Building family ministries will be the focus for the future of 150-year-old Concordia Evangelical Lutheran Church in West Hempfield Township, according to its new pastor, the Rev. David L. Hefner.

"We want to build stronger families and children and youth ministries," said Hefner, who joined the congregation a year ago.

Concordia has 200 regularly attending members, but most are older people.

"But we do have a nice handful of young families to build on," Hefner said.

Members come from Mountville, Columbia, West Hempfield Township, Landisville and Farmdale, as well as from Mount Joy, Lancaster, Millersville, Conestoga and Wrightsville, he said.

Some of its ministries include an active youth group, Concordia Lutheran Youth Development and Education; senior and youth choirs; weekday Bible studies; collecting food for the Columbia food bank; an active quilting group, Tuesday Toilers, who help Lutheran World Relief; providing scholarships for secondary school at its sister congregation in Luteba, Tanzania; and sponsoring Boy Scout Troop 90. A Girl Scout troop also has had meetings at the church.

The congregation also this fall has sent a member to Biloxi, Miss., to help rebuild from Hurricane Katrina, and will be sending a member again in the spring, Hefner said.

They also have participated in a community Thanksgiving Eve service and have had Easter sunrise services.

On Sunday, Concordia will hold its 150th anniversary service at 9 a.m. Its usual 6 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday services will not be held this week.

At the anniversary service, two previous pastors, the Revs. Richard Jones and Thomas Rundell, will help Hefner with the liturgy.

The congregation also will be dedicating its new office renovation and windows at the service, as well as putting a time box carved by member Gary Proctor into the altar.

Fellowship with a birthday cake will follow the service.

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Concordia Evangelical Lutheran Church got its start as a mission of the Lutheran churches of Columbia by meeting in a shoemaker's shop in early 1859, according to historian Marian Kresge.

The growing Bible study group soon moved to larger quarters in a barn owned by the ore mines, and then to Ironville school, where it was formally organized in May 1859.

In 1860, the congregation bought land for a cemetery, and a year later, erected a small frame church at the foot of the cemetery.

The church was named Deutsche Evangelisch Lutherische Kirche, and services were held in German. By the early 1900s, English was introduced into the service. Singing was a capella until 1868 when the congregation got a melodeon. They purchased an organ in 1872 when one young man promised to learn how to play it.

The first two pastors also served congregations in Columbia and Marietta, in addition to Concordia, while the third pastor was shared with a Rohrerstown church.

In 1921, the congregation joined with St. James Lutheran Church in Columbia, which had just been organized. Because the congregation was now growing, more room was needed. Despite the Great Depression, the congregation approved building a new brick church in 1935.

In 1957, the congregation was ready to become an independent church with its own pastor. A parsonage was built and an educational wing was added to the church in 1962.

For its 125th anniversary, the congregation added a front narthex, chimes to its new bell tower and reconstructed the altar.

lvaningen@lnpnews.com