia combined
with church members inviting and bringing
friends to church. But soon a more formal outreach
was developed through establishment of a
Mission Committee.
“Right away we sought to reach newcomers to
the community,” Merkens said. “In the first year
we subscribed to a publication called Daily
12 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

Address Record, which gave us the names and
addresses of everybody who moved into the area.
And we could break it out by nearby postal zones.
“We’d send them a letter and try to make a call
on the home. We’d drop off a little tract and in that
way we gained a lot of people. In the meantime
there were a lot of loose Lutherans who had moved
north. They watched us and got to thinking, ‘Gee,
this is so close to us, we’d better check it out.’ So
we had that momentum going for us, as well.
“But the vast growth came from adult confirmation,
that is people brought in from outside
our denomination, many of them actually converts
to Christianity.
“We also used things like Vacation Bible
School. Back in 1955 we had 508 children in
VBS. That’s a huge Vacation Bible School for a
small church. Then we’d follow up every child
who said they didn’t have a church home. We
sent a nice packet home with them and then
we’d try to visit their parents in the home.”
By 1955 the communicant membership
count broke 400. This represented approximately
one hundred net new members a year.
This growth rate continued through the 1960’s.
In September 1952 Concordia opened a
kindergarten. This was the beginning of
Concordia Lutheran School, which expanded by
one grade a year for the next six years, until the
school offered the full complement of grades K
through sixth. In 1992 and 1993 the seventh
and eighth grades were added.
Laverne Brendemuehl was the first kindergarten
teacher at Concordia School. She was
only at the school for a year, however, before
returning to her home in Minnesota. She was
replaced by Neva Odell, who became a fixture
and an institution at Concordia. Mrs. Odell
began as a kindergarten teacher and ultimately
became Concordia’s principal. She served in this
capacity until 1989. In 1953 Bobbie Brown
joined the school as the first grade teacher.
Sunday School at Concordia grew dramatically,
and soon the church was out of space for
teaching all the classes. The adult class met in the
Merkens’ home and later in the sanctuary, but
youth and children’s classes met in neighborhood
homes through Concordia’s first two years.
✦
Above: Vacation Bible School in 1957
attracted 641 boys and girls to
Concordia’s modest campus to learn
about their Savior.
Below: The athletic field eventually
had to be moved further back to
accommodate additional parking.
Note the sanctuary and bell tower in
the background.
Chapter I ✦ 13

According to recollections of early members,
Sunday School classes were held in the Merkens
home on Basse, the Anderson home on Basse, the
Bielefeldt home on Laurelwood, and the Spencer
home on Laurelwood. Eventually a tent was rented
for additional space, and a school bus was
purchased, which became not only transportation,
but also a Sunday School classroom.
By 1953 the need for additional space to
house the growing day school and Sunday
✦
Above: Nearly 700 youngsters
enrolled in Concordia’s Vacation Bible
School in 1958.
Right: The Merkens family gives
thanks before mealtime in the mid-
1950’s. Marti was not yet born when
this photo was taken.
14 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

School led to action. A companion building to
the sanctuary was constructed using volunteer
labor. Among those who spent their evenings
working on the cinder block building were Jack
Brown, Joe Brown, Hud French and Max Garza.
“By the grace of the good Lord we got that building
built at a very low cost,” Merkens recalled. “The
men would work every evening, then I’d join them
after I’d get back from calls about a quarter to nine.
We’d finish up about ten o’clock, then go and have
a sandwich and a beverage and talk about the day’s
joy. That was a lot of fun.”
Jack Brown, a professional engineer, remembers
one particular challenge the men faced.
“Steel trusses were hard to get in those days,
so we developed a wooden truss to span that
30-foot span,” Brown recalls.
Brown notes that the building was not the
first campus addition built with volunteer labor.
“The first thing we built was a ball field,” he
said. “Max Garza helped out with the lighting of
the field. We had a very fine ball field for such a
small church very early on.”
Brown said Merkens’ love of sports and his
athletic ability made construction of the ball
field a high priority.
“He loved baseball and was a heck of a ball
player,” Brown recalls. “I remember that I went
off to the service for a while during the Korean
War. Before I left I had been playing third base.
When I came back Pastor Merkens was playing
third base. I knew I’d never beat him out of that
position. Consequently I ended up playing second
base and pitching.”
Sports of all kinds became a major part of
Concordia’s activities. From the earliest days,
✦
Left: Merkens is surrounded by
his children in the late 1950’s.
Top right is Karen. Bottom right is
Mickie. Left is Guido, Jr. and in
Merkens’ arms is Marti.
Below: Softball on the church’s athletic
field was a staple of activities from the
founding of Concordia.
Chapter I ✦ 15

members recall Merkens’ slogan: “They come to
play and they stay to pray.”
“That slogan really worked,” recalls Clay
Hammonds, who coached softball teams at
Concordia for 29 years. He points to neighborhood
youngsters like David Seale, who first came
to Concordia through sports and later joined the
church and became one of its lay leaders.
He also notes that when the gymnasium was
built, the doors were always open for neighborhood
youngsters to play basketball or volleyball.
By the mid-1950’s a new main sanctuary was
sorely needed, and construction was begun. It was
dedicated on a cold December Sunday in 1955.
According to Bill Wagner: “Dedication Day
coincided with a real blue norther. Clergy and
choir robes flew in the wind. Hair-do’s collapsed.
And it was the coldest day of the year. While the
congregation shivered outside, the chairman of
the building committee couldn’t get the front
door unlocked. Someone finally slipped in a
back door and unlocked it from inside.”
“It held about 450, and we thought it was
really big, but almost immediately we had to go
to two services,” Merkens noted. “That sanctuary,
with its high roof, bell tower and stained
glass, was a real attention-grabber in our modest
community. We had a lot of visitors that year.”
Bobbye Wagner recalls how the sanctuary’s
bell tower almost didn’t happen: “As congregation
leaders drew plans for the new sanctuary,
✦
Above: Groundbreaking for the airconditioned
gymnasium and narthex
took place on August 9, 1959. Left to
right, Dean Dammann, Gerald Smetzer,
Walter Theis, and Pastor Merkens.
Right: The skeleton of Concordia’s
gymnasium begins to take shape
beside Concordia’s main sanctuary.
16 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

they kept in mind Merkens’ comment that he
wanted a bell tower topped with the church symbols
of the gospel writers (Matthew, ox; Mark,
lion; Luke, man, and John, eagle) atop which
would be a cross that could be seen from I-10.
Consequently, a bell tower was part of the architectural
drawings. Composed of just-starting-out
young married couples, there wasn’t enough
affluence in the congregation to quite meet the
cost of the entire project. It was proposed that the
bell tower be dropped to meet construction costs.
A young couple, Walter and Annette Beran,
prayed about it and borrowed the money to pay
for the bell tower. The tower was built, a tribute
to the faith, enthusiasm and love for the Lord that
was held by so many of these young couples who
became the core of this congregation.”
The earliest organization formed at Concordia
was the LWML (Lutheran Women’s Missionary
League). It was chartered in 1952. According to
Mrs. Lavern Dirks, the only original member still
active in the congregation, “We met in different
women’s homes. And one of our first projects was
to prepare the altar linens. We made those all by
hand. They were made by special specifications
as to the number of stitches per inch. We also had
a dinner that next fall. You wouldn’t believe it.
The spaghetti and the sauce and the salads were
all prepared across the street in Barbara’s
(Merkens) house and in the Anderson’s and
across the next block on Laurelwood at the
Spencer home. We all carried them over and had
them in roasters, and we borrowed dishes from
Redeemer (Lutheran Church). We served our first
dinner. And after that who did the dishwashing?
They were all carried to the Doepner home in big
wash tubs, and we all scrubbed away.
“We also sponsored fall dinners, with no presold
tickets, just free will offering from those
attending. When we’d have a turkey dinner, Mr.
Henry Pester would roast and slice all the
turkeys while the ladies prepared, served and
cleaned up. Eventually the attendance became
so large we had to discontinue this project.”
Other activities engaged in by the LWML
later became separate functions in the church.
Mrs. Dirks says these include the nursery committee,
which operated the nursery during services;
the altar committee, which cared for pastoral
robes, communion ware, and the altar
paraments; the committee for the sick; the
bookstore committee, which started with a
small glass chest in the narthex; the guest book
greeters; and the funeral committee.
✦
Above: The gymnasium, opened in
1960, was Concordia’s pride and joy
and was the first air-conditioned
gymnasium in South Texas.
Left: Dr. John Behnken, president of
the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
brought the dedication message for the
new gymnasium and sanctuary
expansion in 1960, as noted in this
newspaper article.
Chapter I ✦ 17

✦
Pastor Merkens and Rhoda Canion,
music director, (both in white) pose with
the Concordia choir in the mid-1960’s.
Several LWML members, including Phyllis
Bickerstaff, Margaret Roszell, Pat Brown, Dora
Wenk, and Mrs. Dirks are credited with providing,
in addition to altar paraments, banners for
the church, Chrismons for Concordia’s Christmas
trees, and other church decorations.
Members of Concordia during its earliest
days were amazed at Merkens’ concern for even
the smallest details at the church.
According to Bill Knippa: “He knew exactly
who was in church each Sunday. If you missed a
week, he sent out a bulletin with a note saying
‘We missed you.’ If you missed three or four
weeks you’d get a call from pastor. Later you
could get an encouragement visit from two elders.
It really let the people know that Concordia
and Pastor Merkens cared about members being
in God’s house for worship and remaining close
to the Lord in word and sacrament.”
By 1956 the momentum at Concordia was
attracting the attention of the Synod’s leaders as
Concordia confirmed 109 adults and became
the first LCMS congregation to confirm over
one hundred adults in a single year. This attention
led to Concordia Publishing House printing
Merkens’ first church growth book,
Organized for Action. The Publisher printed a
soft cover version of the book in 1958, which
18 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

was sent gratis by CPH to every pastor in the
Missouri Synod.
Locally, Concordia was gaining attention, as
well. To Concordia’s good fortune, one of its
members was the managing editor of the San
Antonio Express-News. Merkens credits Bill
Wagner with “giving us publicity way out of proportion
to our size” during the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Additional buildings were added to the campus
almost yearly through the second half of the
50’s decade. In 1956 a second educational
building arrived in a most unusual way.
“We were talking to a man at Kelly Field
about buying surplus property,” Merkens
recounted. “As we were looking at tables and
chairs I noticed nearby an old World War II barracks
building. So I asked, ‘Is that for sale?’ He
said, ‘Sure.’ So I asked ‘How much?’ He looked
it up in his papers and told us, ‘Eighty-seven
dollars.’ We purchased it on the spot.
“We had been using a school bus as a Sunday
School classroom, so this was just what we
needed to accommodate Sunday School and our
Day School. We prepared the foundation for it
and had it moved over on a Sunday morning. It
came up the street just as we finished our second
service. Everybody came out on the street
and it was really an exciting day.”
The church planned to use the barracks building
for just a few years because it had been acquired
so cheaply. But it served as a classroom and nursery
for 28 years. It was finally moved off the campus in
1984 to make room for the Ministry Building. And
it is still in use today as the home of the Palmer
Drug Abuse Program on the campus of House of
Prayer Lutheran Church on Wurzbach Road.
In 1956 a new administration and classroom
building was constructed.
“I really liked that building,” Merkens noted.
“It gave us some real office space, and it was airconditioned,
the first air-conditioned classroom
building at Concordia.”
In 1959 the sanctuary was expanded, and
ground was broken for the gymnasium.
“That was really a big time breakthrough for us,”
Merkens said. “This was the first air-conditioned
gym south of Dallas—high school, college, or whatever.
They would ask, ‘Why would you air-condition
a gym?’ Well, we had a lot of uses for it beyond playing
basketball. It was exactly what a lot of churches
started building later: a multi-use building.”
At the dedication of the gymnasium in 1960,
the Synod president, Dr. John Behnken, honored
Concordia by preaching the dedication message.
At the tenth anniversary of Concordia some
impressive statistics were published:
• 935 adults and children had been confirmed;
• 910 had been baptized;
• Communicant membership stood at 1,100;
• Baptized membership was 1,750;
• Free will giving had grown from $3,500 in
1952 to $130,000 in 1961;
• The school had 300 pupils and was the
largest Lutheran school in Texas;
• Average worship attendance was 1,100;
• Property and grounds were valued at
$650,000.
As Concordia’s first decade of service drew to
a close, it was obvious that something special,
and quite rare in Lutheran circles, was happening
in the booming parish. True to Merkens’
prediction to Dr. Rast, the congregation had
become self-sufficient by the end of its first year.
Its physical plant had grown and expanded
almost yearly to meet the influx of new members.
The school was growing and charged no
tuition to Concordia members. The church was
easily the fastest-growing LCMS congregation
and Merkens’ prayer of becoming one of the
largest congregations in Synod was a distinct
possibility. But the congregation’s impact was
soon to spread far beyond San Antonio.
✦
Rhoda Canion, Dr. Merkens’ sister,
served as Concordia’s music director
from 1956 until her retirement in 1997.
Chapter I ✦ 19

CHAPTER 2
✦
TV Sunday School became San
Antonio’s top rated Sunday morning
show during the early 1960’s.
By the early 1960’s church leaders were coming to
Concordia from all over to try to learn the principles
driving the congregation’s amazing effectiveness.
The innovations at Concordia were mostly
invented or refined by Merkens. Some were
based on simple, basic principles of business and
marketing. While Concordia’s objective was to
follow Christ’s command to make disciples, the
techniques used to attain that objective reflected
the most current technology and business strategies
designed to draw and retain customers.
However, Merkens is quick to point out:
“Ultimately it was still the word and sacrament
ministry that built the church by God’s grace.”
In 1959, for example, Concordia began
printing the entire Sunday liturgy in the bulletin,
along with verses of hymns to be sung.
“In this way we made it easier for members
and visitors to follow along,” Merkens
explained. “A visitor didn’t have to feel intimidated
because he couldn’t find the correct page
in the hymnal for the liturgy.”
Now, he said, many a successful church
prints out their service in a worship guide.
Merkens said he loved the old Lutheran
Hymnal, and the hymns it contained, “but if you
have a great hymn with 15 verses, why should
we feel compelled to sing all 15? We’d just pick
out the best four or five, print them in the bulletin
and sing them with gusto.”
The services at Concordia were packed with
music, liturgy and preaching, but almost never
lasted more than sixty minutes.
“You know, the most successful television
show in history was called 60 Minutes,” noted
Merkens. “A lot of that was because sixty minutes
is just about the maximum amount of time
you can keep the attention of the normal adult.
20 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

