St James 75th Anniversary
It all started in a hotel ballroom.
Some members of St. John Lutheran Church, then part of the Ohio Synod, decided they wanted a Missouri Synod church in Marion. That led to the very first service of what was to become St. James Lutheran Church on Sept. 10, 1950. The then-unnamed congregation met in the Colonial Room of the Spencer Hotel at the southeast corner of Fourth and Adams streets in downtown Marion.
“They had a ballroom,” Duane McClure, a charter member of St. James, told Pastor Fred Hearn in an interview. “We had to clean the ballroom before Sunday service.”
On Nov. 21, 1950, the congregation adopted a constitution, which named the new church St. James. They had a church, but no altar.
Duane told Pastor Hearn that his father noticed the church – still in the Colonial Room in the hotel – did not have an altar.
“My dad got busy, and he built the altar,” Duane explained. “He was very good with wood. … We put it up every Sunday, then put it away (after church.)
The church had its altar, and now it needed a full-time Missouri Synod pastor, so with help from the LCMS office in Fort Wayne, the call went out, and Rev. A.F. Graudin answered it, becoming the first pastor at St. James. He served from 1951-1956.
With an altar and a pastor, the congregation wanted to check out of the Spencer Hotel ballroom into a home of its own. The church bought property at 1003 N. Western Ave., making that the site of the first St. James Lutheran Church building. It also bought a house across the street for a parsonage. The church was dedicated in April 1953.
Rev. Norman Luecht answered the call to St. James in November 1956, and he served as the church’s second pastor until 1962, when he was succeeded by Rev. Leonard Fiene. Rev. Fiene stayed until April 1984, when he accepted a call to a church in Florida.
St. James was blessed with growth during Rev. Fiene’s tenure, and the congregation looked to find a newer, larger home. In October 1967, after selling its Western Avenue property, St. James found a temporary home in the YMCA, then located at 418 W. Third St.
Services continued at the Y until St. James’ new – and current – home, 1206 N. Miller Ave., was dedicated in September 1969. Growth continued, and Warren Graf, in July 1981, became the director of Christian education, leading to the creation of Good Shepherd Preschool in September 1982. Graf continued at St. James until he accepted a call in Elkhart in June 1988.
As St. James searched for a new pastor, it still had leadership – Rev. Herman Heine, who served as vacancy pastor until Rev. Mark Carlson’s installation in February 1987.
“I was happy, content, and blessed to serve Zion (Lutheran Church in Bogalusa, La.),” Rev. Carlson said. “I took the call because God made it very clear to me. My love for basketball was used by God to draw me to Indiana. In 1987, the Giants won their third straight state championship, the Hoosiers won the NCAA championship …, and 1987 started showing signs of a better Indiana Pacers teams.
“St. James called six different pastors, who all declined, before the call was extended to me. … The 24-plus years there was such a blessing.”
During Rev. Carlson’s tenure, St. James grew physically with the addition of the new Fellowship Building, which was dedicated in 1997.
“God blessed us with many new young Christian couples and their families,” Rev. Carlson said. . “New staff came with (minister of Christian education and youth) Phil Rosel and preschool director Karen Goewey. New worship leadership came with choir director Lynda Cretsinger and organist Sue Davis. … Blessings abounded!”
Rev. Carlson accepted a call to Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Kettering, Ohio, in October 2011. That same month, Rosel retired as minister of Christian education and youth. Michelle Mueller filled that position from September 2012 to December 2014.
After Rev. Carlson left, Rev. Gary Miller served three years as an intentional interim pastor. During that time, financial considerations led the congregation to close both Good Shepherd Preschool and Good Shepherd Daycare, which had opened in 1998.
St. James installed its fifth pastor, Rev. William Lahrman, in November 2013. He retired from St. James in August 2019.
Rev. Randy Glander served as vacancy pastor, leading the church through the beginning of the Covid era, which included worship services being streamed online in order to overcome lockdowns.
In January 2021, Rev. Fredrick C. Hearn became St. James’ sixth pastor.
“In October of 2020, I was at a soccer game, and I got a call; it was Norm (Wolf),” Rev. Hearn said. At the time, he was pastor at Concordia Lutheran Church. Toledo, Ohio. After that phone interview, Rev. Hearn learned what he could about the church and Marion. “I watched services online and did my homework on the city.”
He visited St. James, and “when I saw everything that was going on, I saw tons of activity, even without a pastor,” he said. “It seemed like everything was perfect (for us). It reminded me of my congregation in Fort Wayne,” where he served from 2000-2007.
“It was an easy transition,” he said. “I felt at home from Day 1.”
Now, St. James looks to its future.
“The journey toward the next seventy-five years will involve doing some of the same stuff we have been doing all along,” Rev. Hearn wrote in his October newsletter to the congregation. “Things like worship and (Sunday Education Time) classes on Sunday mornings. We will continue our Wednesday night programs, VBS, the Nativity Walk, and many of the other things that have made up life in this church.
“We will also be doing some new things. We will be concentrating on family ministry to the whole church. We will, using AI technology and software, be extending what happens on Sunday morning throughout the week in members’ homes.
“We will be focused on outreach to our neighboring areas using both social media and just good old hands-on evangelism.”
Seventy-five years of blessings – six full-time pastors and several interim pastors, growth in numbers and church size. And it all started in a hotel ballroom.
- Mike Cline
St. James Lutheran Church
