Religious organizations active in county

By STACIE R. SANDALL

Hays Daily News

Messiah Lutheran Church, Hays, has an active youth group — a youth group that demanded more room to grow spiritually than they had to offer. Last fall, the church began to remedy that problem with a 54- by 46-foot addition to the south side of the building.

“The main part of what we're adding is a multi-purpose area, you might say, which will be helpful to us because our mid-week program serves about 70 youth and adults on Wednesday afternoons,” said Pastor Kenton Rohrberg.

The room will be big enough for a carpeted junior high sized volleyball court and a half-court basketball court.

“We have an exceptionally active youth program on Wednesday nights called Logos. Family time, Bible study, activity time and worship skills are all part of the program.”

The youth also take part in nation and statewide gatherings, conferences and activities.

The new area will also provide a larger fellowship area for wedding and funeral dinners, potlucks, Bible studies and game nights.

“We currently don't have a space large enough to gather many more than 90 to 100 people other than in the sanctuary, so it will widen our ability to use the building a lot. We hope to have more activities with the expansion, or we could possibly host or allow community groups to have access to it,” Rohrberg said.

The new kitchen will be 44 by 12 feet, and the bathrooms will all be handicap accessible and ADA compliant.

After the addition is complete, work will begin on the sanctuary, which hasn't been updated since it was built in 1969. During the construction, the worship area will be moved to the new addition.

The amount of seating will not change, but the appearance will.

“We will probably get new carpet, refinishing the pews, have a new backdrop for the alter, renovated the alter furniture and put in new lighting,” Rohrberg said. “Lighting standards in 1969 were not what they are today. Although it is fully lighted, it still is not as bright as you would like it to be.”

There will be air conditioning for the educational area of the building, but not at the center of the building.

Rohrberg said the style of the sanctuary will be influenced by the same type of architecture that was built around the World Trade Center, the steel superstructure facade, but on the outside only.

The building improvements will make out building look better on the outside, Rohrberg said, knocking the number of outside surfaces and textures down to two, limestone and white siding.

Much of the structure has been done by local contractors, with Commercial Builders of Hays in charge. Now, much of the work will be done by a group called Laborers for Christ.

Laborers for Christ are retired people from the Missouri Lutheran Church Synod church body that are hired at minimum wage. They will do much of the finishing work on the inside and the sanctuary remodeling.

Volunteers from the parish will also help complete the work in the sanctuary.

Construction on the addition began on Nov. 1, said Rohrberg, and the completion date is projected for July.

“We had hopes of starting back in July or Aug., but we had to work out some wrinkles in the plans and there were unexpected things we needed to do,” Rohrberg said.

Because the winter was mild, there were only 10 days the crew was unable to work. Rohrberg said the only thing left to do to make the addition airtight is to put in the doors and windows.

Twelve spaces of off-street parking will be laid to the south of the building.

The entire project will cost an estimated $500,000 said fulfillment coordinator James Feyerherm, and is funded by two means.

The church did a three-year commitment drive a year ago in November and members of the church have already pledged over half of the project cost, said Feyerherm. Over half of those pledges have come in.

The other portion of the project costs has been borrowed from the Lutheran Church Extension Fund.

LCEF is a non-profit organization that provides a ministry through investment and offers Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod members the opportunity to invest their money, earn interest, and help build churches and schools at the same time.

“It's not any different than going to a bank. They look through to make sure the church or institution that's getting the loan is well qualified,” Feyerherm said.

Rohrberg said that after the fund drive is finished, the church will most likely have to have a follow up drive to finance the monthly payments to be paid out over a 20-year term.

Messiah Lutheran Church worships about 160 people each week, and they have over 300 in membership.

Sunday worship is at 9 a.m., followed by Sunday school and adult Bible classes at 10:15 a.m.

Reporter Stacie Sandall can be reached at (785) 628-1081, ext. 136, or by e-mail at

ssandall@dailynews.net.