We tried to get everything done in our service in
sixty minutes. That meant the sermon needed to
be right at twenty-two minutes. This also helped
some of the older folks know that if they had to
get home and take the roast out of the oven, the
8:30 service was always going to be over at 9:30.
Eleven o’clock service was through at 12, communion
or not.”
Television was a natural medium to expand
the reach of Concordia. The first experiment
with television was called Lutheran TV Bible
School and was aired in 1952 and 1953, long
before most families even owned a television
receiver. But in 1963 Concordia went on the air
with TV Sunday School, a program that became
San Antonio’s top rated Sunday morning show.
“Of course that was in the days when there were
only three channels and there wasn’t a lot of competition
at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning,” Merkens
said. “Every week we took ten kids along for the
taping, and it was simply a Sunday School lesson,
which I delivered, directed at kids, but which also
had something for adults. A lot of people came to
Concordia as the result of that program.”
The program lasted through 1965.
Another example of a simple, effective idea
implemented by Merkens was to furnish identical
Bibles for use during Adult Bible Class.
“In that way, when we asked everybody to turn
to Ecclesiastes 2, no one would have to be embarrassed
about not being able to find that book in
the Old Testament. We’d just say, ‘Turn to page
242’ and everybody would be at the same place.”
Dozens of similar, seemingly insignificant,
techniques were employed to make worship at
Concordia as comfortable and as user friendly as
possible, while remaining Christ-centered and
Biblically-based.
✦
Above: The 1960-61 staff of
Concordia Lutheran School poses for
the camera. How many of these faces
can you identify? Several are still
members of Concordia.
Left: Concordia’s sanctuary is filled for
worship in 1964. Note the ladies’ hats,
high baffle walls behind the pulpit and
lecturn, and the lack of organ pipes,
which were added in the 1970’s.
Chapter II ✦ 21

“I always believed that if you can get people to
regularly worship, other aspects of Christian living
will follow,” said Merkens. “So we used many
a device to make our services attractive. And we
did everything possible to analyze the worship
service and everything we did at Concordia. We
were always seeking new ways to meet needs and
to heal hurts by the Spirit’s power.”
The results were impressive. Of Concordia’s
members, sixty-five percent were at worship
each Sunday. This compares with forty percent
in the Missouri Synod and thirty-five percent in
American Protestant churches.
Merkens also believed it was vital that the
church grounds be immaculate and manicured.
The extra care, he said, made the campus inviting
and “really had an impact on visitors.” The
attention to landscaping of the Concordia campus
eventually led to a “Beautify San Antonio”
award being presented to the congregation.
Among the church growth principles
espoused by Merkens was that “if your church is
80 percent full, it is full.” At that point, Merkens
insists, you must either expand or you stagnate.
“And you have to have a surplus of parking,
if you plan to grow. The 80 percent formula
works in parking, as well.”
Merkens said a major focus was always
on visitors.
“I always asked myself, ‘When they come in,
what are they deciding?’ I knew that many were
deciding within the first 12 to 15 minutes
whether they are going to come back, even
before they heard the sermon. They were taking
✦
Above: Concordia’s acolytes for 1965-
66 are part of a tradition of service by
Concordia’s youth.
Right: Groundbreaking for a school
addition and sanctuary expansion took
place in May 1961. During this period
Concordia added a building a year.
22 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

Perhaps the innovation in which Merkens
took the most pride was the way in which
annual financial pledges were handled at
Concordia. Merkens’ plan for encouraging regular
and generous giving revolved around
Loyalty Sunday.
On Loyalty Sunday, usually held the second
Sunday in December, each family was given the
opportunity, during the service, to fill out their
giving pledge for the coming year. At the
appointed time members were invited to come
in how the property looked, was the nursery
clean, how was I received in the church, was the
temperature comfortable, was the lighting good.
And they would look around and ask, ‘Are there
other people here like me? I’m forty years old.
Are there some other forty-year-olds here?’ All
these things played into a decision to come
back, so we tried everything we could to make
their visit a positive experience.”
✦
Above, left: Scholarships were given to
nine Concordians studying for ministry
in August 1965. In October, Bill Knippa’s
decision to study for the pastoral
ministry brought the year’s total to 10.
Above, right: A Living Lutheran
Leadership seminar at the Terrace
Motel in Austin in 1966 broke records
for attendance. Some 2,100 packed
the motel ballroom for the presentation
by Merkens and Art Samuel.
Left: Dr. Oswald Hoffman, legendary
speaker for The Lutheran Hour dons
a Stetson hat presented to him by
Concordia, as he attends the
dedication of Concordia Lutheran
School’s newly constructed classroom
complex, April 19, 1964.
Chapter II ✦ 23

✦
Above. left: A Living Lutheran
Leadership seminar was held in the
chapel of Valparaiso University.
Above, right: Living Lutheran Leadership
came to Park Ridge, a suburb of Chicago
on May 13, 1969. Merkens had the
special privilege of presenting a copy of
his book to his father.
Below: Dr. J.A.O. Preuss preached at
a church enlargement dedication in
March 1973.
forward, row by row, to deposit their written
pledges in a box on the altar.
The Loyalty Sunday campaign involved
weeks of preparation, a sermon on Christian
giving, and weeks of follow-up for those not in
attendance. But the public expression involved
in dropping the pledge card into a box in front
of the entire congregation had a dramatic
impact on contributions at Concordia.
“I remember some of those Loyalty Sundays
were great spiritual moments for the congregation,
and for me. Most of those Sundays I’d just
stand there with tears of joy and gratitude to
God to see these people coming forward with
their promises of intent of Christian giving in
their hands and laying it on the altar.”
Merkens said that Loyalty Sunday always
drew some of the biggest attendance numbers of
the year. “We would often reach 75 to 80 percent
of the families on that one Sunday,” he
noted, “The relatively few absentees were visited
later that day.”
It was becoming obvious that the methods of
growth and ministry being used at Concordia
could, and should, be taught to other Lutheran
and non-Lutheran churches. One of those who
came to this conclusion was a dedicated lay
leader, Art Samuel, who was also the Texas
District president of the Lutheran Layman’s
League. Samuel took to heart the mission of the
LLL, which was to help the church grow.
Samuel and Merkens began developing a plan
to teach church leaders and pastors about church
growth techniques developed at Concordia. The
24 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

format was to be a series of seminars, to be held,
initially, in cities throughout Texas.
To go along with the seminars, Merkens
wrote his third book, Living Lutheran Leadership,
a takeoff on the LLL initials. This title also
became the name of the seminar series, which
began in 1965.
“Art was so wise,” noted Merkens. “His organization
was in place to assist the church and he
realized what better help can you give than hints
on how to win and keep people for Christ.”
During the seminars, usually held on a
Saturday or Sunday afternoon, both Merkens and
Samuel would speak. From January to June
1965, the pair scheduled seminars across Texas,
eventually reaching over ten thousand Lutherans.
Merkens recalled: “We spoke in everything
from churches to gymnasiums to hotel meeting
rooms, distributing the books as we went. That
was a real breakthrough for us, as we were then
featured in our synodical publications. Pretty
soon other districts asked, ‘When can you
come here?’”
Living Lutheran Leadership quickly grew
beyond Texas. Where Merkens and Samuel had
previously been able to drive to a seminar, they
now had to travel by air.
“At each stop, the people would come in,”
said Merkens, “we’d have lectures of about
twenty minutes a pop along with prayer and
✦
Above: Living Lutheran Leadership
plays to a packed house in St. Paul,
Minnesota, March 11, 1967.
Below: An article in the San Antonio
Express-News on February 12, 1972
announced that Concordia had been
included as one of only 15 churches in
America featured in the book, Great
Churches of Today.
Chapter II ✦ 25

✦
Above: Great Churches of Today,
published by the Billy Graham
Association put Concordia on the map
as a true MegaChurch.
Below: Dr. and Mrs. Merkens are
joined by Dr. J.A.O. Preuss, president
of Synod, and his wife, at the
dedication of the enlarged sanctuary
in 1968.
singing in between. Art would talk and I would
talk, all on the basis of the book. We’d have stories
and illustrations. We used some films and
later videos. It incorporated a lot of flash, as
they say in the ad business. Nobody ever left or
got bored, even though the whole seminar lasted
about four hours.
“One time we had a Saturday afternoon
meeting in the summer where ALC (American
Lutheran Church) people came to the Terrace
Motel in Austin and broke the record for attendance.
Two thousand people sat in a square hall,
no slope to the room, on folding chairs. Nobody
left from one to five o’clock.”
“The seminar had a lot of humor in it, a lot of
up and down prayer and singing and all the
power that God’s Spirit could put in us to present
the motivation, as well as the substance.
That was exciting.”
Merkens said the response from attendees
was amazing. They reported that new congregations
were planted, attendance grew, Bible classes
grew, and offerings grew.
At one point Merkens said an audio recording
was made on “Loyalty Sunday As Presented
by Living Lutheran Leadership” and reproduced
as a 33 1/3 rpm record. Accompanying the
record were printed materials about Loyalty
Sunday, which could be copied and used. These
were sent out on request to pastors throughout
the U.S.
“We followed up on these. And of the first
one thousand pastors who responded, the average
increase in the free will giving in one year
was 18.7 percent. Now, that’s rural, urban,
small, big. But it’s an enormous increase for any
church. That was a very tangible evidence of
God’s Spirit at work.”
An article in the LLL newspaper during the
late 1960’s included this observation from a
female attendee about her experience at Living
Lutheran Leadership: “What an unexpected,
exciting day this turned out to be. I feel as if I
had absorbed the full, explosive energy of a
hydrogen bomb, participated in a 4th of July
celebration, the coronation of a monarch, and a
presidential inauguration all in the space of a
few hours.”
Living Lutheran Leadership continued from
1965 to 1969, with Merkens and Samuel crisscrossing
the country. In 1968 Merkens published
another book titled Loving Lutheran
Leadership, incorporating new ideas and the
Loyalty Sunday plan. Merkens continued to
offer church growth seminars throughout his
years at Concordia, culminating in the book and
seminar series Creative Church Management in
the 1980’s.
This tireless sharing of ideas and inspiration
touched thousands of Lutheran and non-
Lutheran churches through three decades.
During that time seminars were held in 49 states
and 14 foreign countries and included several
hundred thousand participants.
As Merkens became well-known as an up and
coming Missouri Synod church leader, he received
increasing numbers of calls to become pastor of
26 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

other congregations, all of which he declined. In
November 1963 Merkens received an even more
prestigious call to be president of Concordia
College-Austin. He would have been the youngest
college president of a synodical college, ever to
serve. The call was returned, declined. However,
the call was re-sent to Merkens.
“They said you obviously don’t realize how
important this is. Please think about this some
more,” said Merkens. It was declined a second
time, however.
Merkens received another honor in 1966, when
he was given the Lutheran Medallion for
Distinguished Christian Service. He was the ninth
recipient of the medallion. Other recipients
include the Kings of Sweden, Norway, and
Finland.
During the 1960’s and 1970’s expansion or
construction was almost constantly under way
at Concordia. The sanctuary was expanded four
times, new land was purchased for expansion
and parking, and offices and other buildings
were constructed.
In 1971 Merkens became Fifth Vice President
of the Missouri Synod. He was later elevated to
Fourth Vice President upon the resignation of
the man holding that position.
This brought him into the church body’s
hierarchy at the time of its most explosive controversy.
Merkens describes this stormy period
as “The Battle For the Bible.” In the early 1970’s
a number of the Synod’s pastors and seminary
professors were under fire for questioning the
traditional belief in the inerrancy of scripture.
The question of whether these liberal views
would prevail in the Missouri Synod came to a
head at the synodical convention in 1973.
Merkens was selected as the opening speaker
for the convention and set the tone for the gathering
that ultimately resulted in the defeat of the
liberal contingent. Many liberals ultimately
walked out and set up a “seminary in exile,”
Seminex, but the Missouri Synod had reaffirmed
its historic stand of belief in the Bible as the one
authentic, inspired revelation from the Creator.
At that convention, Merkens was elected
Second Vice President of Synod, the highest
office he could attain without having to move to
St. Louis and leave the congregation. He served
for eight years in this position. Merkens was also
nominated for President of Synod at conventions
in 1973, 1977 and 1981, but declined
each time.
Concordia received a great honor and even
greater national exposure in 1972 with the publication
of a book produced by the Billy Graham
Association and Decision Magazine, titled Great
Churches of Today. Concordia was one of only 15
churches featured in the book.
“Billy Graham’s team came down and interviewed
all of us, the staff and many members, in
preparation of the book,” Merkens recalled.
“They were a really sharp group, and they really
knew churches, so it was an incredible honor to
be featured in their book.”
Concordia’s ministry was also described in
Your Church Has A Fantastic Future, a church
✦
Above: The cornerstone was laid for the
school building on February 16, 1964.
Joining Merkens and the cornerstone
artisans are, left to right, H. P.
Haschke, Mayo Galindo, Tex Saage,
and Gerald Brinton.
Below: The west side chapel was
added as a part of continuing
renovations to the sanctuary during
the 1960’s.
Chapter II ✦ 27

✦
Above: On August 5, 1973 three sons
of Concordia were ordained into the
ministry. They are (left to right) Steve
Wagner, D.R. Nelson, and Bill
Knippa, standing in front of Dr.
Merkens.
Right: This 1970 newspaper article
details plans for dedication ceremonies
for the expanded sanctuary.
growth book written by Dr. Robert Schuller. Dr.
Schuller became an acquaintance and friend of
Merkens during this time.
Concordia Lutheran School may be the only
Lutheran elementary school to ever have a Ph.D.
as its principal. In 1973, upon the departure of
Concordia’s principal, Merkens’ father, Dr. A.G.
Merkens, offered to serve as the school’s principal.
The 76-year-old retired pastor held a doctorate
in education, so he was well-qualified to lead
the school, which he did for two school years.
On August 5, 1973 a seminal event occurred at
Concordia as three of the congregation’s sons were
ordained into the ministry. Bill Knippa, Steve
Wagner, and D.R. Nelson were honored in a special
ordination ceremony. This is the first time on
28 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

