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

✦
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