Recent Articles

Drywall has begun to be installed on the ceiling. That means the inspector has approved lighting, hvac, and the fire suppression symstem in the ceiling. They are beginning with drywall in the balcony.  To the left you can see the angled ceiling that matches the pitch of the roof in the rest of the sanctuary.  If you look at the place where the angled ceiling and the higher ceiling meet you will notice that the higher ceiling is also pitched slightly.  That is an acoustical feature that will help the the musical sounds from the balcony to get out into the rest of the sanctuary.  You can also see the doorway that leads to the stairwell and the elevator that provides access to the balcony.

January was a great month at Immanuel.  Pictured above are the 15 families that formally joined Immanuel during the month.  Eight of the families came by way of Adult Instruction, two of the adults being baptized.  During January Immanuel also experienced her highest single weekend worship attendance at 621 and the highest average for the month of January ever, 564 per weekend.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

To the left is pictured the roof frame being installed in front of the new sanctuary entrance.  The covered area will provide a place to drop off families in inclement weather.  Other progress in the construction includes: interior stairwells roughed-in; lighting being installed; lower level dry walling nearly complete; and several windows on the NW and SW corners installed.  Project completion is still expected to be the end of June.

To the left is a current picture of our new sanctuary.  Notice several things: all of the framework on walls and ceiling is in place; the video screens on either side are framed out; the place for Baptism is in the foreground; the place for the Lord's Supper is the whole width of the picture on the level of the pews.

The report from the contractor is that they are on schedule to be finished by the end of June. That means we will be out of our old sanctuary by mid April so that the work of turning our old sanctuary into our new fellowship hall can begin.  We will be worshipping in the gym/cafeteria for about 2 months or so.

The Baptismal mosaic is about half finished.  To the right is the right panel of the cross that pictures Noah and the ark.  You can see Noah thanking God for saving him through water.  Sound familiar?  1 Peter 3:20-21 tell us that Noah's ark was a prefiguring of the saving God would do in us through our Baptism.  Go to Facebook and search for "Amosaic" to watch the progress of our artist Kathy Rickermann.

Mike Rodewald (far left) grew up at Immanuel Lutheran Church and School.  His father was pastor here.  Mike's entire adulthood has been spent in missionary work.  He is now head of the mission work being done by our Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in Africa.  Mike and his family live in South Africa.  He will be at Immanuel to speak in all services about the work you are in doing in Africa through our partnership in the LCMS.  You will be astounded at what is happening in Africa today.  You do not want to miss this weekend in worship.  See you in church!

This past Sunday Immanuel experienced the largest weekend attendance in worship in her history on a "regular Sunday".  627 souls filled our sanctuary in our three services.  Over 250 were in each of the two Sunday services with chairs set up for the crowds.  The worship service and particularly the singing were wonderful.  Our new sanctuary is coming just in time!

The west exterior wall of our new sanctuary has a 40 foot cross that covers the wall. At the heart of the cross is our newly commissioned stained glass window that defines our name Immanuel.

Recent news for the project includes the information that we will need to be out of our old sanctuary right after Easter, which is April 8. We will worship in gym/cafeteria for about 2 months.  Current move-in date to our new sanctuary is the end of June.  All work continues on schedule.  The building is now dry and the dry wall is quickly going up.  Pews, windows, mosaic are all in progess.  Please keep the process and all involvled in your prayers.

Vicar Tyler Poppen will be offering Financial Peace University (FPU) beginning Sunday, January 29, at 6:30-8 PM.  FPU is a 13 week DVD based class led by Dave Ramsey.  It teaches Biblical based principles about finances and ways to rid debt and increase savings.  The average FPU graduate eliminates $5300 in debt while building $2700 in savings!  There is a cost to the class but the skills and benefits learned greatly outweigh the cost.  A free preview and question/answer night will be held on Sunday January 22 at 6:30.  Please contact Vicar Tyler Poppen for more information or to sign up: 636-239-4705, vicartyler@imlutheran.org

The picture to the left shows several elements under construction on our new Sanctuary. 

• The steel for the covered drop off area is in place. The posts will be brick covered and the roof will be pitched like the gable above it.
• With the finish of the south wall the brick work is nearing completion.  Only details like stone caps and cleaning remain to be finished.
• The roof work is progressing.  You can see the workers putting into place the standing seam metal roof on the south side of the sanctuary roof. With the completion of the roof work, dry walling will begin soon on the interior.