✦
Left: “They come to play and they
stay to pray.” Dr. Merkens’ slogan
accurately described the
neighborhood’s youth who took
advantage of the Concordia
Gymnasium open door policy.
Below: Sports teams like Concordia's
“Mites” basketball team, coached by
B. Smith in the 1970’s, have
represented the church in city youth
leagues throughout five decades.
record that three young men from a Lutheran congregation
joined the pastoral ministry on a single
day. Throughout Concordia’s history eleven sons
of the congregation have been ordained as
Lutheran pastors. Another 39 men and women
have been trained in synodical colleges and
worked in full time ministry. See the lists at the
end of this book for names of these individuals.
To keep up with the membership growth,
Concordia’s staff had to grow, as well. Melvin
Spenn was the first associate pastor called by
Concordia. He served through 1961 and
1962. In 1965 E.A. Wolf was called. He died
in 1969 while serving as the congregation’s
visitation pastor.
Steve McClintic served from 1968 to 1972
and Theodore Graalman from 1972 to 1977.
Two associate pastors still affiliated with
Concordia were also called during the 1970’s.
They are Norman Abbott and David Ebs. Abbott
was called in 1976 and Ebs in 1978.
In the mid-1970’s Merkens received two
impressive awards. He was given a doctorate
degree by Concordia Seminary, Springfield in
March 1975, giving him the title “Doctor” or
“Doc” which has followed him through his ministry.
In May 1975 Dr. Merkens became the fifth
clergyman in 103 years of Concordia-St.Louis
Seminary history to receive its Distinguished
Alumnus Award.
Sunday School was always a high priority at
Concordia. During the 1970’s Sunday School for
children and young adults reached its peak under
the leadership of Art Samuel. Samuel did not join
Concordia until after completing his travels with
Merkens for Living Lutheran Leadership.
“When I joined, Dr. Merkens put me to work
as Sunday School superintendent,” Samuel
explained. “A couple of years later we were
invited to a Synod Sunday School meeting in St.
Louis to receive an award as the largest Sunday
Chapter II ✦ 29

✦
Above: Concordia Lutheran School
fielded a tackle football team in the
mid-1960’s. Number 19 for the
Cardinals, in this photo, went on to
play 10 years in the NFL.
Below: Doctor Merkens baptized his
grandson, Guido Albert Merkens III,
on September 20, 1978.
School in the Missouri Synod. A subject of
much interest was how to recruit new teachers,
and it was suggested that offering a stipend
might be the answer. I was compelled to share
with them how silly that idea was and how it
was done at Concordia. First, no one was asked
unless he or she was regular in worship and
communion and was a good steward. They were
then told it was an honor, a privilege, and a call
to teach God’s children. They would be expected
to be at a teacher’s meeting every Wednesday
night. If they did not attend, they could not
teach on the following Sunday. It was imperative
to spend two or three hours a week in lesson
preparation. It was also necessary to be at least
ten minutes early to meet, greet, and welcome
the students.
“Dr. Merkens put the Sunday School at the top
of his priorities, right next to the worship service.
He was at every teacher’s meeting and took the
first ten minutes for inspiration and instruction.
At times we had 1,500 in the Sunday School and
one hundred teachers and secretaries.”
Although Merkens was the focal point for
the success of the Concordia congregation, the
achievements of Concordia were primarily the
result of dedicated lay leadership and hundreds
of members volunteering for menial and
many not-so-menial tasks.
An article in The Lutheran Witness, dated
February 6, 1977, features Concordia and its ministry.
It reads, in part: “Members of the congregation
most frequently attribute the growth of the
congregation to pastoral leadership. Merkens, on
the other hand, points to the high level of enthusiastic
participation by members, as well as a broad
parish understanding of church growth principles.”
Charles Matthys, president of Concordia’s
congregation in 1969, recalls the many lay ministries
that added to Concordia’s growth.
“The uniqueness of Concordia was not only
Dr. Merkens and his innovations, but the spirit
of the laity,” said Matthys.
Matthys points to the following examples
from the 1970’s and 1980’s.
“Three times a year Pastor Merkens and the
Mission Board would mobilize the congregation
to go out and make evangelism calls, in pairs, on
30 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

prospective members, and over one hundred
would show up.
“The dedicated Elders made calls on delinquents
so that Concordia remained strong internally
while growing from the outside.
“A huge number of Concordians signed up
to be on the greeters and guestbook committee.
We had hundreds of men and women
sign up.”
Eleanor Hammonds, a professional nurse, offers
another example of lay service through the Health
Care Committee. According to Mrs. Hammonds, a
number of women of the congregation formed the
Health Care Committee in the 1970’s.
“We voluntarily organized ourselves,” she
said, “and we bought the first wheelchair,
crutches, and first aid supplies for the church to
deal with any emergencies. We have taken blood
pressure once a month on Sunday morning for
✦
Left: Bill Wagner, executive editor of
the San Antonio Express-News,
offered a note of appreciation to
Merkens in this 1957 letter.
Below: Concordia’s choir raises
anthems of praise as part of Easter
services in 1979.
Chapter II ✦ 31

✦
Above: Concordia’s school presented
The Pied Piper of Hamlin as the
school’s annual dramatic presentation
in the early 1970’s.
Below: Concordia School students are
shown in the school cafeteria in this
photo from the early 1970’s.
nearly 30 years, and we have held Health Fairs
for members and for the community.”
The Health Care Committee, at one time, even
provided influenza injections to members.
“Our committee has always visited the sick,”
she said, “and those in the hospital.”
Two women singled out by many Concordia
members for their roles in the congregation’s
dynamic ministry are Dr. Merkens’ wife,
Barbara, and his sister, Rhoda Canion.
Art Samuel recalls that Barbara played the
pivotal role in supporting the pastoral ministry
at Concordia: “We of the laity often overlook, or
do not know, how important the role of the pastor’s
wife is. I say this because Mrs. Merkens has
always played it very low key. Even though we
were not members from the beginning, Jeanette
and I were good friends of the Merkens. So I
knew first hand that, in addition to raising four
children, she had a must list from Pastor almost
every day. When we began traveling together,
her list was longer than some of his secretaries’.”
Samuel has similar praise for Mrs. Canion, who
served as Concordia’s music director from 1956 to
1997: “Not only was she one of the first teachers,
but she came equipped as an organist first class and
a choir director as well. We all know how very
important music is to our worship, and she did an
outstanding job. How she could run both feet up
and down the foot pedals, play and direct the choir
with one or both hands, all at the same time, was
something to behold. I have heard it said many
times that she played like her brother preached.”
The 1970’s drew to a close with Concordia
firmly in command of the title of the largest church
in Synod. Although several Missouri Synod congregations
claimed communicant membership
near the 3,000 mark, Concordia stood out alone
with over 2,000 average worship attendance in
1980. The goal Dr. Merkens had set on arriving in
1951 had been accomplished. But even more
exciting years were in store for Concordia.
32 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

✦
Above: At Easter Sunday services in
1975, a total of 3,500 attended
three services.
Left: Concordia celebrated a special
anniversary day on August 24, 1975.
Four Concordia members were
recognized for anniversaries of service
to His kingdom. From left to right, Dr.
A.G. Merkens was recognized for 55
years, Verena Moll for 25 years, Esther
Bierbaum for 30 years, and Pastor
Theodore Graalman for 40 years.
Chapter II ✦ 33

CHAPTER 3
✦
Getting everyone into worship in the
early 1980’s involved setting up
folding chairs in the aisles, having
televised overflow seating in the gym,
and the scheduling of five worship
opportunities per week.
In the early 1980’s Concordia purchased
video equipment and began telecasting services
to locations around the campus. This experimentation
with television, plus the tremendous
growth of Christian television programming, led
to a decision in 1982 to put Concordia on the
air in a big way.
Breakthrough became Concordia’s television
ministry. The 30-minute program was built
around a televised sermon by Dr. Merkens, but
also included contemporary Christian music
and, at times, brief interviews. At first the program
was aired on Sunday mornings in a time
slot just after the Robert Schuller program. It
was produced by a professional television production
company and came across as polished
as any Christian program being aired.
“That brought a lot of visitors and a lot of attention,
too,” said Merkens. “We reached a lot of people
whom we wouldn’t have reached in any other
way. A good example was a man who headed up a
major oil company. He had just moved to town.
He was watching television one morning, just flipping
the dial. He saw our program and couldn’t
believe this was right here in San Antonio. He saw
the packed church and the enthusiastic congregation.
He turned to his wife and said, ‘Honey, we
still have time to get there for the 11 o’clock serv-
34 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

ice.’ So they came that week and kept coming.
They joined and were dear, loyal members and
great friends of mine.”
The local broadcast became very popular
Sunday morning television fare. At different
times, it was on all three major network stations
in San Antonio through the mid-1980’s. The
show was also broadcast for a time on two satellite
networks, including nine months on CBN,
which took the production onto various cable
networks around the nation and the world.
At times the church also offered a prayer
phone line, manned by volunteers. The number
was displayed at the bottom of the screen during
the show. Those who participated reported
calls coming in from all over the United States.
“Breakthrough gave our own people a great
sense of self-esteem,” recalled Merkens. “We had
three cameras. One camera would pan the congregation,
and they never knew when they were
going to be on. This gave them a feeling of
‘Wow, my church is on television and I’m a part
of all this excitement.’”
It was a successful undertaking, Merkens
believes, “but we ultimately couldn’t keep funding
it through the congregational budget.”
“Perhaps we were not as aggressive as we should
have been in asking for funds from our viewers,” he
notes. “It gave us a tremendous amount of exposure
locally and nationally, but in the end it just
seemed too costly compared with other priorities.”
✦
Above: A new pulpit in Concordia’s
sanctuary was purchased and the
baffle wall behind lowered to
accommodate the television show,
Breakthrough.
Left: As many as 650 packed the
gymnasium for Adult Bible Class
during the 1980’s. Coffee was served
and eventually tacos and donuts were
available for purchase.
Chapter III ✦ 35

✦
Right: Bob Keahey leads a ninth grade
Sunday morning Bible Class during
the late 1980’s.
Below: On a typical Sunday in the
mid-1980’s Concordia’s sanctuary was
packed with worshipers for two
morning services. Other worship
opportunities included Sunday
evening, Wednesday evening, and
Saturday evening.
36 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

The year 1982 marked the publication of
Merkens’ first book directed at a general
Christian audience. The book, like the television
program, was titled Breakthrough. Its chapters
were primarily rewritten sermons which had
been offered by Merkens, but also included
ministry tips and inspirational stories.
That same year Concordia added 290 new
members, including 101 through adult confirmation,
150 through transfer, and 39 through
junior confirmation. That number, said Merkens,
was “unheard of” in the Missouri Synod.
In 1985 Concordia set another record when it
confirmed 84 children, the largest junior confirmation
class in Synod’s history. The reason for the large
class was a decision reached to consolidate the sixth
and seventh grades for that one year and from then
on to instruct and confirm sixth graders. This was
done in step with Texas public schools, which had
begun to incorporate sixth grade along with seventh
and eighth grades into “Middle Schools.”
As Concordia continued to add new souls,
the sheer size of the congregation at times prevented
members from really knowing each
✦
An aerial view of Concordia’s campus
in 1980 shows a packed parking lot,
which was later alleviated by the
purchase of land for additional spaces.
Chapter III ✦ 37

other. To answer this need the zone care program
was instituted under the leadership of
Pastor Ebs in the early 1980’s.
Under this program, the congregation was
broken into geographic zones, with approximately
twelve families in each zone. One couple
was selected in each zone as “zone captains.”
Their responsibility was to stay in touch with
the other zone members and to host at least one
annual event which all could attend.
✦
Above, left: Concordia Youth attend
the 1989 LCMS Youth Gathering,
posing in front of the Colorado State
Capitol in Denver.
Above, right: Mrs. Verna Brown was
named “Woman of the Year” at the
1986 LWML Mother-Daughter
Banquet. The Mother-Daughter
Banquet has become the highlight of
the year for LWML.
Right: Zone Captains met periodically
at dinner meetings to plan and share
successes of the zone care program.
38 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

✦
Left: Concordia operated a bus
ministry in the early 1980’s that
brought dozens of kids to Concordia
for Sunday School.
Below: Groundbreaking for the
Ministry Building took place on
October 21, 1984. Turning the
spades, from left to right, are Dr.
Merkens, Dan Banks, Wayne Hake,
and Victor Leitko.
Although some zones were more active than
others, Ebs believes the program helped bring
the congregation closer together.
“There were lifelong relationships established
through the zone program,” Ebs said. “Some
people needed this formal structure to allow
themselves to become caregivers to others.
There are just dozens of stories of how the zone
care program led to help and healing for
Concordia members.”
Along with the zone program, Concordia set
up a whole series of generation-specific groups
to promote activities and fellowship among
members. These groups were given catchy
names like “Motivators” and “Celebrators.” They
held dinners and events for members who fit
into that group’s age category. These groups continued
to function throughout the 1980’s and
early 1990’s, with the “Motivators” group, aged
50 and above, still active today.
In the mid-1980’s Merkens and the congregational
leadership began planning for a major
building to meet a number of needs at the
church. The lack of office space was an obvious
need, but there was also a shortage of meeting
space and adequate nursery facilities. Added to
this was Merkens’ desire to expand the health
ministry to offer members counseling and wellness
services.
All these needs were incorporated into a fourstory
high rise structure named the Ministry
Building. Included in the new building was a
chapel where the smaller funerals and weddings
could be conducted. The chapel also served as
an overflow for the packed services in the sanc-
Chapter III ✦ 39

✦
Above: The Ministry Building rises
above the 13-acre Concordia campus
at 1826 Basse Road.
Below, left: The Barracks Building was
moved off Concordia’s campus in June
1984, after serving for 28 years as a
classroom and nursery.
Below, right: The Ministry Building
became an imposing part of the
landscape on Basse Road.
tuary. Sunday and Wednesday evening services
were also held in the chapel.
The Ministry Building also included an
expanded bookstore that was open on Sundays,
a data processing center, a complete nursery
wing, and an office to house a professional psychological
counselor. Most of the pastoral
office space was incorporated into the building,
along with a large meeting space, divided by
sliding partitions.
Of course, the entire Ministry Building was
wired for television and computer use, and
access to the various floors was by two elevators,
including one large enough to transport coffins
to the chapel for funeral services.
Topping the building was a large metal
cross, which could be seen from cars passing
on Interstate Highway 10, which was several
miles away.
The dedication day for the Ministry Building,
November 3, 1985, was one of the most impressive,
if not one of the most unusual, in the history
of Concordia.
In attendance at the dedication were numerous
San Antonio dignitaries, including Mayor
Henry Cisneros and County Judge Tom Vickers.
40 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

