St. John's Lutheran Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight out of Burleson County. Back in 1910, a man named Reverend A. H.

Falkenberg stood before 35 charter members and organized what would become St. John's Lutheran Church. Now, thirty-five people is not a crowd.

But it's enough, if the faith runs deep enough. And apparently it did. For a spell, the congregation had no building of its own.

They gathered in a schoolhouse, holding their services wherever the roof would have them. But they were workin' toward something. By 1917, they had built a proper sanctuary right here on this ground.

And tucked inside that sanctuary was something that deserves a moment of its own. The family of John B. Luedke, Senior, donated a bell.

Not a small, modest little bell. An eight-hundred-pound bell. That is a serious bell.

That is a bell with something to say. A year later, in 1918, the congregation established a cemetery right alongside the church. They were planting roots in both directions, you might say.

The community grew. The congregation prospered. And in 1966, a new church building was erected on the same site.

But here is the part that stays with you. That original bell, the eight-hundred-pound gift from the Luedke family, was housed in a tower at this very site, and it kept right on ringing. Kept on heralding the commencement of worship services, just as it always had.

New building, same bell, same call to gather. St. John's Lutheran Church, the marker says, has played a vital role in the community's civic, social, and religious development.

And when a congregation carries an eight-hundred-pound bell from one era into the next without missin' a Sunday, I'd say that's about as vital as it gets.

What the marker says

This church was organized by The Rev. A. H. Falkenberg and 35 charter members in 1910. Services were held in a schoolhouse until a sanctuary, containing an 800-pound bell donated by the family of John B. Luedke, Sr., was built here in 1917. The church established an adjacent cemetery in 1918. The congregation prospered and a new church building was erected here in 1966. The original bell, housed in a tower at this site, continued to herald the commencement of worship services. This congregation has played a vital role in the community's civic, social, and religious development.