Back to our history lesson. But first a little review. Our first church, no bigger than a modern three car garage held its first service in 1949. By 1955 we had greatly overwhelmed our little church structure and our ever-expanding congregation went looking for larger space. We first purchased property on Moreland and Hawthorn but within a few years realized this did not offer enough space for or future needs, and then purchased 7.5 acres in the Dopp subdivision where our church currently stands. At this same time (1964-1965) Pastor Henry Ebling accepted a call to Ascension after we had suffered the death of our second Pastor, Theodore Heuser, from cancer in 1962.
On July 31, 1966, ground was broken for our new church on these seven and a half acres. This was to be “the church” — bigger, better with office space, a modern design (modern for 1966, remember) with plenty of room to grow and expand. And we did and have ever since. On April 2, 1967, our new church was dedicated. Our church is what most of us now know as East Hall or where the Spanish Ministry Service is held on Sundays. For the time, it was a grand area with tall ceilings and golden glass windows running down each side. It had a raised alter area, as well, running the length of the south side and a grand entrance back where the coat closets are currently located. This was no longer that three car garage but a whole aircraft hangar and then some.
Our old church, built by hand by our first Pastor Lee Egloff, was sadly (looking at it through current eyes), sold to a nearby resident who remodeled it into a three-room boarding house. At a later time, it was remodeled again into a rental apartment but eventually left to deteriorate. The city eventually condemned the structure and razed the building in 1985. Nothing has stood in its place since.
By 1971, Pastor Ebling accepted a call to a Kenosha church and a year later Pastor Ron Daley accepted our call. With our growth continuing, Pastor Daley experimented with adding services and changing service times. As everyone should realize, trying to find the right proportion of praising our Lord in service and having a Sunday day off, is hard work. He tried a 6:30 Saturday evening service which didn’t last long. He tried a 6:45 am Sunday service that again didn’t last long and even threw in a 11:30 Sunday morning service in September 1973.
As one of our congregation told me, having attended a couple of these services, she could not remember any men being there. “And you were darn surprised when you did see one.” Remembering as a child with a sports-minded father, I will have to assume sports, TV and the male characteristic of watching sports on TV, especially in September, probably doomed this service quickly.
By February of 1976, Pastor Daley had decided to move on from Ascension, but by June that same year Pastor Frank Janzow accepted his call to us. At this time our congregation had 937 baptized members along with 590 communicant members. A wee bit more than those original 24 members in 1949. Pastor Frank’s first years were busy. In 1978, after much thoughtful prayer and deep discernment the Ascension congregation voted to drop membership from the Missouri Synod and reside membership with the ALCA (Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches) — English District. Two years later we also, after much prayer and deep thought, decided to add what was then called the education wing to our church. This wing is what currently constitutes that long hallway from the main church office down to the Prayer Room.
As Ascension’s life, and the life of our congregation, continued to churn, meld, and take ever-changing shapes, Ascension decided an assistant pastor was needed to help fill the gaps Pastor Frank could not fill. Remember one person is still just one person even if Pastor is part of their first name. In July 1982, Pastor James Bickel accepted his call to Ascension as Assistant Pastor.
And here let us reflect a moment. We, Ascension, have come from the planting of God’s will into an Army Colonel (Pastor Egloff was a Colonel during the Second World War) in the jungles of Panama, to this man coming with his family following the war, to Waukesha, a place he was not completely familiar with. To him building a church, by hand, before there was even a congregation. To having our first 24 members expand our church beyond the walls of our first structure in the first decade of our existence. To building a new church four times the size of our first and filling this with near a thousand baptized members and needing to add even more space … to having two pastors to serve our congregational needs. All this in the first 40 years. And we still have 30 more years to relate to you in our next article in September.
Scott Tenwinkel
Council member, Ascension’s 70th anniversary team
(Reprinted from the August 2019 newsletter.)
