Celebrating 100 years of their church home

If the members of the Immanuel Lutheran congregation had forgotten or began to take for granted how special their church family is, they had a couple of people who have been part of the Augsburg church remind them of that.

Those reminders came as the congregation of that church in rural Shobonier on the St. Peter blacktop celebrated the 100th anniversary of their church building on Sunday, July 15.
That anniversary celebration on July 15 included a meal in the parish hall, followed by a program and special anniversary service.
In addition to current members of the congregation, those attending the anniversary were former members and a former pastor.
Among the former members was David Knecht, who created a book on the history of Immanuel Lutheran Church.
Also present was the Rev. Bruce Milash, the church’s pastor from 2009-13.
One of the members of the anniversary committee, Lee said, said that Augsburg “is an old German settlement.
“Years ago, we would say that if you sit next to somebody in church, it’s probably your relative,” Schaal said.
“But, really, we are all part of a family. It’s a close-knit community, as a church,” Schaal said.
While changes in society have somewhat affected the membership of Immanuel Lutheran, he said, one thing has remained constant.
“Like other communities, where outsiders are coming in, it’s still the idea that everybody’s welcome here.
“We like to think that people who were born and raised here are branching out, and their children are also coming back to this church … and we like that idea,” Schaal said.
In addition to putting together a book documenting the church’s history, Knecht spoke during the anniversary program, sharing some of his memories and some of the history gleaned from local newspapers.
Those memories include attending the church school, driving himself and four others to school in a Ford Model A, “sitting on a pillow to see over the dash.”
Knecht, a 1959 graduate of Vandalia Community High School, served in the Army.
He then earned a degree from Southern Illinois University and began working for a Chevrolet dealership in the Peoria area.
After seeing factory representatives come into that dealership, Knecht earned such a position in Lansing, Mich., in 1965, working at different locations all over the country for 33 years before retiring in East Lansing, Mich.
It was when Knecht and his family lived in California, and they could only return to the Augsburg area once a year, that he “got involved in geneaology, kind of, I think, as a crutch or a substitute for family.
“And it grew from there,” said Knecht, who also created a book for the 150th anniversary of St. Paul Lutheran Church, also in rural Shobonier, several years ago.
Knecht, who is head of his family’s reunions, compiled and put together history about Augsburg Immanuel Lutheran over a two-year period.
“I spent a lot of time in the Evans (Public) Library, going through microfilm, page by page,” he said.
Creating the history books, Knecht said, was a labor of love.
“They were thanking me (for doing this), but I should have thanked them for the Christian upbringing and the Sunday school teachers, the pastors.
“I feel that I owe so much to them for the environment I grew up in during my formative years,” Knecht said.
Milash is a “second career” minister who began that second career at Immanuel Lutheran Church.
“I was here for not quite four years … four wonderful years, I might add,” Milash said.
“I came (here) from Chicago, and what made it so terribly exciting, and a little bit frightening, is, I was raised in the city, in a blue-collar neighborhood, and I found myself here among country folk.
“I found the most pleasant, amenable situation, the sweetest folks who just adopted us as a family,” Knecht said.
“Here, you can knock on a door and walk right in, and sometimes, if nobody answered, they still expected me to walk in.
“Being raised in the city, I wasn’t accustomed to that.
“It’s a wonderful community of faith,” Milash said. “I love these men and women and children very much; they’ll always be a part of my family.”
During the program, Milash said, “I thank God for all of you, and I thank God for allowing me to have the opportunity to learn here.
“I can say one thing – this is a community of faith.”