Reporter Caitlin Shuda, a lifelong member of Immanuel Lutheran, shares how volunteers have been working for decades to build a new church in the community.

WISCONSIN RAPIDS − Here’s the church, here’s the steeple, open the doors and see all the people who spent the last few decades planning and preparing for our newly-built Immanuel Lutheran Church.

As a lifelong member, I remember people talking about building a new church for most of my life.

In our new church, we won’t have these stairs to climb. So-and-so would be able to worship again in a more accessible building. In our new church, we’ll have more space, and we could expand this class or community event. Someday, we won’t need these nets and tennis rackets to catch bats flying overhead during the sermon.

Conversations and discussions around member and community needs became a little more tangible when we purchased land in 2007, and those conversations and discussions continued for the next 16 years. There were disappointments and frustrations. There were also revelations and breakthroughs.

The latest plans started rolling the last few years as we worked through designs for an event center and church. Those discussions evolved into action as we broke ground in July 2023, then moved from Eighth Street to our Mission Center in August 2024 while windows, organ pipes, repurposed pews and other items were moved and secured at the new site. Now, Immanuel has opened at 1517 24th St. S., bringing to life the vision of the last few generations across the last few decades.

Every time I walk into the new church, whether to rehearse with the choir, get some practice time in on the organ or to help set up chairs for worship, my heart expands. I take in the glow from the stained-glass windows, the height of the organ pipes, the thoughtfully refurbished altar, the notes that hang in the air at the end of a song. I see home. I see pieces of so many people I love who put so much of their hearts and souls into this space.

I spent the last week ahead of the church’s official opening talking with members of the church who have been working for decades to make this dream a reality. Here’s what they had to say.

‘Our members have been dreaming about this space for 30 years’

About 250 members of Immanuel were involved in the planning stages, from teenagers to the oldest generations, offering suggestions and requests of what they wanted to see in a building, said Jonathan Blum, Immanuel’s facility administrator. When it came to the construction phase, more than 300 members actively helped in some shape or form, he said.

Rev. Tim Ritter, Immanuel’s senior pastor, said while previous rounds of building plans included a few renderings and smaller building committees, Immanuel took a different approach this time, holding listening sessions to learn what members wanted, essentially making the entire congregation part of the building committee.

“Our members have been dreaming about this space for 30 years,” Ritter said.

The longer Immanuel waited to build, the clearer it became to members that between space, accessibility and the state of the building, it was time for a new home.

Dennis Hall, a member of Immanuel, said he has been involved since the day he and his wife, Patty, joined almost 49 years ago, often with maintenance needs. He said a new church means a new beginning for Immanuel with something fresh, without needing to worry about the steps, fixing the elevator, making sure the boiler is running, and every other issue on his checklist at the old church building.

‘It’s a labor of love’

As construction began, Immanuel organized several volunteer groups to help on site, Blum said. About 60 people made lunch for construction crews every two weeks. About 70 members helped clean at the work sites and completed buildings. Other members have been around regularly to help with whatever needed to be done, some almost daily, with some spending more than 20 hours on any given week to help, Blum said.

Cyndi Knorr, a lifelong member, said she initially got involved with the group that fed the builders once construction started, and she joined the cleaning crew. The timing of construction allowed Knorr to be more involved, since she’s retired and has more time to volunteer.

Timing worked out well for Nell and John Slinkman, too, now retired members who joined Immanuel in the early 1980s. They helped design the coffee area and lead the committee that fed the builders. Nell Slinkman was on a committee focusing on accessibility, and John Slinkman was on a committee that repurposed wood from the pews and he helped put the baseboards in the sanctuary.

Hall said he was part of every planning group Immanuel organized, starting with the first planning group 30 years ago, as well as the second one that followed. He served as a liaison for the third and said this effort was Immanuel’s fourth shot. This time, he shared his thoughts and expertise on blueprint designs early on, and he helped dismantle and install various parts of the church.

“It’s a labor of love, that’s what it is,” Hall said.

Blum said Immanuel has been encouraging members to get involved with a sense of ownership, and this project has shown how members took that to heart, sharing what they wanted in a new building, rolling up their sleeves and helping make it happen. Blum said everything moved so quickly, and it was often hard to keep up with all of the work done by volunteers.

“Before you even had the next task ready, you had people willing and waiting to help,” he said.

Blum said one of the most visible pieces of member involvement involves the cross at the front of the sanctuary. He said Immanuel planned to use wood from trees that had been on the property to build a cross, but those plans fell through. He turned to Hall for any ideas.

Hall said Blum asked him if he could build a cross for the front of the church, and since he had a lot of barn beams in his own barn that various people have given him over the years, he had plenty of options. He ultimately dug up a barn beam that was more than 100 years old that someone had donated to him about five years ago. All it took was a bit of cleaning up and a few coats of varnish, Hall said, and Immanuel had its new cross.

“The fingerprints of our congregation are all over this place,” Ritter said.

‘It’s being a part of something bigger than me’

Hall said he has been awestruck many times throughout the project, especially as it approached its official opening. He has been at the building almost every day in the last three weeks leading up to the opening, and every time he came in, there was something new. The completion of the church building means Immanuel is finally home, he said.

A few days before the church officially opened its new doors, Jerry Herman sat in the church’s welcome area and looked around at the space. He said he had been so focused on the work up to that point that it was nice to stop and look at how far the project has come. Herman said it felt like just yesterday members were gathered out in the middle of an empty field on a hot summer day, breaking ground for the project, and now the official opening was on the horizon. The thought of the last couple of years made Herman feel a sense of pride, community and ownership.

“It’s being a part of something bigger than me,” he said.

Nell Slinkman said the greatest part of the project has been the idea of leaving a legacy behind not only for her family, but for the church and community for generations to come.

Immanuel not only built a new sanctuary for worship, but it built a new building for the community. Blum said the entire plan for the property on 24th Street centered around community and welcoming everyone.

Hall said the entire project was created with community in mind, and he hopes they come in to see it.

“There’s an open door whenever they want to come in,” Hall said. “We built it for them.”

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Contact Caitlin at cshuda@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @CaitlinShuda.