Southminster Presbyterian Church in Waukesha celebrates 50 years

Published on: 3/9/2015

Southminster Lutheran Church is a perfect reflection of its immediate community.

Over the past five decades, the church has grown from an outreach extension of First Presbyterian in the city's center to a campus that has expanded several times and has its own outreach across the globe. Its sibling neighborhood also grew from farmland to subdivision and neighboring businesses.

The connection has not been lost on those who are planning Southminster's 50th anniversary year.

History recorded

Dale Ann Morgan, a member of the anniversary committee, wrote a history that emphasizes the parallel growth.

'Fifty years ago when I moved to Waukesha, the south part of the city pretty much ended at Sunset Drive,' Morgan wrote. 'Driving south on East Avenue, what later was known as the Kmart building was just an idea on the drawing board. If you turned right on Sunset, the city quickly turned into a country road with only a few businesses scattered along the edges.'

Morgan continued to explain other seeds of growth – the new, nearby subdivision Seitz Estates, Walgreens, Pick 'n Save and strip shopping areas. She noted there were 107 members when Southminster was chartered on Feb. 28, 1965.

'The young families of the 1965 church have all grown up,' Morgan wrote. 'They have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, some of who are still active members of Southminster.'

Slow south growth

Planting seeds of community growth was not particularly formal, said Frank Hedgcock, former Waukesha city planner and a Southminster member.

'The city never had a comprehensive plan' to develop the Southminster area, Hedgcock said. Though Wisconsin had a strong township form of governance, 1980s legislation allowed cities to take over town land that were surrounded islands with less than 100 in population.

Hedgcock said the south end of the city lagged behind growth to the west.

'That was the area the city developed,' he said, pointing to already existing city land that turned into business properties as well as residential neighborhoods.

Like others who grew up Presbyterian and were starting their young families, Hedgcock saw Southminster as an opportunity to be part of something new.

'People came from as far away as New Berlin, Brookfield Mukwonago, Pewaukee and Troy,' he said.

Fulfilling mission

Music, the arts, education and helping those in need within the community and in other countries has been a Southminster hallmark, say church leaders. The church also hosts community gardens. Half of the current 29 gardeners come from outside its membership.

When Southminster called upon the Rev. Christian Boyd to become its fourth pastor, it received a leader who had extensive experience in leading churches experiencing conflict in Indiana, Kentucky and St. Louis. That conflict, as Southminster members said, had to do with an aging population, leading to a familiar downward membership trend. Southminster had once grown to 600 members Today, there are 240 official members.

Boyd said the church continues to grow beyond membership. He said the church's growth alongside residential and business sectors helped shape its mission that exists today.

'Membership grew like all churches in the '60s, '70s and '80s,' Boyd said. 'Times of disturbance are not uncommon. We are active in our mission.'

That mission includes local efforts to support to local schools and support of mission work in Guatemala and Russia touches schools and orphanages.

'We are very active,' Boyd said. 'This church never sleeps.'

The work ahead

Morgan's church history further explains that sentiment.

'Today, the mission of the church, just like the neighborhood, is changing,' Morgan wrote. 'We see the needs of so many so close to our front door. We are not looking at shiny new homes, but at overcrowded, subsidized apartments. The church may have been established to serve the spiritual needs of baby-boomer families, but today the hunger seems to be with another population. Perhaps the true work of the church has just begun.'

Celebrating Southminster

WHAT: 50th Anniversary of the charter forming Southminster Presbyterian Church

WHERE: 200 Richard St., Waukesha

WHEN: Feb. 28 - Dinner and Program commemorating anniversary date; Picnic featuring a pig roast on June 28.

WHO: Walter Sadler, a retired UW Waukesha faculty member, heads the 50th Anniversary Committee

MORE: Visit www.southminsterchurch.org and go to 50th Anniversary quick link for a complete schedule of 2015 events.

DID YOU KNOW?: Southminster Lutheran Church originally was planned with an accompanying Presbyterian Home. That portion of the plan changed. The former Avalon Hotel eventually was turned into Avalon Square.