Third Pastor Called

The Rev. Charles Larson was called as St. Mary's third ordained minister in 1969. During his two-year stay, he brought a certain intellectual approach to his ministry that appealed to many parishioners.

Something remarkable happened in 1968, something virtually unheard of in a Lutheran church. The senior pastor and his assistant switched places. Pedersen became senior pastor, and his friend and mentor, Siersbeck scaled back his activities and became visitation pastor. It was an arrangement that had been Siers' idea, the promise of which kept Pedersen on the staff when he might have left for his own church elsewhere. It worked well too, thanks to the special relationship between the older and younger pastors.

 "Also, between pastor and congregation there has to be the right chemistry, a mutual trust, a partnership, for it to work," Pedersen says. "I was terribly concerned whether the 'old guard' at St. Mary’s would accept the switched roles, but they did."

When Larson left in 1971, the Rev. George Carlson replaced him on the ministerial team. Pastor George assumed the youth ministry, broadening its scope and becoming a favorite of the congregation's high school and junior high crowd. "George had been on the foreign mission field, so he was a little older than the usual newly ordained minister fresh out of seminary," says Pedersen. "He didn't need to be trained at St. Mary's."

The early 1970s were exciting years. Educational programs with Biblical emphasis and evangelical focus brought new young lay leadership to church governance.

Under dynamic leadership, St. Mary's reached out beyond its own parish, joining the Mission Founders Program, using its collateral funds to help found the House of Prayer Lutheran Church in the Milwaukee suburb of Franklin. 

 In the spirit of the times, social programs benefiting our entire community took on increased importance. St. Mary's established a senior citizens' center, and today, 28 years later, the Friendly Center is still going strong.

 And as the parish neared its 1974 centennial, expansion of the church facilities again was needed. Having just retired the 1960 construction debt, the congregation now approved a $425,000, 13,900 square foot addition that included a library, lounge, chapel, multi-purpose room, youth activity area, administrative offices and, of course, more Sunday School space.

With its completion, a 100-year-old St. Mary's Lutheran Church, now 900 families strong, was poised to begin its second hundred years.