The day was planned so the dedication took
place at both morning services, in order that all
members could participate.
Just prior to the start of the 11 a.m. service,
Merkens went up to the altar to retrieve a book. As he
turned to leave the altar area, tragedy struck. Merkens
fell to the floor and was unable to stand. The pastor
had torn the patella ligaments in both knees.
Merkens recalls, “Some of the people thought:
‘Isn’t this a wonderful object lesson he’s giving us.
We need a wellness center. We need a health ministry.’
Of course television was grinding away, filming
the whole thing. I just couldn’t get up. Finally
a man by the name of Tuchenhagen, one of the
ushers, came over and asked, ‘Are you all right?’
“Four elders carried me back into the office.
Talk about the providence of God, in that service
was Dr. (Phillip) Craven, who I believe is one
of the best orthopedic surgeons in San Antonio.
He immediately came back to the office and
examined my knees. He said for me to stand up.
I put my weight on my right leg and I went right
down. Then I tried the left and the same thing
happened. He said to me, ‘I’ll see you at two
o’clock this afternoon.’ I asked ‘For what purpose?’
He said, ‘Well, I’m doing surgery.’ I said,
‘What if I don’t come?’ He said, ‘You won’t ever
walk again.’ So I said ‘I’ll be there.’”
Merkens was placed in a wheelchair and
wheeled out before the congregation just as the
11 a.m. service was to start. He conducted the
dedication service and preached from the wheelchair,
despite the pain of his torn ligaments.
The next six weeks, Merkens recalled, “were
the most difficult of my life.”
The energetic pastor was confined to lying flat
on his back in bed, following the surgery. But this
circumstance hardly deterred Merkens from conducting
the day to day business of Concordia.
“Barbara would bring the meals and the mail
and all the papers I needed to review or sign,”
Merkens said. “She was just a saint.
“The secretaries would come out and bring
me anything I needed from church. Of course I
had a telephone, so I could stay in touch with
everybody and keep everything rolling.”
Merkens only missed one Sunday service. For
weeks he arrived on Sunday mornings in an ambulance
and preached from a wheelchair, and eventually
on crutches. Just 10 days after his surgery he
held a seminar for military chaplains in a local hotel.
The experience, Merkens said, “taught us all
patience, and it also reminded me how wonderful
the Lord is in his healing power.”
The year 1985 also marked the beginning of
a highly visible statement of members’ faith
through the Walk of Faith. This was a series of
scripture verses carved into granite and placed
into the sidewalks at the church. These were
contributed by various Concordia families, often
in memory of loved ones.
✦
Left: San Antonio Mayor Henry
Cisneros and County Judge Tom
Vickers (behind left) were part of the
celebration of dedication of
Concordia’s Ministry Building,
November 3, 1983.
Below: One of the many scripture
verses carved in granite and
embedded in Concordia’s sidewalks
which became the “Walk of Faith.”
Chapter III ✦ 41

✦
Right: An article in the San Antonio
Express-News describes the Lutheran
service held in the Catholic Cathedral in
Worms, Germany, where Dr. Merkens
preached to military personnel.
Below: Concordia, along with many
other Christian congregations,
adopted Vietnamese refugee families
during the mid-1980’s. These families
were given hope and opportunity and
eventually became self-sufficient
thanks to Concordia’s generosity.
One of the church’s innovative ideas made
national news in 1987 with a front page story in
USA Today.
“For a long time it had bugged me that they
changed from standard time to daylight savings
time on Sunday morning,” said Merkens. “The
idea was that this change, in which you lose an
hour, would have the least impact on business if
it was done on Sunday morning. But it had a big
impact on the church. Most churches reported
attendance was down by thirty to fifty percent
on that Sunday.
“So we simply told our people, ‘Don’t lose
sleep that night. Come to church at the regular
time and reset your watch at the end of the service.’
We did this for several years and word really
got around. Attendance actually went up on
that Sunday. Some members of other churches
would come to Concordia that day, just so they
could sleep an extra hour.”
A few days prior to the change to daylight
savings time in 1987, Merkens received a phone
call from a reporter for USA Today. She interviewed
Merkens and told him the story would
be in that weekend’s edition.
“I was just blown away when it appeared on
page one,” said Merkens. “It was just amazing
publicity for such a small, logical change.”
The article began, “The Rev. Guido Merkens
won’t lose any sleep Sunday when the USA
42 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

springs forward to daylight-savings time.
Merkens is asking 4,000 members at Concordia
Lutheran Church in San Antonio, Texas, to
ignore the change and attend morning services
on standard time.”
Merkens said Concordia continued this practice
until the changeover day was moved to earlier
in the year and often came on Easter Sunday.
From 1978 to 1987 the name Merkens was
heard nationwide during NFL game broadcasts,
when Merkens’ son, Guido Jr., played for the
Houston Oilers and the New Orleans Saints. Guido
Jr. played a variety of positions, including quarterback,
wide receiver, and punt returner under
Coach Bum Phillips. Phillips called Guido Jr. “the
best athlete I ever coached.” The professional football
connection gave Dr. Merkens the opportunity
to hold chapel for the Oilers and Saints and earned
him a lifelong friendship with Phillips.
In the late 1980’s Merkens’ travels continued
to bring notice to the congregation. The book
Creative Church Management was translated into
several languages, including Korean. This led to
Merkens’ invitation to speak at Lutheran
churches in the Asian nations of South Korea,
Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and the Phillipines.
In 1990 Merkens was invited to preach to U.S.
military personnel in the cathedral at Worms,
Germany. This was the location where, in 1521,
Martin Luther was summoned before papal representatives,
the Diet at Worms, for a hearing on
his teachings. Luther, of course, refused to recant,
and his stirring testimony at Worms included the
famous line, “Unless I am convinced by Scripture
and plain reason—I do not accept the authority
of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted
each other—my conscience is captive to
the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant
anything, for to go against conscience is neither
right nor safe. God help me. Amen.”
The significance of Merkens’ appearance
before the military group was that it was the first
time a Lutheran service had ever been held in the
old cathedral. “They really had to get permission
from the pope for that event,” Merkens noted.
The 1980’s and early 90’s were banner years
for Concordia Lutheran School. The school was
riding the crest of a national trend toward private
schools and home schooling, a reaction to lowering
expectations from the public school sector.
Bruce Rudi became principal in 1989, with the
retirement of Neva Odell. One of his first accomplishments
was the expansion of the school to
include middle school. This was begun in 1992
with the addition of the seventh grade. Each year
two classes for each middle school grade were
added. The first eighth grade graduation at
Concordia took place in May, 1995.
Several assistant pastors served Concordia
from the 1980’s through the end of the Merkens
era. Rev. Robert Jaeger joined the Concordia
pastoral staff in 1984. He remained with the
church until his retirement in 1996. Rev. Robert
Boyce came to Concordia in 1986, but stayed
less than a year. Rev. Victor Kollman, a former
vicar at Concordia, was called in 1987. He
served until 1992. Rev. David Kipp, a former lay
minister who had gone on to formal seminary
training, served Concordia from 1992 until
early 1995. Rev. Patrick Boomhower, a former
lawyer and FBI agent, came to Concordia as an
associate in 1993 and served until 1995.
Early in the decade of the 90’s it was becoming
apparent that even Merkens’ dynamic
✦
Above: Neva Odell leads a school
activity. Mrs. Odell served as
Concordia’s principal from 1977 to
1989. She joined the school as a
teacher in 1952.
Left: This Concordia School classroom
in 1990 featured a group of enthusiastic,
bright young men and women.
Chapter III ✦ 43

✦
Some 200 visitors were brought to
Concordia by members on Friendship
Sunday, October 22, 1989.
preaching style and a full plate of church events
and activities could no longer hold off the effects
of the transitioning neighborhood. The area
around Concordia, particularly toward downtown
was becoming increasingly populated by
lower income families. The signs of a deteriorating
neighborhood were everywhere: homes in
disrepair, declining business areas, increased
crime, gang graffiti.
The mostly middle class members of
Concordia, many of whom had moved miles
north of the church to new suburban areas, found
themselves attending church in a location in
which they did not feel completely comfortable.
While the church continued to draw attendance
from across the city, some in the church began to
ponder solutions to the location challenge.
“We always watched the demographics of our
members,” Merkens said. “We knew that many of
them were moving out further north. One of the
biggest problems was that it was difficult for them to
bring their friends to a church that was so far away.”
“We started thinking about how we could
either move or have a presence on the far north
side of the city in 1990,” he said. “The leadership
started sharing ideas on how we could
accomplish this. What came out of this was the
possibility of starting ‘Concordia North.’
“We even went so far as negotiating a lease
with a high school to rent some space to hold
services on Sunday morning. We thought we’d
start a service there and provide that to people
living in the area. We’d still call it Concordia, of
course, and we’d just see how it would go.”
Although the idea never came to fruition,
Merkens believes the discussion “helped prepare
the people for the move that came later on.”
In the fall of 1993 an opportunity opened for
Merkens that made him begin to think seriously
about his future as senior pastor of
44 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

eally selling short the good people of
Concordia. And it was disregarding the Spiritled
work that had been done through the years.
After all, the real connection here was between
the Concordia family and Jesus Christ, first,
then the connection with each other, and then
the connection with Dr. Merkens.”
During Merkens’ last few months at
Concordia, much was done to pave the way for
the transition period. Ebs was asked by Merkens
to defer his own retirement and to serve as the
“interim senior pastor.” It was a request that
would have been nearly impossible for the dedicated
associate pastor to decline.
Merkens also helped pick the men to serve on
the call committee. David Seale, who would play
the pivotal role in Concordia’s eventual move, was
✦
Left: Rev. Norman Abbott was called
to Concordia in 1976 and has served
faithfully since. In 2001, at 84 years
of age, Abbott continued to teach
women’s Bible class and to make calls
on shut-ins.
Below: An article in The Lutheran
Witness describes Concordia’s use of
Friendship Sunday as an opportunity
for members to invite hundreds to
experience a Sunday morning of
worship and Bible study.
Concordia. The opportunity was an offer for
him to serve as “executive counselor” of a major
campaign to be conducted by the Lutheran
Laymen’s League. The campaign was designed
to help bring The Lutheran Hour and other
Lutheran programming to television. It seemed
a perfect transition for Merkens, who was
approaching his 67th year.
“At the time I was wondering what I was
going to do after being senior pastor of
Concordia for all those years,” Merkens remembered.
“I knew I would never leave Concordia
for another church, nor would the people have
understood that. After all, forty times in forty
years I received calls and forty times declined.
Merkens said what finally convinced him to
accept the LLL position was a letter from Dr.
Oswald Hoffman, the venerable and persuasive
Lutheran Hour speaker. “That closed the deal,”
Merkens said.
Merkens had paved the way for his transition
through discussions with the board of elders
and church council. But his announcement from
the pulpit that he would be leaving Concordia
in December 1993 was still a great shock.
Pastor Ebs says the belief that Concordia
could not continue without Merkens was real to
some members.
“There were some who mistakenly said, ‘If
Dr. Merkens ever leaves, you can just close the
doors ’cause it will all collapse.’ But that was
Chapter III ✦ 45

✦
Above: You never knew who would
show up at Concordia. Entrepreneur
Red McCombs visits with Concordia
members prior to speaking at a
Concordia Business Person’s Dinner in
the late 1980’s.
Below: Christianity 201, an evening
Bible Class filled the gymnasium with
Concordia members. This photo is
dated Sept. 18, 1991.
chosen to head the call committee. Other members
were Joe Gorder, Chas Neely, Jim Smith, Vick
Leitko, Jim Wengler, Clarence Dirks, Al Love,
Larry Maxwell, John Sabatino, David Klobedans
and Ed Shook. Ebs served in an advisory capacity.
In December Joe Gorder was selected at the
annual voters’ meeting as the new congregational
president, with the term beginning
January 1, 1994. His unexpected election
placed Gorder in a position to guide the transition,
along with Ebs.
Prior to being elected president, Gorder had
already been appointed to head the committee
planning Merkens’ going away celebration.
“So I had to take care of that duty before we
could even think about the transition,” Gorder
said. “And it was really a tough job. Dr. Merkens
was used to being involved in everything that
happened at Concordia. This was the first time
that he had been kept out of the loop. So it was
a difficult challenge to keep him from knowing
everything that was going on in preparation for
the celebration. Things got a little tense because
we wouldn’t tell him all the plans. We really
wanted to surprise him and Barbara.”
The celebration was held between services on
December 19, 1993 in an overflowing gymnasium.
The program included testimonials from
family members and church members, gratefully
thanking Merkens for his 42 years of service.
There was also a video produced that included
comments from individuals Merkens’ ministry
had touched, including Coach Bum Phillips,
Trinity Baptist Pastor Buckner Fanning and Dr.
Oswald Hoffman. Surprise attendees included
the three sons of Concordia who had been
ordained together in 1974, Pastors Knippa,
Wagner, and Nelson.
“It was a great celebration,” noted Gorder. “In
the end I think Doc was really glad we had kept
all the secrets from him. And it was the first time
in 42 years that the 11 o’clock service didn’t
start on time.”
Immediately after the celebration Gorder,
Ebs, and the congregational leadership began
work on the many tasks at hand.
“I will be eternally grateful to Dr. Merkens,”
said Gorder. “That he helped set up some of the
transition in advance and that he left us with
considerable cash in the bank.”
46 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

