Bethlehem Lutheran Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, picture Medina County, 1852. March, to be exact.

A pastor by the name of Reverend Christian Oefinger, who was already serving the Castroville Lutheran Church, looked out at the community around him and decided one congregation wasn't enough. He led the founding of a brand new one, right there, and that congregation would grow into Bethlehem Lutheran Church. That's where our story begins.

Two years later, in 1854, they dedicated their first church building. And here's a detail worth savoring: that dedication happened to coincide with a synod convention being held over in Castroville. Two big occasions, one remarkable moment in time.

Now once a congregation gets itself established, word gets around. Bethlehem Lutheran didn't stay on the sidelines. That church hosted synod meetings in 1869, then again in 1875, and once more in 1894.

Three times, this community opened its doors to the wider church and said, come on in, we've got room. Then comes 1914, and Bethlehem does something that tells you everything about the character of that congregation. They built a new brick structure, and they built it themselves.

Largely by parishioners, the marker says. Their own hands. Meanwhile, out in New Fountain, a sister congregation called St.

John's Lutheran Church had its own story running parallel. The Reverend A. Kitterer had founded St.

John's in the late 1850s, and for years its members were served by Bethlehem's own pastors. Two congregations, one shared calling. In 1949, St.

John's merged with Bethlehem, and those two stories became one. From a March morning in 1852 to a brick building raised by the hands of its own people, to the merging of two congregations into a single community, Bethlehem Lutheran Church is a story that kept building itself, one generation at a time.

What the marker says

The Rev. Christian Oefinger, serving as pastor of the Castroville Lutheran Church, led in founding this congregation in March 1852. The first church building was dedicated in 1854, coincidental with a synod convention held in Castroville. Bethlehem Lutheran Church hosted synod meetings in 1869, 1875, and 1894. The present brick structure, dedicated in 1914, was built largely by parishioners. St. John's Lutheran Church of New Fountain, founded in the late 1850s by the Rev. A. Kitterer and served by Bethlehem's pastors, merged with this congregation in 1949. (1977)