St. James Church History

A Brief History of St. James Lutheran Church ​

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Our Beginnings
   St. James Lutheran Church is an example of a successful merger of two smaller  congregations.
 Bethlehem Lutheran occupied the current site.  It was started in 1946 by the United Lutheran Church in America.  You can still see the original church structure on the far west end of the campus which now houses Metro Lutheran Ministries in remodeled space. St. Timothy Lutheran Church was started in 1955 by the Augustana Synod of the National Lutheran Church.  It met in a location on Englewood Road near the then smaller Hwy 169. 
   

 In 1964, a merger of those two larger church bodies found two congregations close together in location.  It seemed good to combine efforts to facilitate outreach.   After consideration, the congregations chose the Bethlehem Lutheran site, as a joined site as a recently constructed sanctuary (now the education wing) there gave them adequate space to grow together.  A new congregation name was chosen.
St. James Lutheran Church was chartered in 1965.   
     We still honor those original church bodies with two rooms in the current structure.  St. Timothy Hall, our Fellowship/Art space, and Bethlehem Room, a small classroom downstairs off office. In 1967 the new sanctuary was built (current sanctuary.)   It was a “stand alone” unit, not yet connected to the older Bethlehem addition.  A Garden Space separated in the two buildings. In 1981 a custom built Reuter Pipe Organ was installed which radically altered the appearance of the sanctuary, filling up what had been a fairly large and open wall.  
   In 1982 an addition to the building finished the connection. That addition houses the current St. Timothy Hall, nursery, and office spaces.  
    An elevator was installed in 1991 in an attempt to make the building more accessible.  That was the last major building project undertaken by the congregation.
Metro Lutheran Ministries is a cooperative Social Service venture, separately chartered, which provides a variety of assistance to individuals.   St. James partners with MLM to provide a Northland Satellite.  It occupies about one third of the footprint of St. James. This remodeled space houses Pantry services, assistance services, job services and case management. 
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