Still the period beginning in January was a
painful one for Concordia.
“I can remember in early January getting six
and seven calls a day in my office from members
and staff asking, ‘Gee, what do we do about this
and what do we do about that.’ The first problem
was that I didn’t know the answers, and the
second was that these were decisions that Dr.
Merkens had usually made. We had the typical
power struggles going on that you have when
you change leadership.
“But Pastor Ebs hung in there through all that
and was really helpful in working through the
tough decisions.”
The greater challenge was finding a senior
pastor for the church. Concordia had never
formed a call committee before, so the group
had to learn how other LCMS congregations
approached the task and then had to invent its
own rules specific to Concordia.
According to Ebs, “They always said that a
church would be vacant for one month for each
year the previous pastor had served. That would
have been three and a half years. I would have
gotten ulcers and died. We just didn’t have that
luxury of time.
“We began our task without any preordained
choices. We really started from ground zero.”
Seale says the call committee planned to have
a call out no later than May of 1994. In reality,
the call was issued in March, just three months
after formation of the committee.
“Dr. Merkens’ leadership and instruction led
the process we incorporated into that committee,”
said Seale. “We knew we were Concordia Lutheran
Church and we were different. The whole process
was goal-oriented, thanks to the legacy left by Dr.
Merkens. We told Pastor Kieschnick [President of
the Texas District in 1994] that we were going to
call a pastor and have him here in six months. He
just couldn’t believe we were working on such a
schedule. In reality, from our first meeting on
December 19 to the installation on June 5 was less
than six months. That’s rather remarkable, when
you think about it.”
The committee actually received no input
from the Texas District, as recommendations
were not received in the time frame set by the
aggressive group.
The call committee initially requested that members
of Concordia nominate pastors to be considered
for the call. Thirty-six nominations were received
and a few of these declined to be considered.
Questionnaires were filled out by the candidates
and reviewed by the committee.
Phone interviews were also conducted.
“Very quickly we got the list down to five,”
said Seale. “Then we cut it to three. The cut to
three was really difficult, though.”
Members of the committee volunteered to travel
unannounced to hear the finalists preach. Gorder
and Seale just happened to draw the assignment to
go to Michigan to hear Dr. William Thompson,
pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Utica.
“When I heard him preach, I told Joe, ‘This
guy is pretty special,’” recalled Seale. “We were
the last ones to leave the church. Dr. Thompson
and his wife were greeting everyone. I had never
✦
Left: Concordia confirmed 84 youth in
1985, the largest junior confirmation
class ever in the Missouri Synod.
Below: Concordia’s parking lot at
Basse Road had spaces for over
600 automobiles.
Chapter III ✦ 47

✦
Top: David Brockhoff poses with Dr.
Merkens during the time he served as
a vicar at Concordia. Brockhoff was
one of 25 vicars trained at Concordia.
seen that before: a pastor’s wife greeting. We
introduced ourselves and spent some time visiting.
We were both extremely impressed.”
Gorder recalls of that first meeting with
Thompson, “We came back from that meeting
feeling pretty good about him.”
Gorder said Thompson also “really fit” the
qualities we were looking for. Among these were
professional experience in a large congregation,
a strong administrative background, knowledge
of finance, and a strong pulpit ministry. He was
the only candidate with a business degree in
addition to theological training, and he was on a
preaching schedule which kept him in the pulpit
three out of four weeks.
Both leaders noted that Thompson also fit
the need for someone experienced with construction
and capital fund drives. Thompson
had led several expansions of Trinity in Utica.
Ironically, Thompson was the last nominee
accepted by the call committee on the final day
nominations were accepted.
“Dennis Kasper sent in a fax nominating Dr.
Thompson,” recalled Seale. “He had just heard
about him and wanted to nominate him. He
called me from out of town and asked how he
could get a nomination in. So I had him fax it.”
Gorder said Thompson “was not even on our
radar screens” until nominated by Kasper.
“He probably should have been, but he wasn’t.”
The committee began discussing the finalists,
Thompson, Norb Oesch and Wray Offermann,
in order that a recommendation could be made
to the Concordia voters assembly.
“After a lot of discussion someone finally asked,
‘Does anyone here think that Bill Thompson is not
the right man for the job?’ No one responded. So we
prayed and the decision was made,” said Gorder.
The committee presented all three finalists to
the voters on March 13, 1994, with a recommendation
that Thompson be called.
Thompson’s call was overwhelmingly approved
by the voters.
Thompson accepted the call within two
weeks and the future direction of the largest
church in the Missouri Synod was in place.
Above: Rev. David Ebs took on the
challenge of serving as interim senior
pastor after Dr. Merkens’ departure.
He oversaw the transition period and
served as pastoral advisor to the call
committee during the spring of 1994.
He was to play the same role for the
call committee constituted in 2001.
Right: Statistical data published by the
Missouri Synod clearly places
Concordia at the top of the list of the
Synod’s largest congregations.
48 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

✦
Left: The sanctuary as it looked the
last week of Dr. Merkens’ pastorate,
December 1993.
Below: Barbara Merkens is credited by
many members as being the ultimate
faithful helper and partner in
Concordia’s ministry. A talented artist,
Barbara designed many of the printed
pieces produced by Concordia over the
years. Her design talent is evident in
the furnishings and fixtures which
adorned the Basse Road campus. Here
she is honored by Concordia women.
At right is Bobbye Wagner, an
organizer of the event.
“From the point he accepted the call, he ended
up running both churches,” Gorder said, “on site
at Trinity and Concordia by long distance.”
Thompson’s installation on June 5, 1994 and
his introduction to Concordia caused the congregation
to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Gorder’s recollection of the installation was to
think: “This is going to be very good.” His sentiments
are shared by many other members who
experienced the changing of the guard.
Looking back on the whole period, Gorder
said he had never before felt the Spirit of God
working in such a powerful way.
“We were grossly inadequate to do what we
did in that brief period of time,” Gorder said.
“We could never have made it without the Holy
Spirit guiding every move.
“Concordia could have easily split up during
that process, but that didn’t happen. Dr.
Merkens knew, and he told us, that Concordia
would stick together. He was right. We didn’t
lose membership during the interim.
Contributions didn’t dip. The way we handled
the transition was a great testament to God’s
grace and the strong group of Christian people
who make up Concordia.”
Chapter III ✦ 49

CHAPTER 4
✦
Concordia School students regularly
participate in worship services. Here
Laura Simon leads a school group in
singing during the early 1990’s.
It quickly became clear to the people of
Concordia that there could not be a greater contrast
between personalities and style of any two
men of God, than between Guido Merkens and
William Thompson.
Merkens is tall; Thompson is short. Merkens
is traditional; Thompson is contemporary.
Merkens is athletic; Thompson is not. Both are
highly intellectual, but with different means of
expressing that aptitude. Merkens preaches from
the pulpit; Thompson roams the stage when he
preaches. While Merkens is imposing and outgoing,
Thompson is self-effacing and shy. Where
Merkens manages, Thompson delegates.
Thompson realized the challenge lying
before him.
“One of the things I was confident about was
that anyone who came in and attempted to
mimic Merkens would fail,” Thompson
observed. “No one could do Merkens like
Merkens could do Merkens.
“When I was considering the call, I knew
that, in this case, if you came, you had to come
believing you were called and, second, believing
you had to be who you were…and that God
would see you past that. By the nature of the differences
between the two of us, you knew there
were going to be changes.”
Early in his tenure, Thompson placed the congregation
on notice that change was in the offing.
“Dr. Merkens had had great success in growing
a church, and the things he did worked for
him and for Concordia. But the things that were
happening when I came to Concordia were basically
from the 70’s. To put it another way, even
though Concordia has always been known as an
innovative church, it had failed to incorporate
some of the recent innovations in worship that
were drawing people to other churches.”
Specifically, Thompson pointed to contemporary
Christian music, a variety of musical
instruments, dramatic presentations, multimedia,
and multiple opportunities for Bible study
and fellowship.
He quotes church growth researchers who
believe that the style of worship popular in the
1960’s through the 1980’s, centered around a
strong pastor, was simply not going to be effective
in the 1990’s and beyond.
“Churches were changing, just as grocery
stores had changed from the mom and pop
stores to the big mega-stores, like the one HEB
50 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

has up here on 281,” Thompson said. “I believe
Concordia needed a broader offering of programs
and styles to bring it in line with growing
churches of today.”
In addition to changes in worship style,
Thompson also brought visible structural
changes to the old sanctuary. The entire altar
stage was renovated, giving it a more open feel.
Gone were the brick partitions topped by artificial
plants. The new riser was carpeted in light
beige and was fully a half a foot higher than the
previous stage floor level.
“Some older members just couldn’t get over
the painting and decorating,” Thompson said.
“They told me, ‘We put our lives into this and
you’re coming in and changing it.’ What they
didn’t see, because they were so close to it, was
the old, aging carpet and the worn furniture.”
At one of the weekly open forums held during
Adult Bible Class, a member asked the diminutive
pastor: “Are you ever going to grow taller?”
“That’s what it was like following Guido
Merkens,” jokes Thompson.
“I thought we’d have more of the ‘Dr.
Merkens always did it this way’ complaints,”
Thompson said. “But it was less than I anticipated.
Of course, the strength of Merkens’ personality
and his longevity magnified this effect.”
Despite some dissatisfaction with the directions
Thompson was taking, and the departure of some
long-time members, Thompson recalls feeling very
supported during his early months at Concordia.
✦
Left: Service projects have long been a
tradition at Concordia School. Here
students display a quilt which they made
to donate to Lutheran World Relief. This
photo is from the early 1990’s.
Below: The first graduation of an 8th
grade class at Concordia Lutheran
School took place in May 1995.
Chapter IV ✦ 51

✦
Above: Mrs. Verena Moll was honored
for her 29 years of service as a Sunday
School teacher, September 13, 1998.
Below: Concordia’s men participated
in this living depiction of Leonardo da
Vinci’s The Last Supper as part of
Holy Week, 1997. Posing with the
actors are the scene’s directors.
“Concordia was just full of great people,”
Thompson said. “I was so impressed with the people
I got to know. They were evangelisticallyminded.
They were outreach-minded. And they
were willing to do what was necessary for
Concordia to continue to reach people for Christ.
“There was a group of core people—the ones
who had been close to Dr. Merkens—who really
had that sense of outreach. He had trained
them well. That’s why they eventually voted to
move to 1604.”
The Thompson era also brought new staff
people to Concordia, many who had previously
been associated with Thompson in Michigan.
“I brought in staff people I knew,” said
Thompson, “because I needed people who
would immediately be on the team and know
the game plan.”
With the departure of Pastors Boomhower
and Kipp, a call was extended to Rev. Carl
Schneider, one of Thompson’s Michigan associates.
Schneider served the congregation until
just prior to the move to 1604.
Another former Michigan pastor to serve
Concordia was Paul Burow. Burow came to
Concordia in 1997 and served until 2000.
Thompson’s move from Michigan to Texas
was truly a homecoming for the pastor and his
wife, Pat.
Thompson grew up in Houston, where his
parents joined the Lutheran Church when he
was three, so that Thompson’s brother could
attend Lutheran day school.
He attended Bethany Lutheran Church and
Bethany school as a youngster. Then he enrolled
in Houston’s Lutheran High School, where he
met Pat. The two married shortly after graduation
and Thompson began college, working
toward a degree in advertising and marketing.
During his college days at the University of
Houston, Thompson became involved in a mission
project sponsored by Houston’s St. Mark’s
Lutheran Church to begin a mission parish in
the east Texas community of Livingston. He
took the job as lay minister serving that congregation
and eventually another in Cleveland.
During this time he transferred his studies to
Sam Houston State University in Huntsville.
Thompson received his bachelor of business
administration from Sam Houston in 1969. The
52 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

experience as a lay pastor had dramatically
altered his career objectives, however. He realized
he was being called to full-time ministry
and entered the seminary at Springfield, Illinois.
Thompson credits his father-in-law and
Guido Merkens as being two of the strongest
influences on his interest in ministry.
“I didn’t know Dr. Merkens at that time, but
I had heard him preach and I knew what he had
done to impact the Missouri Synod. I remember
the first time I heard him preach was at a
Reformation Rally in Houston. I was really
impressed,” Thompson said.
Thompson, Pat, and their newborn daughter,
Michelle, survived through the seminary years,
supported by Thompson’s work as manager of
the seminary book store.
His previous pastoral experience and his diligence
in study enabled Thompson to complete
the three years of coursework in less than two
years. The first parish to which he was called was
in Galesburg, Illinois, where he served until 1977.
At that time he received and accepted a call to
the oldest church in New England, in Bristol,
Connecticut. Then in 1981, Thompson accepted a
call to Trinity Lutheran Church in Utica, Michigan.
Thirteen years later, in 1994, Thompson said
Trinity had become a church that ran like a fine
machine. Everybody knew what to do and
everybody did it.
“I had absolutely no reason to leave, but God
was rattling my cage,” said Thompson. “Earlier I
had been contacted by Concordia University in
Austin about their presidency. I responded to
their questionnaire and interview, but after
some consideration, I withdrew my name from
the call list. But it helped me realize that I was
becoming a bit too complacent at Utica.”
When Thompson received the call to
Concordia, he said he had the usual reservations.
“Nobody wanted to follow a founding pastor, who
had been there for 42 years,” Thompson said.
“But I knew that I was being asked to play a
special role in a special church. Concordia was
a church that had aged with its pastor. That
was a problem. Concordia congregation obviously
needed renewal. The church was in a
declining neighborhood. But Concordia was
just too important to our denomination to just
let it go. These were all things I thought about
while I was considering the call.”
It took only a few days for the Thompson’s to
decide that the Lord was calling them to San
Antonio. The call was accepted.
Although the idea of moving Concordia to a
new site had been discussed by Thompson and
the call committee, it was far from the major
point in their discussion. But after Thompson’s
installation it quickly became the primary issue
for the church.
Thompson noted that on the first Sunday he
preached, during his Bible class open forum
three questions were asked that set the tone for
Concordia’s future.
“The first question was, ‘Don’t you believe we
should have women voters?’ The second was,
✦
Above: Concordia Lutheran School
received full accreditation in 1997.
Accepting the credentials are Chris
Miller, Pastor Thompson, Bruce Rudi,
and Donna Rupp.
Below: Lutherans from throughout the
San Antonio area gathered in
Concordia’s sanctuary on November 2,
1997 for Lutheran Fest, celebrating
the 150th anniversary of the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod.
Chapter IV ✦ 53

