The History of Our Redeemer
03 February 2010
Celebrating 50 Years of Ministry
1960 - 2010
In 2010, Our Redeemer Lutheran Church is celebrating its 50th year of ministry in Greenville as a chartered congregation. Here is an overview of the congregation’s history:
In May 1955 Jane Lingle, a Lutheran student at East Carolina College, expressed an interest in meeting with fellow Lutherans. She sent out postcards to all registered ECC students. For the first meeting on May 17, 1955 there were five students and one faculty member who met at the Y-Hut on the ECC Campus. In this group was Mildred Derrick who was getting her masters and later joined the ECC faculty; her husband was a member of the ECC faculty. They had come to Greenville in 1946 and before moving here her husband and daughter attended a Lutheran church with her. Upon their arrival in Greenville, without a Lutheran Church, her family joined a Baptist church.
Tora Larson a charter member of Our Redeemer Lutheran, who’s Father had started Lutheran World Relief after World War I, had published a history of our church in 1981. She stated that “without the postcards sent by Jane Lingle and that card reaching Millie Derrick as a graduate student, Our Redeemer would have been much slower getting off the ground. A few years earlier, Kinston, NC had been chosen for a Lutheran Mission field over Greenville.
Through the efforts of Jane Lingle the Lutheran Student Association (LSA) was established on campus. The United Evangelical Synod of North Carolina realized its significance and the Reverend Frank Perry of the Kinston Mission agreed to be an advisor to the students, contact person for those interested in establishing a Lutheran church, and hold part-time church services on Sunday evenings. The establishment meeting was held on Reformation Sunday, October 31, 1955.
The first service was held on January 29, 1956 with 39 persons attending at Clark’s Funeral Home Chapel. Two other locations were used briefly, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and the Seventh Day Adventist Chapel but most of the services were held at Clark’s until we went into the first building in 1963. Later our “Parish House,” around the corner from Clark’s, was used for the church office, Sunday School, and meetings. The upstairs was used as the Pastor’s living quarters.
The Church Council was elected on April 12, 1956 with the choir, Lutheran Church Women and Sunday School forming shortly afterwards. A roster of people interested in signing a charter was also begun. In June 1956 Robert Troutman, a rising senior from the Lutheran Theological Seminary, was sent for the summer to conduct services and actively survey the Greenville area as a possible location for a mission church. Robert Carswell, another seminary student continued the survey in 1957. In April 1958, a roughly three-acre lot on Elm Street was chosen for a church site. With the help of the Synod this was completely paid for by June 1960.
A full-time Mission Developer, the Reverend Terry Agner, came in June 1958 and was installed as our first pastor on Organizational Sunday, April 24, 1960. Synod had increased the number of charter members needed and although the church was organized it was not chartered until June 1960. Pastor Agner remained until June 1962.
The Reverend Howard Bock came a few months later but died in February 1963. Dr. F. L. Conrad, former North Carolina Lutheran Synod President, and Harold McSwain, a seminary student, served until the Reverend Robert Dasher came in September 1963.
The congregation moved into its new church building a few months later on December 8, 1963. Pastor Dasher remained until December 1968. The Reverend R. Graham Nahouse served from April 1969 until 1991. During this time the congregation outgrew its First Unit and added a new Sanctuary in 1985.
The Reverend Eddie Elkins served the congregation from 1991-1995. He was followed by two interim pastors, the Reverend Marge E. Eckland, and the Reverend Michael Evans. The Reverend William Neuman was hired as a term pastor from 1991-2001 and the Reverend Fredrick Simmel was the interim until August 2002. The Reverend Martin Seemann served from 2002-2007. The Reverend Lawrence Meyer served as the interim pastor until August of 2009.
On July 12, 2009 Our Redeemer extended a call to the Reverend Drew Goodson, the current pastor. He was welcomed and received by the congregation with open arms.
The Lutheran Student Association has continued throughout the church’s history and is an active group now called Lutheran Student Ministry (LSM). They are an integral part of the community at Our Redeemer and meet weekly during the school year.
In 2008, the congregation completed a significant renovation of the church facilities including a new front entrance addition. A process of revisioning and renewal led to the renovations and a renewed focus for ministry.
