For Corrine Olander Hasse, East Union Lutheran Church is like a second home – the kind of home that’s nurtured her family for decades.

In fact, when her granddaughter is married there this fall, she will be the sixth generation of Hasse’s family to be married at the 150-year-old country church.

Hasse herself was married, baptized and confirmed there. And other than a brief stint at a German Lutheran church with her husband, Hasse has spent most of her life attending the still heavily Swedish East Union Lutheran Church.

“I can’t imagine going anywhere else,” she said, remarking that she has attended since the 1940s, when they still offered Swedish services.

Rita Lundquist wasn’t born into the church like Hasse. Instead, she married into it when she wed Wayne Lundquist – also a sixth-generation member.

“His family joined in 1867,” she said. The church itself was established in 1858.

The Catholic-turned-Lutheran has since immersed herself in the East Union Lutheran Church, even agreeing to play the part of her husband’s great-grandmother during the church’s 150th anniversary cemetery ghost tour this weekend.

“I like the historical aspect,” she explained. “I like that the roots run deep.”

Lundquist isn’t alone. Mike Coleman has spent the better part of the last year researching early members of the church to put together the cemetery ghost tour for the big anniversary. In all, 13 “ghosts,” including some charter members, will be returning to tell their tales.

Mike and his wife Kathy, who are heading up the church’s anniversary committee, said that they learned a lot through the research.

“It shows how (the past members) transcended through the years to the members here today,” said Kathy.

“It’s been such a blessing for me to learn the history of this church,” she added. “It’s helped me to learn to know the present members better.”

Present members include 600 baptized and 400 confirmed, mostly from the Chaska, Carver, Belle Plaine and Cologne area.

“East Union has people from all across the country that count themselves as members,” Kathy advised.

Humble beginnings

The church got its start in the mid-1800s – around the same time the state of Minnesota was being organized. Lutheran Pastor Eric Norelius made his way from Red Wing up to the East Union area where he found a group of Swedish settlers determined to establish a church.

“They didn’t have a church,” noted Kathy. “They had occasional prayer meetings, but they were clearly hungry for more.”

Norelius convinced Pehr Carlson, a Bible salesman, to head up the church. After a few months of studying in Chicago, Carlson returned to organize the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Church of East Union congregation, where he would serve for the next 22 years.

A simple log cabin was constructed to hold the first church services. In 1866, work on the existing church began. It took two years and more than $5,300 to finish the Carver brick edifice.

“They were so hungry for spiritual help, they were willing to spend their last dime building their church,” said Kathy. “Families today still carry that mindset.”

Over the next two decades, several changes were made to the church, including the rounding of the ceiling and windows, an altar picture, a new pulpit and the installation of the building’s first pipe organ. In 1890, the steeple was rebuilt using Chaska brick (as Carver brick was no longer available, Kathy explained.)

Though the building went through several modernizations over the years, today it has undergone painstaking work to restore much of its original splendor.

“It’s in good shape,” said Kathy. “This congregation has put a lot of money into it.”

The church also spawned a school – Saint Ansgar’s Academy - less than a decade after it opened. However, the school was difficult to maintain in the small community, and moved to St. Peter in 1876, where it would be known as Gustavus Adolphus. (The original school building, still stands across from the church.)

Positioned for growth

For a church to survive 150 years in a rural community, East Union’s current Pastor David Lechelt credits a faith in Jesus Christ.

“People value a community anchored in Jesus Christ,” said Lechelt, who came to the serve the church in 1995.

“A church building is not the church,” he added. “The people are the church.”

Lechelt said he was struck by the beauty of the quaint country church when he first visited the area. “It evokes a sense of home in terms of its architecture and setting,” he said. “It’s the anchor of the community.”

The spirit of the congregation also moved him. “They gave me an invitation to be a partner with the congregation,” he explained. “They wanted to invest themselves with a pastor.”

Lechelt is the church’s 16th pastor, but he serves a much different congregation today than Carlson did 150 years ago. The majority of today’s church members don’t have a tie to previous members. They are no longer predominantly farmers, nor are they solely Scandinavian. Church is no longer the center of their existence either.

“There are so many choices these days,” said Lechelt. “People are highly distracted.”

That doesn’t worry Lechelt too much, though. He feels his church is in a great position to grow and collect more members in the coming years.

“We’re part of a peninsula that hasn’t been developed,” he explained, noting that there are plans for massive housing developments surrounding the church.

“We are preparing for those people we have not met,” he said. “That’s the theme that ties us to the original mission.

“We have the same calling, the same Lord, the same simple invitation,” he added. “We will be a wellspring of faith and love. I expect great things for this church.”

-Mollee Francisco, staff writer

East Union 150th

What: Special worship service, live music, catered dinner, confirmation class reunions, historical displays to commemorate 150th anniversary of East Union Lutheran Church. Reservations are requested for the catered dinner. Call (952) 448-3450.

When: 10 a.m., Sunday, June 29

Where: 15180 County Road 140, Carver

More info: www.eulc.org.

Ghost tours

What: Tours of the East Union cemetery

Where: At the church

When: 6 to 8 p.m., Saturday, June 28

TELL US: Do you have a memory of East Union Lutheran Church?