✦
Above: Pastor Thompson sported a
western hat and duds while delivering
his message at Fiesta Texas,
November 10, 1996.
Below: Pat and Pastor Thompson greet
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck during
festivities at Fiesta Texas culminating
the Share His Love campaign.
‘Don’t you think we should have a Lutheran
High School?’ and the third was “Don’t you
think we should move Concordia?’ All of those
came to pass and were a big part of what took
place over the next four years.”
Serious discussions about purchasing a new
location for Concordia began shortly thereafter.
Thompson recalls: “Some time during the
summer of 1994 David Seale came to me and
said, ‘I’ve got a piece of property that I’ve got a
handshake on.’”
He was aware that Seale had been authorized
by the Church Council to keep his eyes open for
potential sites for the church to purchase. Seale,
a commercial broker and developer, had begun
thinking about sites for the church as early as
1990, when Dr. Merkens was considering opening
Concordia North.
“In 1993 I saw a great opportunity on a great
piece of property coming on the market,” Seale
said. “This was the Rogers Ranch property that
was located north and partially south of Loop
1604, near where the Huebner Road overpass
was to be built. The entire tract of 700 acres was
owned by the Rogers Trust for the Arts.”
Seale and his partners attempted to buy the
tract for development, reserving a corner for
Concordia, but the group was unsuccessful. The
eventual purchaser, however, needed a follow-up
contract in order to secure his financing. Seale
began negotiations with the purchaser in early
1994 on the 50 acres at the north west corner of
1604 and the soon to be built Huebner Road.
“So we had the call committee going on at the
same time I was trying to buy a piece of property,
and we hadn’t gotten a pastor yet,” Seale said. “It
was kind of funny how God made all these things
kind of dovetail together. God placed me in the
middle of all of this activity, and it was spectacular
to see the way that God moved things.
“I really strung out the negotiations because,
first of all, we needed to get a new senior pastor
on board, and, second, we needed to make sure
that his vision and our vision were the same.”
On December 6, 1994 Concordia’s church
council elected to put the process of moving into
motion by approving a non-binding letter of agreement
to purchase the property on Loop 1604.
This approval was really a green flag for Seale
to continue the ongoing negotiations with the
group offering the property for sale. It took
nearly another year, until November 5, 1995,
before the purchase agreement was finalized and
accepted by the congregation.
“One problem was that the market was coming
back and the group we were negotiating with
was having second thoughts about the sale,”
Seale said. “In fact, nothing could have made
those people close the deal except for God’s
guidance and the airtight agreement we had.”
On November 5 the voters of Concordia, in
the largest voters’ assembly ever held by the
congregation, elected to purchase the land and
to build a new Concordia campus. At this meeting
the voters not only approved the formal con-
54 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

tract for the purchase, but also authorized borrowing
funds to close the deal.
Gorder, who presided at the meeting in the
packed gymnasium, recalls it as a “very emotional
meeting.”
“There were a few who were very opposed to
moving, but after everyone had had their say, the
assembly voted nearly unanimously for the move.”
The contract called for Concordia to purchase
47.5 acres, including all utilities, extension
of roads and all platting for a price of
$1,900,000. By the time the congregation
approved the final documents in late 1995,
Seale said, Concordia was receiving offers for
the property of more than twice that amount.
“We could have sold it and paid off our mortgage
on the Basse Road property,” said Seale,
“but I didn’t think that was our vision, and the
congregation was committed to the move.”
The formal closing took place on May 16,
1996 and plans began to take shape for a new
Concordia.
One of the challenges was determining what
to do with the Basse Road property.
Seale said that several prospective purchasers,
including the San Antonio Housing Authority,
expressed an interest in the 13-acre tract. SAHA
would have knocked down all the buildings and
built a multi-family housing project.
“But the consensus among the Concordia
leadership was that we truly wanted the old
campus to continue to be a place of worship and
ministry,” noted Seale.
Thompson began discussions with the
Lutheran High School Association, which was
planning to open a new Lutheran High School
in San Antonio. In the end, the Association
agreed to take over the Basse Road property in
return for assuming the mortgage.
“We didn’t make a penny off the deal,” said
Seale. “It was really a remarkable thing. We were
able to help Lutheran High get started, and we
handed off the old mortgage. The high school
could never have done what they have done if
we had asked for more money. That’s where the
Lord led us.”
✦
Above: Groundbreaking for
Concordia’s new campus attracted
numerous Concordians who viewed
their new church grounds for the first
time, July 20, 1997.
Below: The Praise Team leads the
congregation in song during the Fiesta
Texas celebration.
Chapter IV ✦ 55

✦
Above: Pastor Thompson takes
the controls of a bulldozer to down
the first brush during the
groundbreaking ceremony.
Right: The men of Concordia spent
weekends clearing brush from the new
church property, saving needed funds
and sharing fellowship.
Another negotiation to help solidify the use
of the campus was with the Texas District.
Thompson was able to convince the director
of missions for the District, Rev. Ken
Hennings, to plant a new Hispanic mission
congregation at 1826 Basse Rd., thus assuring
the continuation of services in the old sanctuary
after Concordia departed.
A building committee was formed to oversee
the massive project, chaired by Seale. Seale said
he accepted the task with three conditions: first,
that construction responsibility be separate from
the financing responsibility, second, that the
committee be small and comprised of veteran
Concordians with experience in construction,
and, third, that the objective of the group be to
establish a plan that would be overwhelmingly
approved by the congregation.
Joining Seale on the committee were Jim
Smith, Mike Manupelli, Alan Love and
Thompson. Bob Olson, congregational president,
and Jesse Martinez, Concordia’s business
manager, also sat in on the committee in an
advisory capacity.
Seale recalls that from the time of its formation
in 1996 until the construction was completed
in 1998, the committee met or talked by
phone at least three times each week. Seale said
he personally never went more than two days,
during that time, without dealing with some
aspect of the project.
According to Thompson, “David basically
put a lot of his business on hold for that period.
We were mightily blessed to have someone so
determined to do things the right way.”
In looking back over the nearly two year
process, Seale says it was “an incredible spiritual
experience for me. I am extremely grateful to
our members that they trusted me.”
The first item of business for the building
committee, according to Seale, was to create a
mission statement for the project.
“We set this statement before us and read it
over and over again as we worked through the
project,” said Seale.
The mission statement was: “We will endeavor
to build a landmark for Jesus Christ in our
community, within the resources that God provides
for us.”
The architectural firm of Overland Partners,
Inc. was selected to design the new church
campus. This was a firm which boasted years
of experience in designing church buildings
and campuses.
After extensive interviews with Concordia
staff and leaders, Overland Partners created a
master plan for the 50 acres. Building everything
in the plan, approximately 200,000 square
feet, would have cost over $25 million.
Priorities had to be set in place.
Included in the plan was a dramatic worship
center that was to tower over the property.
Because of its cost, it was one of the first things
to be placed on the back burner.
“I knew we had to build a school and we had
to build something in which to worship,” said
Thompson. “So our decision was to not build
56 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

✦
Left: Carl Steiger, right, serves lunch
to Jeff Morrison, left, and other
Concordia men who have been cutting
brush at the new church property.
Below: As Concordia’s campus began
to take shape on the rugged hill
country acreage, it became obvious
that great pains had been taken to
retain the scenic beauty of the trees
and terrain.
the fancy church building right away, but to
build a more permanent school and then design
a worship center that could be converted to
other uses in the future.”
“God really took care of us in our ignorance,
because the original plan for the sanctuary only
provided seating for 1,100. If we had built it, we’d
have this elaborate building and not enough space.”
The worship center which was finally
approved, includes seating for 1,200 and is
designed to ultimately be converted to a multipurpose
fellowship hall.
Thompson’s vision for the new campus was
imprinted throughout the final plan.
“My dream was that, one, it looked like it
belonged in the hill country of Texas, two, that
it looked like a campus and had a campus
atmosphere, and, three, that it had a contemporary
Mexican look to it, with arches and
other elements that you might call typical San
Antonio style.”
According to Thompson, Overland Partners
worked out a unique ratio of stone and stucco,
approximately thirty percent stone and seventy
Chapter IV ✦ 57

percent stucco, which gave the impression of a
lot more stone being used.
The contractor, Bartlett Cocke, Inc., was
selected long before plans were finalized.
“This allowed the contractor to be in on the
planning process. They just had tremendous
practical suggestions, which ended up saving us
a lot of money.”
Seale points out that a major effort went into
saving trees on the campus and into designing
road systems and other infrastructure to facilitate
future expansion, in accordance with a
master plan.
The man engaged by Concordia to manage
the construction project was long-time member
Malcolm Watson.
According to Seale, Watson, with his years
of construction experience, “was the greatest
construction manager we could ever have had.
He was the key to our having the quality of
project that was eventually built. Malcolm and
his wife Dorothy had raised their children at
Concordia, so Malcolm was focused on getting
the best facility constructed for future generations
of Concordians.”
Other members engaged in construction
trades made contributions to the project, such
as Jeff Brown of Brown Engineering, who provided
civil engineering on the job. One of those
who added significant value to the project was
Mort Roszell, who did all the site work and
paving. According to Seale: “Mort and his family
worked non-stop out at the site from the day
we broke ground until completion. They contributed
many hours of equipment time and
labor without ever mentioning compensation.”
Financing of the massive project required a
series of actions and commitments by the congregation
and leadership. It was simply too large
and complex a project to afford without a mort-
✦
Above: Lo Devora, right, supervises
installation of one of the many statues
which accent Concordia’s campus.
Right: The worship center takes shape
at the new campus. Construction of
the entire campus took just 14 months.
58 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

gage. And it was not the kind of project that
would have excited conventional commercial
bankers. But early in the process the Lutheran
Church Extension Fund expressed interest in
underwriting the project.
Thompson recalls a conversation with Art
Haake, president of the LCEF, at the
MegaChurch Conference in January 1995, shortly
after the congregation had voted to proceed
with the land purchase.
“We were at a reception and Art came across
the room and said to me, ‘Bill, I want to do that
job.’ At the time we were anticipating a $10
million project and he assured me that would
be no problem.”
Seale also recalls discussing financing of the
project with Haake.
“I went to him and laid out the numbers—
that we were going to need about $15 million. I
told him we were taking a big step of faith here
and that we were all concerned about it. He said,
‘David, I know you guys in Texas went through
the recession of the 80’s, and I know you are
looking at your cash flow, and that’s a blessing.
But let me tell you something. We are not building
a business here. We are building the kingdom.
We’re not concerned about our return on
investment. We’re concerned about our return
on lives.’ That was a great inspiration to me.”
The $14 million mortgage written by the
LCEF for Concordia was, by far, the largest ever
✦
Above: The 30-foot-high cross is set in
place atop Concordia’s bell tower,
marking the church as a place of
worship of the Savior of mankind.
Left: On moving day dozens of
volunteers and Concordia’s staff loaded
up furniture, fixtures and supplies and
moved them to the new campus.
Chapter IV ✦ 59

✦
Above: Boxes...and more boxes...are
unloaded at the new campus.
Below: Mementos from Basse Road
are collected by Concordia School
students on the last day of school in
1998. The items, including the
original school cornerstone, were
moved to the new school for display.
written by the church growth agency. The LCEF
had financed only one project larger than $10
million, and Concordia’s undertaking was at least
fifty percent larger. Haake, who so diligently
advocated the Concordia project to the LCEF
board, died before seeing the project completed.
The difference between the amount loaned
by LCEF and the ultimate cost was to be covered
by pledges from Concordia members.
To achieve the maximum commitment from
the membership, Concordia did something it had
never done in its 45 years. The church hired a
fund-raising consultant to run a capital campaign.
The consultant, Resource Services, Inc., had conducted
numerous church building programs in
the past, and helped bring a new level of involvement
by members into the building campaign.
The campaign, named “Share His Love” was
chaired by Gorder and incorporated dozens of
Concordians in campaign leadership positions.
Ultimately, the campaign reached every
Concordia family with complete information on
the proposed construction project, the dollar
amounts required, and compelling reasons to
pledge to the effort.
The campaign got under way in mid-1996
and culminated with a Sunday afternoon praise
service and barbecue at Fiesta Texas on
November 10, 1996.
Gorder says the campaign “mobilized the whole
congregation. As momentum built through the fall
of 1996, people got more and more excited.”
“Then we had the celebration at Fiesta Texas
where members made their pledges to the building
campaign. I’ve never seen anything like that in
my life. We had about fifteen hundred people
there. We had great music and great testimonials.
We turned in our pledge cards, and then we had
the barbecue. But after the meal, nobody left.
They just stayed there, talking and the kids played
out in the open areas. That was the day when
Concordia re-discovered that it was a family.”
The “Share His Love” campaign fell short of
its goal, but $5 million was raised in cash and
pledges, enough for a down payment and initial
mortgage payments.
“The interesting thing,” said Thompson, “was
that the money, to a great extent, came from those
who been most closely allied with Dr. Merkens.”
The $5 million pledged over three years was
enough to make a down payment on the project
and to begin making payments on the LCEF
mortgage. Including the land purchase, the
entire project cost $17 million, with $14 million
provided by LCEF.
During the spring of 1997 the men of
Concordia held a series of brush clean up days, to
help prepare the acreage for the work to come.
Formal groundbreaking took place on July 20,
1997, and site work began shortly thereafter.
Fourteen months later, in July 1998, the day
care center opened with 175 children enrolled
and a long waiting list. The school opened two
weeks later than expected, in August 1998, and
the administration building was occupied at the
60 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

✦
Left: San Antonio Mayor Howard
Peak visits with members during the
dedication of the new Concordia
campus, November 1, 1998.
Below: One of the featured speakers at
Concordia’s campus dedication was
Rev. Buckner Fanning, long time
pastor of Trinity Baptist Church.
same time. On October 4, 1998 the first worship
service was held in the new sanctuary and on
November 1, 1998, the 47th anniversary of
Concordia, the campus was dedicated.
Participating in the dedication was a host of San
Antonio and Bexar County dignitaries, including
Mayor Howard Peak, Councilman Tim Bannwolff
(a member of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran),
Police Chief Al Philipus (who later joined
Concordia) and Trinity Baptist’s Buckner Fanning.
The entire construction project had been
completed on schedule and within one percent
of budget.
Moving furniture and fixtures accumulated
during 47 years at 1826 Basse Road was a massive
challenge. According to Thompson, bids
were solicited from professional moving companies,
but they were so high that another plan
was soon considered.
“We rented a small fleet of U-Haul trucks in
August 1998 and moved the entire campus in
two days,” recalls Thompson. “We threw stuff
away. We had a garage sale and then we threw
more stuff away when we got here. In all, the
move cost us just about $3,000.”
Concordia had accomplished something only
a few churches in America had ever attempted.
It had moved the entire campus eleven miles to
the north, provided for continued ministry at
the original location, and had done all this with
overwhelming support from a large and diverse
membership base.
It had taken vision. It had taken sacrifice. It
had taken the power of the Holy Spirit. And it
had taken a lot of hard work. But Concordia
Lutheran Church was now located at 1604 and
Huebner in the center of San Antonio’s residential
growth pattern.
Chapter IV ✦ 61

