ESCANABA – What started as the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Escanaba, with 35 Swedish members, has developed into Bethany Lutheran Church: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a tight-knit group with roughly 100 members.

Bethany Lutheran has been on the corner of First Avenue South and South 11th Street since 1879, when Nelson Ludington, a lumber baron and banker, gave the congregation the parcel of land. The original church was 45 by 24 feet.

At one point in time, the church had 1,400 members. Bell Choirs, a group named Lutheran Church Women and an Adult Forum were all part of the church throughout its lengthy timeline.

Those who attend today are testaments to the commitment of worship.

Bethany Lutheran's sanctuary is toward the front of the building and has been a backdrop for many weddings, baptisms and funerals. (Sophie Vogelmann | Daily Press)

“I always say this old church was a gift from God,” said Rodney Spence, the church’s property manager and custodian. Spence has attended Bethany Lutheran for more than 25 years.

“It used to be – when I was young – there was a church on every corner, a tavern on every corner and motels,” Spence noted.

The church’s parsonage was built in 1889. The parsonage that stands next to the main building today was built in 1922, and it became a Woman’s Recovery Home in February 2022 in an agreement with Catholic Social Services of the U.P.

In 1891, a second church seating 300 people was built in the same spot. Its 175-foot tower atop the church guided ships into Escanaba’s harbor.

Nearly 20 years later in 1900, some of the first electric lights in the town were installed in the church and the parsonage. There are still only a couple of electrical outlets in the church today. The church basement was then completed and a pipe organ was installed in 1903.

Members of Bethany Lutheran Church: ELCA in Escanaba can sit on the second level and observe church operations from up high. This is also where filming is done for live streaming services. (Sophie Vogelmann | Daily Press)

Also in the lists of firsts, one of the first concrete sidewalks in town was created for the church in 1935.

The congregation also built a chapel in North Escanaba in 1905, at a cost of $900, for weekday worship, Sunday School and other operations. That chapel is now known as Christ the King Lutheran Church.

Four years later, the first issue of the Bethany Echo – the church’s newsletter, which is still in print – was published. By this time, the congregation was making plans to erect a new church. Members were asked to give three days’ pay toward construction, which would end up costing a total of $39,000.

In 1911, the second church was torn down to make room for the new church in the same spot. Just one year later, on Christmas Day, the new church was used for the first time. The large golden lights that hang from the ceiling today are the original light fixtures from this period.

While the church may need to switch to LED bulbs at some point, they don’t plan on any other changes.

The stained glass windows in Bethany Lutheran Church: ELCA have graced the building since 1912. (Sophie Vogelmann | Daily Press)

“We never want to get rid of these lights. We want to keep this original,” Spence said.

The church became The Evangelical Lutheran Bethany Church in 1917.

Up to that point, church services were all in Swedish. English services weren’t incorporated until 1919, and then only every other Sunday night. Two years later, council minutes were written in English for the first time.

The congregation eventually voted for the church’s official language to be English in 1929, although the early service continued in Swedish until about 1948.

In 1945, Swedish and English services were conducted on WDBC, a radio station in Escanaba.

In a landmark occasion, Prince Bertil of Sweden visited Escanaba and appeared at Bethany Lutheran in 1948. He was lodged at the historic House of Ludington during his visit.

By 1950, the congregation was made up of 1,400 members. Those numbers are drastically different than what most churches see today.

But still, Christmas and Easter remain “our two busiest days, and it’s packed in here,” Spence said.

In 1956, the church bought houses on First Avenue in Escanaba to establish an educational building. Nearly 10 years later, in 1967, more homes on First Avenue were acquired for a church retirement center.

The Ark Preschool at Bethany Lutheran was established in 1977. It continued for 45 years before closing its doors in 2022 due to declining enrollment and the loss of staff from the COVID-19 pandemic.

While other renovations, such as adding computers and an elevator, took place in the early ’90s, perhaps the biggest came in 1999: a $878,305.59 makeover of the educational building. Church offices moved, and new Sunday School classrooms, a conference room, a council room and the Ark Preschool classes were added onto the existing building.

Throughout the congregation’s history, the synod they belonged to changed multiple times. The original members in 1879 joined the Augustana Synod, which was a Lutheran church body in America. The synod merged with the Lutheran Church in America in 1962, and Bethany subsequently became part of the LCA. After another merger in 1988, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was formed.

Bethany Lutheran’s steeples were restored and repaired in 2019 just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the globe. From March to July 2020, services at Bethany Lutheran were pre-recorded and posted onto YouTube. That July, the congregation installed live streaming equipment so services could be held in the sanctuary and streamed live.

Kyra Beck, communications coordinator at Bethany Lutheran, filmed the live streams and eventually grew into her larger role as communications coordinator, working on the church’s website and social media.

“A lot of churches don’t have someone like me, especially smaller churches,” Beck said. “My family is very involved.”

John Beck, Kyra’s father, is the church’s choir director/musician and tech support, and Kyra’s mother, Kim Beck, is the pianist. Carole Beck, Kyra’s aunt, is the financial secretary. The Beck family unit is another testament to the Bethany Lutheran’s multi-generational nature.

In March 2022, Bethany Lutheran’s Free Store opened to the public. The store, which doesn’t have any income requirements to apply, assists families in need of products such as cleaning, hygiene, paper and baby products.

Most recently, the Rev. Lily Brondyke joined Bethany Lutheran as pastor. After graduating from Wartburg Theological Seminary in Iowa with a master’s of divinity in May 2022, she and her husband, Alex, moved to the area to complete what is called a “call process” with Bethany Lutheran; both the pastoral candidate and congregation complete interviews and work together to ensure they are the best fit for each other.

“(The church) had a lot of life. It had a lot of energy,” Brondyke said about what drew her in to the congregation.

“There’s a lot of history here,” Brondyke said. “I love (the church’s) origin story – just a bunch of Swedish immigrants looking for a good community, a place to sponsor more immigrants coming, and saying ‘This is something that’s important to us. This is something that we care about’ and pooling together resources to make a community building for public worship and life together. It’s a very cool story.”

———

Sophie Vogelmann can be reached at 906-786-2021 or svogelmann@dailypress.net.