Story posted Thursday, January 21, 2010
Faith 50 Years Strong At Christus Victor
By TOM ROBB Journal & Topics Reporter
Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Elk Grove Village is celebrating its 50th anniversary with events throughout the year with a kick-off event later this month.
The official anniversary will be celebrated during a joint worship service on Sunday, Nov. 7 when long-time former pastor Rev. Roger Schindel will return to the church to take part in the service. Rev. Schindel was the church's longest serving pastor in Elk Grove from 1975 to 2005.
In February 1959, Rev. Charles Fischer was given orders by the Lutheran Church's American Board of Missions to start a church in Elk Grove Village. He arrived in March and promptly started knocking on doors looking for Lutherans.
One of the first doors he knocked on was that of Darlene Greaves who had been a member of a Lutheran church in Evanston before moving to Elk Grove Village. Greaves signed the original charter for the church on June 5, 1962 along with 95 others and remains an active member of the church to this day.
The church currently holds three weekly services with between 250 and 300 people in attendance each week.
Greaves spoke to the Journal this week recalling how the church was formed.
Rev. Fischer and other charter members held their first worship service at Ridge School on May 1, 1959 but were only there a few weeks before finding a home of their own. By the end of May 1959, church officials found a new home in a two-story 10-room farmhouse on Arlington Hts. Road between Devon Avenue and Biesterfield Road across the street from the church's current location.
Greaves recalled that on the positive side of things, the farmhouse was large enough for worship services, Sunday school classes and a host of other activities, but on the downside, the building had no heat and parishioners' cars would get stuck in the snow in winter, unable to get traction on a small gravel road leading to the church.
Needing a real building the church community began a fundraising drive in early 1962. In October of that year, ground was broken on the new church site across the street from the farmhouse on Arlington Hts. Road and the first service was held in the new heated facility in March 1963.
The building has had four major renovations since, the latest a new sanctuary built about 10-years ago.
The church has events scheduled throughout the year open to the entire community to commemorate the 50th anniversary. On Valentine's Day, Sunday, Feb. 14, the church will host a special service after regular Sunday worship where couples can renew their wedding vows. On Sunday, Mar. 13 the church will host a chili bake off. In May the church's nine music groups that include a bell ringing group, children's and adult choirs and a symphony orchestra will perform a large joint concert.
Look for a church float in the annual village parade and an ice cream social later in the summer. The fall will see an antique and classic car show and road rally in September and October leading up to the anniversary service on Sunday, Nov. 7.
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