CHAPTER 5
✦
On December 13, 1998, just a month
after dedicating the new campus,
Concordia added 278 new members
through transfer and adult confirmation.
The people of Concordia enthusiastically
acclimated to their new environment. It was the
same pastor, the same music, the same members,
and the same gospel message, but it had a
different feel to it. Members of Concordia were
justifiably proud of their new surroundings, and
grateful to God for his blessings. It showed
through their worship.
Members quickly noticed that a lot of new
faces were showing up on Sunday mornings.
This was validated when, on December 13,
1998, just over a month after the dedication,
278 new members were accepted into the fold
by transfer and adult confirmation, the most to
ever join in a single day. It was another Missouri
Synod record to add to the many already held
by Concordia.
A major effort was undertaken to identify
and follow up on visitors to Concordia. Early
head counts found over a hundred visitors a
Sunday were checking out Concordia’s new
location and ministry.
The many exciting changes in worship
already in place at Basse Road were carried over
to the new campus, enhanced by multi-media
screens, a new organ, and the great acoustics of
the worship center.
Thompson had assembled a powerful ministry
team at the old location. Now the team
members had a facility and ministry tools second
to none. The team reflected Thompson’s management
style. Rather than a large pastoral staff,
he put in place trained departmental “directors.”
As ministry began at the new Concordia, only
62 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

two full-time pastors and two part-time pastors
were on the church payroll, compared with five
full-time pastors in the early 1990’s.
Departments, such as youth ministry, children’s
ministry, adult education, business, and
others, were headed by directors.
A highly visible and, at times, controversial
aspect of Concordia’s ministry was its music program.
Rhoda Canion, Merkens’ sister, had served
as organist and music director at Basse Road as
long as most Concordians could remember. She
stayed on after Thompson became senior pastor.
“Rhoda allowed me to introduce a lot of new
music, but it was still organ and choir primarily,
and a style with which Concordia was comfortable,”
said Thompson. “When she announced
plans to retire (in 1996) I knew we had to find
someone who was intimately familiar with contemporary
Christian music.”
Thompson’s choice for the position was Gary
Lohmeyer, whom he describes as “the best
bridge organist/musician in the Missouri
Synod.” Lohmeyer was equally comfortable
hammering out old Lutheran hymns on the
organ or leading a contemporary group with
keyboard, guitars, and drums.
“Music,” Thompson notes, “is the most
important element in drawing people into worship
today. Just look at how powerful music is
in our culture. Luther understood this. Look at
how he introduced music. In Luther’s time, that
music was contemporary to those people.
Somewhere the church stopped keeping up with
changing music styles.”
Lohmeyer said his goal was to blend a variety
of styles into Concordia’s worship life.
“It’s simply a matter of being committed to ministering
to a diversity of needs of people,” Lohmeyer
✦
Above: Gary Lohmeyer, Concordia’s
music director, led the way in giving
Concordia’s worship services a
decidedly more contemporary flavor.
Left: Jeff Morrison sings during the
Christmas Eve musical drama in 1998.
Chapter V ✦ 63

said. “My main purpose in setting the music style is
outreach. For example, we have the most visitors at
the 11 a.m. service, so we need to have a service that
is user-friendly to visitors and that has rhythm and
melody with which they can identify.”
As more and more contemporary songs
were introduced into worship, singers and
musicians seemed to come out of Concordia’s
woodwork.
“Some of these,” Lohmeyer said, “had just
never been asked to participate. And then
some people don’t let you know they can do
anything until they know it’s going to be a
quality thing. I think we showed a lot of peo-
✦
Above: Church administrator Juergen
Olson and business manager Jesse
Martinez deliver food and household
supplies donated by Concordians to
families affected by unprecedented
local flooding in October 1998.
Right: Concordia confirmands help
organize gifts for children of jail and
prison inmates during the first Angel
Tree Party sponsored by Concordia,
December 1998.
64 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

✦
Left: Concordia’s Men’s Ministry holds
an annual retreat during which the
men of the congregation enjoy
fellowship and study of God’s word.
Below: Car care clinics organized
by Concordia’s Men’s Ministry
offered no-cost basic automotive
troubleshooting to San Antonians
and derived considerable publicity
for the church.
ple our commitment to a professional quality
music program.”
Some of the church’s most talented singers,
such as Jeff Morrison and Lori Pethes, left to
move elsewhere.
“But every time somebody left,” Lohmeyer
said, “two more would come in.”
At the new campus Lohmeyer organized a
contemporary praise service on Sunday
evenings, which became known as Crosshaven.
Led by the Concordia’s youth director, Jeff
Morrison, the service featured drums, guitars,
keyboards, and lively contemporary song.
Chapter V ✦ 65

A staple of Crosshaven was a dramatic presentation,
directed by Mike Palmreuter, a Concordia
teacher skilled in drama and visual arts.
“Drama is a great way to reach people’s emotions,”
said Lohmeyer. “You can use it to open
up questions that the speaker can then answer
through his message.”
Lohmeyer says he would like to see more
drama utilized in Sunday morning services at
Concordia, particularly the 11 a.m. service.
That service became, in early 2000, the morning
contemporary service, featuring a praise
team, backed by a guitar and drum sound. The
same message is preached, but with different
music than at the 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. services.
Another aspect of the church’s life that dramatically
changed under Thompson was expansion of
opportunities for adults to participate in Bible
study on Sunday mornings and throughout the
week. Dr. Merkens’ Sunday morning Adult Bible
Class drew a large percentage of the congregation
into a packed gymnasium for his teaching.
The tradition of Adult Bible Class continued
under Thompson, but it was enhanced by small
group Bible study on various topics, led mostly by
lay teachers. On a Sunday morning today, Concordia
adults have no less than five options for Bible study,
plus the Discovery 101 membership class.
During weekdays, there are two men’s and
two women’s Bible study groups. Special programs,
such as parenting and marriage enrichment,
are offered periodically.
✦
Above: Concordia men engage in
building a Habitat for Humanity
house during the summer of 1999.
Right: Concordia’s women are involved
in a variety of ministries, including
making quilts for needy individuals
and baby clothes for unwed mothers in
the United States and worldwide.
Concordia’s LWML even received a
letter of thanks from Mother Teresa
for quilts sent to India. Gloria
Lindberg, left, and Hope Grunwald,
right, add stitches to a quilt.
66 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

Seminar speakers, like Paul Maier, the bestknown
Lutheran expert on early church history,
are regular fare at Concordia.
Bob D’Ambrosio, who directs adult education,
has also helped develop Concordia’s active Men’s
Ministry, featuring an annual Men’s Gathering,
periodic events, such as dinners and breakfasts,
car-care clinics and work days, and participation
in Habitat for Humanity construction.
Women’s ministry and the LWML continue to
be an active part of the Concordia landscape.
An area of youth education which has undergone
substantial change has been junior confirmation.
The entire approach to instructing young
Concordians was changed in 1997. Rather than
bringing in sixth graders for an evening of instruction,
after a day already spent at school, confirmation
classes were moved to Saturday mornings.
Sunday School, for those in the confirmation program,
became a part of the course of study, as well.
Added to this mix was the incorporation of adult
“mentors” assigned to encourage and monitor the
progress of a group of confirmands. Confirmation
day was moved from Sunday morning to Saturday
afternoon, with the newly-confirmed Concordians
taking their first communion the next day.
Vacation Bible School at the new campus has
grown back to the levels enjoyed during the
boom days of the 1980’s. Combining music,
drama, crafts and learning, Vacation Bible
School in 2000 and 2001 attracted nearly 600
participants. Approximately 200 volunteer
workers and leaders help each year in carrying
out the event.
Concordia Lutheran School became one of
San Antonio’s best-equipped private schools
when it moved to Loop 1604. The new school
campus included a modern science lab, a computer
lab, an art room, 20 classrooms, a fullyequipped
cafeteria, and a well-stocked library. A
decision in 1995 to begin charging Concordia
families tuition at the school was fodder for
debate at several voter meetings, and it kept the
school from being as full as it might have been
otherwise. But the tuition equalization plan recommended
by Thompson, along with generous
scholarship grants to members, gave the school
a more sound financial footing. In 1997 the
school was accredited by the National Lutheran
School Accreditation and the Lutheran School
Accreditation Commission.
Cardinal sports continues to be a major part
of Concordia School, and facilities include an
air-conditioned gymnasium and locker rooms.
The sports field was completed in 2000 and
incorporates areas for soccer, football, softball,
and track and field.
Other extracurricular activities offered at the
school include Boy and Girl Scouts, band, keyboard,
choir, strings, handbells, and drama.
Students in the first through eighth grades com-
✦
Left: Veggie Tales characters Bob the
Tomato and Larry the Cucumber greet
Concordia families at Rally Day 1999.
Below: The Christmas Eve drama for
2000 told the story of Christ’s birth
through song and dramatic portrayal.
Gary Juhl portrays an angel, and
Allison Reyes is the Virgin Mary.
Chapter V ✦ 67

68 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY
pete in scholastic competitions sponsored by
the Association of Christian Schools
International, Private Schools Interscholastic
Competition, and Lutheran School Association.
Principal Bruce Rudi leads a staff of 53
trained educators and support personnel to
serve the school’s 450 students. Many of
Concordia Lutheran School’s students represent
the second and third generation to attend.
Graduates of Concordia School are traditionally
high achievers. In the spring of 2001, two graduates
were high school valedictorians, two former
students were at West Point, and three were
in medical school. Many former Cardinals have
gone on to become pastors, teachers, and other
Lutheran church professionals.
In May 2001 Concordia School received its
highest honor when it was named by the U.S.
Department of Education as a “National Blue
Ribbon School of Excellence.” The distinction
was conferred in the 2000-2001 school year
upon just 264 schools nationwide and only 10
in the San Antonio area. The honor is the highest
and most prestigious award that can be conferred
upon a school.
Concordia’s Day Care Center has been an
important ministry of the congregation since
1969. The maximum number of children,
which could be cared for at the Basse Road location,
was 75. In the current Day Care Center,
175 pre-schoolers are cared for on a daily basis.
The popularity of the facility is evident in the
waiting list, which has been as long as 400.
Despite Concordia’s move, worship never
ceased at 1826 Basse Road. Lutheran High
School took over full management of the 13-
acre campus upon the church’s departure. From
its modest beginning in 1994, Lutheran High
School has steadily grown to 170 students in the
2000-2001 school year. Concordia is one of six
congregations which support the school
through the Lutheran High School Association.
The church located on the campus, which worships
in the old Concordia sanctuary, remains a
District-supported mission and is now called
Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church. Rev. Eloy
Gonzales, formerly a lay pastor in the Rio
Grande Valley, leads the growing congregation.
Although the church conducts bilingual worship,
only slightly over half of the members are
Hispanic. Many are former members of

Concordia who live in the area and have kept
the old church as their spiritual home.
Although at one time Concordia, at the Basse
Road campus, had offered family and personal
counseling by trained Christian psychologists,
this had not been a part of Concordia’s ministry
for several years. Then in 2000 Rev. Steve
Farmer, a former Concordia vicar, joined the
staff on a part-time basis offering counseling
services to members. Farmer’s counseling work
✦
Opposite, top to bottom:
Crafts and coloring are just a few of
the activities the 500 Vacation Bible
School participants enjoyed in 2001.
Director of Children’s Ministries Nicole
Young leads youngsters in praise during
the 2001 Vacation Bible School.
Fun, games and drama spark excitement
at Vacation Bible School in 2000.
Leading praise are Lynn Gray, left, and
Angela Leonhardt, right.
Above: Students and faculty of
Concordia Lutheran School earned the
highest educational honor from the U.S.
Department of Education in 2001 by
being named a “Blue Ribbon School.”
Left: The 2000-2001 Concordia
School staff provided the excellence in
teaching required for the school’s
designation as a Blue Ribbon School.
Chapter V ✦ 69

✦
Above: Pastors from around the U.S.
share a meal at Concordia during the
Pastoral Leadership Institute, 1999.
Front left is Dr. Jerry Kieschnick,
president of the Lutheran Church
Missouri Synod. At the time of this
photo, Dr. Kieschnick was serving as
president of the Texas District.
Right: Dr. A.L. Barry, president of the
Missouri Synod from 1992 to 2001,
speaks at the MegaChurch Conference
hosted by Concordia in 2000.
at Concordia is part of his internship while
working toward a doctorate degree in counseling
at St. Mary’s University.
Concordia’s modern campus has become a
natural home for church growth and ministry
development organizations to hold conferences.
For example, the Pastoral Leadership Instititute,
an organization of outreach-minded Missouri
Synod clergymen held its week-long conference
at Concordia during 1999, 2000, and 2001.
Concordia hosted the MegaChurch Conference
for the Synod in 2000. And the Brazil Summit,
comprised of U.S. organizations which support
Lutheran missions in Brazil, took place at
Concordia in 1999.
Thompson’s involvement in supporting
Lutheran causes in Brazil has had far-reaching
effects on the congregation. Thompson was one of
the founders of the Brazil Mission Society and has
had close ties with church agencies in Brazil,
including the 66,000-student Lutheran University
of Brazil (ULBRA). He has traveled to Brazil annually,
sponsored by ULBRA.
Brazilian church leaders, choirs, and visitors
found their way to Concordia during the late
1990’s and early 2000’s. But none had more
impact than Rev. Ely Prieto and his family.
Thompson arranged for Prieto, who is a
professor and a pastor, to spend three years
at Concordia studying the congregation’s
ministry, with an eye toward incorporating
the best of Concordia into Lutheran churches
in Brazil.
70 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

Prior to the arrival of the Prieto family in
early 2001, Concordians were asked to help furnish
an apartment for Pastor and Mrs. Prieto
and their two children. The Prieto’s arrived with
only the clothing and personal articles they
could stuff into suitcases. Everything else had
been provided by the Concordia congregation,
in answer to this special appeal. Pastor Prieto
joined the Concordia staff as a full-time pastor,
and has been active in preaching, teaching, and
administering of the sacraments.
Hands-on mission outreach by Concordia
members was an inevitable outgrowth of
Thompson’s focus on Brazil. But it was enhanced
by a pastoral change in 2000. Rev. Paul Burow a
beloved, witty speaker and teacher had planned
to remain at Concordia until his retirement, but
family needs made it expedient for Burow to
accept a call to return to Michigan. Burow and his
wife, Peggy, departed Concordia in August 2000.
Called to replace Burow was Bill Reagan, a
Spanish-speaker, who had previously served as
✦
Left: Rev. Ely Prieto and his family
are greeted by Concordians upon their
arrival in San Antonio from their
home in Brazil.
Below: The choir from the Lutheran
University of Brazil sang at
Concordia’s worship services during
the Brazil Summit in February 1999.
Chapter V ✦ 71

✦
Above: Rev. Paul Burow served as
assistant pastor under Dr. Thompson
from 1997 through August 2000.
Right: Rev. Bill Reagan accepted the
call to Concordia in September 2000,
not knowing that the full weight of
leading the parish would soon fall on
his shoulders.
pastor of San Esteban Lutheran Church in San
Antonio. At the time of the call, Reagan was
working for the Texas District as Mission and
Ministry Facilitator. He had joined Concordia,
and his wife was teaching at Concordia School,
while he served the District.
Reagan, through sermon and teaching,
reminded Concordians that mission work was
the clearest expression of the Great
Commission. He encouraged the congregation
to become more mission-minded. The result of
Reagan’s mission emphasis was an opportunity
to minister to a community in Nicaragua.
The town Buenavista - El Congo was planning
a structure in which to hold school. And
other needs, such as healthcare, were evident.
The association was arranged through a
Concordia member, Oscar Velasquez, who has
business interests in Nicaragua.
Three Concordia members, Lenny Linkes,
Todd Reineck and Greg Styles, began organizing
Concordia’s first foreign mission trip.
In July 2001, 22 members of Concordia
departed for nearly two weeks in Buenavista - El
Congo, Chinandega, Nicaragua. The group was
divided into three. One group helped with construction
of the school building. A second provided
healthcare services to people in the community,
and a third provided Vacation Bible School for
children of the community.
“God is full of surprises,” noted Reagan. “I
shared with the congregation in October of
2000 my dream to take a team from Concordia
on a mission trip. I was hoping to take a group
of four or five men to the border to help do
some construction work at a Lutheran Church I
know in Nuevo Laredo. My long term goal was
to take a medical team and hold a clinic in a
poor area one day. The Lord surprised me. He
said ‘Nicaragua.’ I said, ‘Yes, sir!’
“Twenty-one members and I traveled to
Nicaragua. We built a school, led a Vacation
Bible School for three hundred children, and
our medical team of two doctors, a pharmacist,
and several nurses joined with local medical
authorities to deliver medical care to approximately
three hundred people. Buenavista - El
Congo is one of the poorest places on the planet.
People there live on the equivalent of one
dollar per day. It was great to see how our team
and the Nicaraguan people were able to get past
barriers of culture, language and history. Most
importantly, both the mission team and the local
community were touched by the love of God in
Christ Jesus! The local people kept asking us,
‘When are you coming back?’ The mission team
keeps asking me, ‘When are we going back?’
God willing, February 2002!”
When Reagan accepted the call to Concordia,
the furthest thing from his mind was to accept
72 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

✦
Far left: Concordians Mike Manupelli,
left, and Joe Wesch, right, were part of
the 22-member mission team which
went to Nicaragua in 2001. Here
they enjoy the company of two young
Nicaraguans in the village of
Buenavista - El Congo.
responsibility for the entire operation of the
church. Yet that is exactly what happened in
April 2001. Thompson shocked the congregation,
announcing his resignation as senior pastor
and from the clergy roster of the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod.
The unexpected announcement resulted from
a variety of personal stresses encountered by
Thompson. He explained his resignation in a letter
and in his farewell sermon on April 29, 2001.
His letter reads, in part: “Being Pastor at
Concordia is a wonderful blessing and also an
awesome responsibility. I must confess to you
that I am exhausted—physically, mentally and
spiritually. Marathon runners speak of ‘hitting
the wall’ when they can go no further in their
run. I feel that I have hit the wall…In consultation
with the lay leaders of the congregation I
am taking a period of time to rest and recover, a
time needed to regain my health.”
Thompson subsequently accepted an administrative
position with the Lutheran University
of Brazil.
Thompson’s rapid departure left the leadership
of Concordia in the able hands of Reagan. The
congregation president, Jeff Brown, and the
Church Council quickly assembled a call committee
for only the second time in Concordia’s history.
Appointed to that committee were: Brown,
Gary Juhl, John Kammrath, Rachel Limmer, Carol
Reineck, David Seale, Jim Smith, and Betty Turner.
Mike Manupelli was selected as chairman, and Ebs
was chosen to play the same role as spiritual adviser
that he had for the 1994 call committee.
As the deadline for this manuscript
approached, the committee was diligently working
toward making a recommendation to
Concordia voters to call a new senior pastor.
The congregation nominated 49 men to be considered
for the position. The committee expects
a call to be made in September 2001 for the man
to lead Concordia, by God’s grace, into its next
fifty years.
Concordia has always been a special place to its
members, to those who value Concordia’s contributions
to the San Antonio community and to
those who seek to enlarge the reach of the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod and God’s kingdom.
The Texan newly-elected as president of
Synod, Dr. Jerry Kieschnick, has been in a
unique position as Texas District President to
observe the parish’s impact. His evaluation, perhaps,
says it best.
“When I think of Concordia, I picture a
group of Christian folks who have been seriously
engaged in the growth of God’s kingdom and
Christ’s church in the greater San Antonio community
for half a century. Uniquely blessed by
both pastoral and lay leaders throughout its history,
Concordia has contributed greatly to the
filling of the ‘halls of heaven’ by focusing efforts,
resources, and personnel on the great task of
bringing lost and searching people into contact
with our mighty God and His Son Jesus Christ
through the communication of His word and
the administration of His sacraments.
“Always a leader, Concordia has dared to
dream bold and courageous dreams and has been
blessed by God in being able to see those dreams
become reality. Who knows what the future holds
as Concordia stands on the threshold of the next
half a century of sharing God’s grace with those
who hunger and thirst for meaning, fulfillment,
forgiveness and eternal joy.”
Amen!
Left: Mike Anderson and Len Linkes
work on constructing the new school
building in Buenavista - El Congo
during Concordia’s mission trip.
Chapter V ✦ 73

✦
Concordia’s youth are called to service in the church. They are shown
participating in a summer service project for Boys and Girls Clubs,
below, and costumed for a Christmas Pageant, left.
74 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

✦
Above: Concordia’s administrative
wing contains office and meeting
space to support Concordia’s ministry.
Left: Mary Leitko, one of Concordia
Book Store’s volunteers, greets members
and visitors who come in to browse the
store’s array of books and gifts.
Chapter V ✦ 75

C HARTER
M EMBERS
Mr. & Mrs. C. Bielefeldt
B. W. & Willie Belle Boysen
Major & Mrs. H. Bretzer
Mrs. Meta Bruder
Clint & Gladys Bushacker
Al & Lavern Doepner (Lavern Dirks)
Mrs. Laverne Fogle
Nelson & Audrey Henze
Dorothy Coggeshall
Mrs. Mary Halbardier
Mr. & Mrs. J. Horn
Miss Noretta Horn
Monroe & Helen Karcher
Karl & Velma Leitko
Mr. E. Lindemann
Rev. Guido & Barbara Merkens
Mrs. Nadine Miller
Mrs. Emma Steinberg
Mrs. Carol Tinker
Lt. & Mrs. John Verdugo
Charles & Esther Verstynen
Mrs. George Walsh
Mr. F. C. Wantzloeben
Mr. & Mrs. Milton Whitcomb
C ONGREGATIONAL
P RESIDENTS
Herman Bretzer...................1952
Victor Geiser .......................1953
Bill Wagner .........................1954
Monroe Karcher ..................1955
Vernon Neiting....................1956
Bill Wagner .........................1957
Bob Hickman ......................1958
Fred Huntress .....................1959
Mike Manupelli...................1960
Walter Beran .......................1961
Bill Knippa..........................1962
Gerald Smetzer ...................1963
Mayo Galindo .....................1964
Tex Saage ............................1965
Harry Hempel .....................1966
John Stahl ...........................1967
Dwayne Collier ...................1968
Charles Matthys ..................1969
Edwin Shook ......................1970
Al Huseman ........................1971
Ross Dobbins ......................1972
Wehland Steenken ..............1973
Fred Wenk ..........................1974
Paul Hesson ........................1975
Paul Bohrer .........................1976
Harold Meador....................1977
James Hoffpauir ..................1978
Chas Neely..........................1979
Dan Banks...........................1980
Davis Gomillion ..................1981
David Seale .........................1982
Paul Vanderpoorten.............1983
Wayne Hake........................1984
Jon Kilpinen........................1985
Herb Olson .........................1986
Zach Hill.............................1987
Sam Cochran ......................1988
Jim Wengler ........................1989
Phil Gingerich.....................1990
Al Love ...............................1991
Larry Maxwell .....................1992
John Sabatino......................1993
Joe Gorder ..........................1994
Joe Gorder ..........................1995
Bob Olson...........................1996
Bob Olson...........................1997
Mark Blaue..........................1998
Mark Blaue..........................1999
Jeff Brown ...........................2000
Jeff Brown ...........................2001
C ONCORDIA S CHOLARSHIP R ECIPIENTS
FOR P ROFESSIONBAL S ERVICE IN THE C HURCH
Sandra Boehme
Martha Knippa
William Loeshmann
Albert Loeschmann
Milton Uecker
Darlene Schultz
Robert Prout
Michael T. Nelson
William B. Knippa
Dewayne R. Nelson, Jr.
Stephen A. Wagner
Jane Ann Roszell
Mark Doepner
Bruce David Rudi
Terry Juelg Vogeli
Buena Marie Haecker
Kris Wenk
Stephen Wenk
David Anglin
Gary Koopman
Luke Biggs
Bernard Schey
Bonnie Burghard
Scottie Quinn
Brad Beckman
Jennifer Zapata
Amber Maroney
Kristin Burghard
Lisa Kammrath
Cassie Pfeiffer
Laura Banks
Stephanie Sass
Laura Quandt
Peter Burow
Melody Mayer
Addie Sabatino
Josh Knippa
76 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

P ASTORS W HO H AVE S ERVED C ONCORDIA
Dr. Guido Merkens ......................1951-1993
Melvin Spenn ..............................1961-1962
E.A. Wolf.....................................1965-1969
Steven McClintic..........................1968-1972
Theodore Graalmann ...................1972-1977
Norman Abbott ........................1976-present
David Ebs.................................1978-present
Robert Jaeger ...............................1984-1996
Robert Boyce ...............................1986-1987
Victor Kollmann ..........................1987-1992
David Kipp ..................................1992-1995
Patrick Boomhower .....................1993-1996
Dr. William Thompson ................1994-2001
Carl Schneider.............................1995-1998
Paul Burow..................................1997-2000
Bill Reagan ...............................2000-present
Steven Farmer ..........................2000-present
Ely Prieto .................................2000-present
M EN FROM C ONCORDIA O RDAINED P ASTORS
Brad Beckman
Luke Biggs
Bill Knippa
Al Loeschman
D.R. Nelson
Scott Quinn
Bill Schwertlich
Melvin Spenn
Steve Wagner
Stephen Wenk
V ICARS T RAINED AT C ONCORDIA
Melvin Spenn
James Haner
Kenneth Deneke
Charles McClean
Ronald Meier
Steven McClintic
Vilas Mazemke
Paul Raabe
Tom Ries
Victor Kollmann
Daniel Tutwiler
Craig Schinnerer
Michael Neidow
David Brockoff
Greg Seitz
Harry Tatone
Frank Winter
Jon Braunersreuther
Phil Bloch
Jeff Wuertz
Scott Schmeiding
Scottie Quinn
Tim Pauls
Matthew Boarts
Steven Farmer
C ONCORDIA S CHOOL P RINCIPALS
Rev. Dr. Guido A. Merkens .................................1952-1954
Mrs. Neva Odell ................................1954, acting principal
Mr. Richard Miller ..............................................1954-1956
Mr. Dean Dammann ...........................................1957-1963
Mr. Gerald Brinton .............................................1963-1971
Mr. James Boriack ..............................................1971-1973
Rev. Dr. Albert Merkens......................................1973-1975
Mr. Tom Zimmerman............1973-1975, assistant principal
Mr. Gerald Brinton .............................................1975-1977
Mrs. Neva Odell .................................................1977-1989
Mr. Bruce Rudi .....................1987-1989, assistant principal
Mr. Bruce Rudi................................................1989-present
Addenda ✦ 77

✦
Right: The Visitor Center provides a
comfortable location for visitors and
members to visit between services.
Below: Worshippers fill Concordia’s
1,200-seat worship center for three
services each Sunday morning. The
center is completely wired for video and
sound and features two projection
screens to add to the worship experience.
78 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

✦
Above: Adult Bible Class is held in
Concordia’s gymnasium and is one of
many opportunities for adult Bible
study on Sunday mornings.
Left: This 30-foot mural of Christ as
the Good Shepherd was painted on the
side of the worship center in 1999,
funded by contributions for the Board
of Elders and other members. It was
covered over in late 2001 due to
cracking in the surface of the stucco
wall. During the two years it was
visible, the mural gave motorists on
Loop 1604 a clear view of Concordia’s
focus on Jesus Christ.
Addenda ✦ 79

CONCORDIA’S SENIOR PASTORS TODAY
In 2001 Dr. Merkens was still maintaining
a full travel schedule as a consultant for
PathWay Lutheran Ministries, a church
growth consulting organization. He also serves
as a visiting speaker at Lutheran congregations
across the United States.
After resigning as senior pastor at Concordia,
Dr. Thompson joined the staff of the Lutheran
University of Brazil (ULBRA) as their North
American ambassador.
THE AUTHOR
Ron Lammert began his career in communications as a reporter for The San Antonio Light. He later formed a publishing company
and founded and operated a business newspaper, The San Antonio Executive, and a community newspaper, The Northwest Leader. Today
Lammert Publications, Inc. and its subsidiary, Historical Publishing Network, produce local interest history books in conjunction with
museums and historic preservation organizations.
Ron and his wife, Glenda, have been members of Concordia since 1971. Ron began attending Concordia in 1966, while a student
at Trinity University.
Ron has been a member of the Board of Elders since the early 1980’s. He teaches 8th Grade Sunday School. He is also active in
Lutheran Outdoors Ministry of Texas, having served as board president and currently as chairman of the Development Council.
Ron and Glenda have three daughters, Katy, Johanna and Christy, who are Concordia members.
80 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY

Sunday School, 1952.
Vacation Bible School, 2001.