St. Paul Lutheran Church

St. Paul Lutheran Church

(Die Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische Saint Paulus Gemeinde)

On April 26, 1903, fifteen members of local church Die Friedens Gemeinde organized a new church called Die Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische Saint Paulus Gemeinde, or St. Paul German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation. The Rev. Albert Julius Fuenning was the congregation's first pastor, also serving a church in Haw Creek, southwest of Shelby. Fuenning pastored until fall of 1904, when the St. Paul congregation called the Rev. A. Wenzel of the Missouri Synod. That year, church trustees built a sanctuary at this site on land purchased from C.P. and Anna Vogelsang. Mrs. Charles Siebel sold the church land for a parsonage.

The congregation later joined the old Texas Synod and then the Iowa Synod, from which it called the Rev. Julius Bosshard in 1908. Bosshard remained until 1920, then returned in 1930 to serve until his death in 1947. Other St. Paul pastors during the first half of the 20th century included the Revs. M.C. Hoermann and E.J. Scheffel. During that time, the congregation formed the Luther League and a church choir. In the 1950s, church members organized a Brotherhood and Women's Missionary Society.

A German-speaking congregation for much of its first fifty years, St. Paul also followed endorsed Lutheran practices, which included seating the men on the left side of the sanctuary and women on the right. Women were also not permitted to vote in congregational decisions. These practices were revised in the 1940s. As the congregation grew, it joined the Texas District and later the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, also adding facilities to its property. Over a century after its founding, St. Paul Lutheran church continues to serve its community.

(2003)