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

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