Generational faith leads to new pastoral ‘hub’

By Lori Fischer Thorp

Correspondent

While balmy temps melted some of the snow outside Frazee United Methodist Church on Sunday, Feb. 12, parishioners inside bowed their heads in prayer and considered their future.

“For we are God’s coworkers, working together,” stated part of the Second Reading, from 1 Corinthians 3, and surrounding those worshipers was the evidence of that teamwork. 

They are in a new church building, with finishing touches being added every day, while their previous structure has become the home of CornerStone: Frazee Community and Youth Project.

It has been a long journey for the congregation to realize this dream. They took their first steps 40 years ago—likened by Administrative Council Chair Marlys Oswald to the Israelites’ trek to the Promised Land. She recalled an initial spaghetti fundraiser during Turkey Days, held downtown because the church kitchen and seating space weren’t conducive to crowds.

Sharon and Jim Piekarski moved to the area in 1982. 

“It seems like we were fundraising every year,” she said. 

Children grew up and had their own children while the congregation considered locations and structures, and pastors came and went. Finally, critical pieces fell into place. 

When the Red Willow Heights addition was set up in Frazee, seller Dewayne Schaefer specified that a segment would be donated for the new church.

Then, the three Kronschnabel sisters, who had grown up in the church, left it a generous legacy. Another financial boon was when a local individual donated vans to several community churches to help promote youth attendance and activities. The United Methodist Church had a very small youth involvement at the time, so the decision was made to sell the vehicle to a North Dakota church in desperate need of it.

Barb Jacobs, whose father George Beck pastored the church 1976-79, recalled being at the parsonage for a board meeting several years ago when then-Pastor Marv Winstryg asked, “Are you going to do something with this money, or are you just going to sit on it and die out?” 

“We were floundering,” Jacobs recalls, until that meeting, when her daughter-in-law Heather Olson gathered up inspiration. “She pursued the idea of a plan, started getting some pricing, and everybody just kind of perked up,” Jacobs said. She said Olson’s husband Jon and his co-owners at OK Lumber in Frazee were a huge help along the way.

They had finally reached a point, said Olson, where they realized, “We’re in this for the haul. We all pitched in, and the good Lord took over.”

Jacobs is intrigued and humbled by the history of the church. 

“They got the first church built, and it went down in fire,” in the early-morning hours of Sunday, Feb. 5 1899. “Just imagine how they felt,” she said. 

Rebuilding happened immediately. 

Parishioners are excited for this and other stories to be featured in wallpaper of CornerStone’s upstairs bistro area. 

CornerStone’s posted renovation photos spark memories, though the Methodists are very happy to be in their new facility. 

“I just love the feeling of our church right now,” said Jacobs. “It’s very peaceful,” agreed Sandy Oelfke.

CornerStone’s assumption of the previous property worked out well, said Ad Council members. 

“CornerStone was looking at property downtown, and that fell through,” said Piekarski. 

The former church property seemed a good fit, because it’s on the corner of Birch Avenue and 2nd Street, next to Frazee High School. 

“That was our mission,” said Oelfke, “to help the youth.” She said since CornerStone approached them, “it’s been a blessing to them and to us.” 

During the transition, Methodists continued services in their old facility until the new one was ready for move-in, on July 2, 2022. 

“We power-moved in 3 hours,” Piekarski said. “The good Lord took us on a long journey. We had some trials, but we persevered,” she said.

“It just brought us closer,” Oelfke said. “We’re all human.”

The first service in the new location occurred the next day. Olson said anonymous donations are helping meet the final finishing costs without incurring debt, which was their goal.

The member brought various historical treasures— Bibles, ornate altar chairs, tables, hymnals, the cabinet holding candle lighter supplies, podiums and the Baptismal font—that speak of the generations of people who joined for prayers and sacraments in the last 150 years.

There are also, once again, children. 

“We went from one child in Sunday School in 2010, to 13 children, now,” said Jacobs. Mackenzie Hamm provides Children’s Message, and her mother, Diane Aho, has fulfilled the role of the Methodists’ main lay leader recently.

That might soon change. After this particular service, congregants received information about the potential to join with Detroit Lakes and Hawley to share services of Pastor Kevin Gregory, who served Frazee several years ago. They approved proceeding, pending a few more steps in the process. That will mean more positives for this church, which has strived to find its way.

It also means members can rejoice in honoring their past, while they make way for the future. At both the Ad Council meeting and Sunday service, people spoke about what keeps bringing them together. 

“It was the relationships,” said Hamm. She recalled the late Albert “Ike” Fischer, who always greeted her, gently asking, “Where were you last Sunday?” “He knew and cared,” she said. 

“It feels like we’re a family…every little kid feels welcome and feel like they’re important,” she said. “It’s a testament to how we behave that we treat these little ones with the same grace.”

“If you’re missing a grandparent, come see us,” Oelfke encouraged.

Jim Piekarski said there are major reasons he thinks the church will attract people.

“We care about the community,” he said. “We’re hometown, we’re casual,” and the facility has a good sound system, an ample parking lot and is on one level. 

Currently, the council is seeking collaboration with a local grief support group as one more way to connect with people and serve. “

Jesus is the main reason we’re here,” said Jacobs. 

District Superintendent Laurie Kantonen of Fergus Falls, who was at the February Ad Council meeting to present the pastoral “hub” contract for consideration, agreed. “

The mission is making disciples,” she said.

“It is really extraordinary that this group of people got this done while they were being lay-led, and during COVID,” she said. “It points to dedication.”

That dedication is reflected in the seen, and the unseen. On the cement floor were written the names of those whose legacy now lives within these new walls. Those individuals’ faith has transferred to the generations which have followed them.

Maryls and Jerry Oswald raised their six children in the Methodist Church. As adults, they all live in Fargo and belong to the same church there.

“That younger generation still has hope and faith,” said Olson, whose three children have gotten to see the example of their parents’ and grandparents helping build and transition to the structure. 

Olson’s eldest, Hailee, and Hamm’s daughter Hope were confirmed on the last Sunday in the former building. 

“We’ve been blessed with four generations of friends,” said Barb Jacobs, referring to her and Diane Aho’s families.

Donna Vogler Fett, at 88, is the oldest member. “I can remember going to church as a kid,” she said. Her mother, Doris, “never drove, so Dad (Darwin) had to take us, but he didn’t attend church…This is where I feel at home,” she said.

Judy Johnson, a New York Mills native, began attending the church when she married Duane Johnson. His parents moved the family to Frazee when he was 5. Johnson has encouraged her children and now-grown grandchildren in keeping the faith.

“I love the people, and the ministers, Sunday School and Release Time,” she said. She added the unity is especially vital in the hard times, such as loss and funerals, where congregants have either been grieving, or serving, or both.

Johnson’s husband was on hand in 1977, when the prior building was refreshed by installation of new paneling. It was a joyous time of renewal, members recalled.

Sandy Oeflke said that a year ago, as her dad Duane Johnson was hospitalized with failing health, he repeatedly asked his family, “Is that sheetrock (in the new church) up yet?” Johnson died on March 30, 2022, so it wasn’t to be that his funeral would be held at the new site.

It was another hard time, but Judy Johnson said that through each challenge and joy, the congregation embodies Finnish “sisu”: “You get things done, and you don’t give up.”