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

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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