History - The Spirit Leads On
"The
Spirit Leads On"
The next decade and
beyond was a crucial period in the life of St.
Peter's Church. The 1930's and the early 1940's were not only
crucial in the history of St. Peter's, but also in the life of
Elmhurst, the Evangelical Synod and the whole United States.
There were the years marked int he early 1930's by the "Great
Depression" when many bsanks were closed and business declined and
unemployment prevailed. It was a difficult time for all
institutions, and particularly for churches. The church doors
never closeed and the loyalty of committed Christians kept the church
program operating. It is in hard times that people often are
led
back to faith in God.
It was in this period
that a great event in modern church history took
place. After years of preparatory negotiations, the
Evangelical
Synod of North America, to which St. Peter's belonged, entered into a
merger with the Reformed Church in the United States, and out of this
event came a stronger denomination, the Evangelical and Reformed
Church. St. Peter's Evangelical Church became St. Peter's
Evangelical and Reformed Church.
The city of Elmhurst in
193 engaged in a great celebration of the
centennial of the arrival of its first settlers. Elmhurst was
a
growing and beautiful suburb. The census of 1930 indicated a
population of 14,085.
Then came the horror of
World War II and the involvement of the United
States in the war following the incident of Pearl Harbor.
All of these events had their effect on the life and work of
St.
Peter's Church. After Pastor Chworowsky accepted a call from
a
church in the east, the Reverend Frederick Frankenfeld of Rochester,
New York became available for consideration as pastor.
He
was the minister of Salem Church in Rochester, the largest chruch in
our denomination at the time, with a membership of three thousand.
He had served that congregation for twenty-four years with
outstanding success and was recognized as being one of the
denomination's outstanding preachers and leaders. The pulpit
committee of St. Peter's seized this opportunity and recommended Dr.
Frankenfeld to our congregation on the basis of his record.
He
was elected as pastor in early 1934 without ever preaching a guest
sermon, and began his ministry in St. Peter's in the early summer.
Pastor Frankenfeld was a
strong preacher. He had a strong Sunday
School, with organized classes, as was the custom of the time.
He
was a strong advocate of Christian Stewardship and trained his people
in the art of giving. He cultivated an interest in the
missionary
and benevolent program of the church. He was an acknowledged
leader in his community, and also in the denominatin at large.
Dr. Frankenfeld quickly
won the affection of the people and they
responed to his leadership. He was first of all an
administrator
and organizer. He began by organizing and systematizing the
membership record. A second task was that of bringing order
into
the financial situation of the church. With a firm base of
individual membership established, an envelope system finally became
the one method of church support. With these tools a well
planned
schedule made possible an orderly and early retirement of the church's
debts.
For a long time the
church had looked for additional land, especially
for parking and also for eventual expansion of the church building.
Such an opportunity presented itself in 1942-43 and, under
the
vigorous promotion of the pastor, the corner property on Cottage Hill
Avenue was purchased.
In February of 1946, Dr.
Frankenfeld surprised the congregation by
announcing his resignation. He felt that advancing years and
the
continued growth of the congregation made it imperative to make way for
a younger man who could best meet the enlarging opportunities of the
church. It was with deep regret but with full understanding
that
the congregation accepted the resignation of its beloved pastor.
Light
and Shadow
By August of 1946 the
congregation had elected a new pastor. He
was Reverend Edwin J. A. Koch, a graduate of Elmhurst College and Eden
Seminary. Dr. Koch's years in Elmhurst were in the post-World
War
II period, marked by a rapid upswing in the economy which gave rise to
an increasing prosperity. And in 1949 an opportunity
presented
itself to purchase a second piece of property facing Cottage Hill
Avenue and Wilder Park. The congregation mortgaged its new
church
in order to buy this additional frontage. The land is today a
part of our west parking lot.
In the ongoing life of
the church there was a steady flow of new
members. At this time the demand for German services had
declined
to the point that such services were held only once a month.
There was continuous discussion and pressure for additional
facilities for the Sunday School. The matter of a new
parsonage
was a controversail issue. The pastor and others often
lamented a
certain lack of spirit and of loyalty on the part of a large portion of
the congregation, unable to rise to the new challenges presented.
It was strange that
moves toward a new education building, a new
parsonage, and an assistant to the pastor always met with divided
response. There was unfortunately an undercurrent of
dissatisfaction with the pastoral leadershipm, which manifested itself
in sub-surface and also in overt ways. A division of the
congregation was evident. In 1953 a group of members broke
away
from St. Peter's Church to petition for a new congregation.
Out
of this situation Bethel Church in Elmhurst came into being in June of
1953. Yet strangely enough there was a steady flow of new
members, but in spite of it the total membership through all these
years hovered at the 900 mark.
In October of 1956,
Pastor Koch presented his resignatin and accepted a
call to Bethany Church in Detroit, MI. At this time in 1956
the
church decided to drop its German services entirely.
Onward
and Forward
The decade of the 1960's
was one of restlessness and change in the
American church life. It was a time when the church was
relatively popular and to be a church member was the thing to do.
This period was followed by one of ferment and unrest,
sparked by
economic uncertainty and the nation's involvement in Vietnam.
It
was a time of protest and revolution, of activisim and an emphasis on
"relevance", of emphasis on "doing" to the neglect of
inwardness.
In this time of change St. Peter's was again faced with the
need
to find new leadership.
After diligent search
the Committee on Church and Ministry recommended
the Reverend Robert J. Young. He was elected by the
congregation and installed as pastor on September 15, 1957.
Dr.
Young was a graduate of Elmhurst College and Eden Seminary.