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Madison Co. Virginia | There's a local Lutheran church a few miles from here that was founded in the 1850's when a handful of Kipps's and Lohr's moved across the Blue Ridge from the Shenandoah valley. It was a thriving church for most of its history, but it's doubtful now if there will still be a Lutheran service held there on its 200th anniversary.
My grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great-grandparents are all buried there, along with a host of great aunts and uncles. My great-great-great-grandparents are buried on the farm, since he died before the church was fully established.
The church building is now being rented out on Saturdays to a SDA church who has been meeting there for almost ten years now. There are talks about selling the building to them. The cemetery has already been separated from the building, and has its own trust fund and LLC.
There's been some precedent like that of expanding churches buying old buildings from declining churches. I know of a few Mennonite outreaches that have purchased an existing building instead of building a new one. I wish this was more common.
There's a stability that old churches display in a community; a stability that's being abandoned far too often now. It's reassuring to walk through a graveyard, and note all the Blankenbaker, Kipps, Lohr, Jenkins, Shifflet, and Tussing gravestones. We don't have the cathedrals and ancient houses that are common in Europe, but we do at least have these older church buildings and graveyards to connect us to past generations. | |
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Who will carry on Churches in Small Rural Communities
