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

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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