About Emmanuel
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Emmanuel Lutheran Church is a community of people dedicated to serving Christ, being a follower of Him, not only
by receiving His word, but by serving Him as best we can. Here layed out is a brief history of the congregation. The foundation of Emmanuel was laid in 1857 by Henry Welty Kuhns, a pastor from the East coast who was sent out to start missionaries in the midwest and Michael Oringer a citizen of Tekamah. The church started as a Lutheran mission for the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod, which in 1918 merged into the United Lutheran Church in America. The first full time pastor was sent from Pennsylvania to Tekamah, the Reverend J.W. Kimmel. Work was started on a church building three times before a church was raised. In 1861 materials were gathered, work was begun on land obtained from Tekamah's founder, Col. Benjamin R. Folsom. But the building was destroyed by a windstorm, followed shortly after by a prairie fire. The additional two attempts were leveled by Tornadoes in 1867 and again in 1869 Persistence and patience led to the building of Emmanuel's first church in 1880. In 1925 the building was replaced with a church with ample room to meet need of the growing congregation. The entire cost of both the church and it's new pipe organ was donated by Mrs. G.A. Crannell. The building stood on the current site of our church from 1926-1970, a model of the church is on display in the narthex of our current building. The church built the current building in 1972 under the pastorate of Rev. Herman Frerichs. Currently Rex Rogers is serving as Vicar at Emmanuel, and working towards becoming the 41st pastor since its foundation in 1879. History is a wonderful thing, it is important to not lose what has been and to learn from our past. But at Emmanuel we are looking forward to our mission, how we are going to move and serve the world we are in now? We are here in Tekamah to be of service, to love God and to love our neighbors. We look to serve the community outside ourselves in all that we do. |
Rev. J.W. Kimmel, first pastor to serve Emmanuel
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