St. Paul's Lutheran Church 150th Anniversary Information Page

St. Paul's Lutheran Church 150th Anniversary

Next Celebration Service:

December 12 - Final Celebration Service

Dr. Gerald Kieschnick - President, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod

Kickoff Festival Service

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church began a year-long celebration of its 150th anniversary on Sunday, December 13, 2009. Dr. Dale A. Meyer (photo at left) was the guest speaker at the 10:00 a.m. service held at our school site at 1780 Career Center Road in Bourbonnais.

Dr. Meyer is president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, and is nationally known for his 12 years as speaker on the radio program “The Lutheran Hour” as well as hosting the television show “On Main Street”.

Listen to Dr. Meyers Kickoff Sunday Sermon Online...

A Year Long Series of Monthly 150th Anniversary Sermon Sundays

We will be holding special services on the second Sunday of each of the next 12 months when former pastors and other special pastors will be coming to speak at the weekend services held at 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays and at 8:30 and 11:05 a.m. on Sundays. Please plan to attend and help us celebrate 150 years of St. Paul's Lutheran!

150th Anniversary Book

Celebration Services

As part of our celebration, we have had a commemorative history book published. This book has arrived for those who ordered it and features the full story of St. Paul’s Church and School, and its 144 pages are full of many black and white as well as color photos. The attractive foil-stamped, hardcover book will not only be informative and fun to look through, but will also look great on your coffee table. There is a limited supply of extra books available to those who did not have a chance to pre-order. Photo's from St. Paul's Lutheran Church Commemorative History Book

December 13, 2009 - Kickoff Festival Service Dr. Dale Meyer - President, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis

January 10, 2010 - Celebrating 150 Years of Mission Ministry Rev. David Bottorff - Former Pastor

February 14 - Celebrating 150 Years of Music Ministry Rev. H. Christopher Sheets - Senior Pastor

March 14 - Celebrating 150 Years of Youth Ministry Dr. Martin Haeger - Former Pastor

April 4 - Celebrating the Resurrection Rev. Karl Koeppen - Associate Pastor

May 9 - Special Celebration Speaker Rev. Dan Gilbert - President, Northern Illinois District L.C.M.S.

June 13 - Celebrating 150 Years of Church Fellowship Dr. Danny Tutwiler - Confirmed at St. Paul’s Church

July 11 - Celebrating 150 years of Christian Citizenship Rev. Paul Mueller - Former Pastor

August 8 - Celebrating 150 Years of Grace Rev. Mark Peters - Former Pastor

September 12 - Celebrating 145 years of Christian Education Rev. George Matranga - Former Pastor

October 10 - Celebrating 150 Years of Lutheran Heritage Rev. Donald Balgeman - Graduate of St. Paul’s School

November 14 - Celebrating 150 Years of the Glorification of God’s Saints Rev. Neil Bockelmann - Former Pastor

December 12 - Final Celebration Service Dr. Gerald Kieschnick - President, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod

Did You Know???

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church was founded on December 9, 1859.
St. Paul’s first church was built on the corner of North East Avenue and Chestnut Street. The cost of the lot was $80.
St. Paul’s second church burned to the ground as a result of a burning shingle blown from a major fire in Kankakee’s business district several blocks away.
The three bells in the church steeple weigh a combined total of 4,000 lbs. and are rung by hand before every service.
St. Paul’s Lutheran School opened the Kankakee area’s first kindergarten in 1946.