Our History

Our History

St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church History

St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, U.A.C. of Union and Surrounding Territory in McHenry County, Illinois was organized on September 11, 1887. The initials U.A.C. stand for Unaltered Augsburg Confession. A verbal call was extended to Reverend J.L. Craemer and he agreed to serve as St. John’s pastor, thus enlarging his parish to four congregations, Huntley, Giberts, Marengo, and now Union. Services were first held in the Union Town Hall; later the congregation rented the Methodist Church in Union. Services were held in German.

In August 1901, a special meeting was called, and the congregation decided to buy one acre of land from Carl Warncke to construct a church building and a school room for fifty students. The church was dedicated on November 24, 1901. The school began in the fall of 1903 and continued until 1932. On August 22, 1926, the church building was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. The school was not destroyed. Services were again held in the Union Village Hall.

The congregation planned immediately to build a new building. On Sunday, May 15, 1927, the new building was dedicated. The cost of the new brick church was $25,535.98 as compared to the $3,553.32 twenty-five years before. From 1901 until the late 1920’s, the Pastor taught all eight grades in St. John’s Lutheran Day School. Realizing that one man could not do justice to a full-time pastorate plus a full-time teaching task, the congregation considered calling a teacher; it was decided, however, that the cost might be too great. The school was gradually discontinued; for several years the upper grades were taught (to allow the young people of confirmation age to attend and be instructed in the catechism), but these too were finally dropped. By 1932 the Lutheran School was discontinued, and a Sunday School was organized.

On March 17, 1943, the interior of the church was severely damaged by fire. Services were held in the schoolhouse while the building was repaired. On November 24, 1952, a third fire destroyed the entire church building and school.

God gave His people at St. John’s the courage to persevere. They constructed a new building. However, the school was not rebuilt. The cornerstone of the new church was laid in 1952.

St. John’s was blessed by God with the Rev. Norman Meyer becoming the Pastor on January 26, 1975.

In 1987, St. John’s celebrated 100 years of God’s blessings in a year-long celebration.

In 1990, Deaconess Lauren Morgan was called and installed as a commissioned full-time professional church worker to serve in assimilation, parish planning, youth ministry, and evangelism.

God’s people continued to worship at 6621 Main St. until planning was started for the new facility in 1994. Expansion would eventually start on 12 acres of land, one-quarter mile south of the old church location. This was a time full of excitement and blessings for the new facility at 6821 Main St., Union, IL, dedicated on October 29, 2000. Included in the building was space for the St. John’s Little Blessings Learning Center that opened on January 22, 2001, to provide daycare and pre-school education. In 2010, Little Blessings was set to being Full Day Kindergarten.

Pastor Norman Meyer served through many years until St. John’s participated in the Vicar Program. There were three Vicars starting with Vicar Chris Decker in 2003-04, Vicar Caleb Schauer in 2004-05 and Vicar David Bass in 2005-06. Caleb Schauer was called and became St. John’s first Associate Pastor on September 17, 2006. In 2009, Pastor Meyer retired and became Pastor Emeritus. St. John’s was blessed again with a second Pastor as Timothy Schutt was installed as an Associate Pastor on July 12, 2009, and stayed until receiving a call in 2013.

In 2019, the congregation called Hannah Russell as our Director of Christian Education after she had completed a year of internship with us.

The Covid Pandemic caused many changes to the world, but St. John’s began live streaming our worship service on Facebook, offered daily devotions to encourage our members, and we began using the pavilion to hold outside worship on a regular basis, weather permitting.

Throughout its history, God has richly blessed this church family. The Word and Sacraments, the same yesterday, today, and forever continue to strengthen and preserve the people of God at St. John’s for service to God and His people.

Fifteen Pastors have served St. John’s Lutheran in it’s 120 plus years history: