Saint Louis Lutheran City Mission (1898-1974)

Organization

Staff Only

Dates

Existence: 1898 - 2019
Usage: 1967 - 2006

Biography

Summary from circa 1965.

Sixty years ago a number of Lutherans in Saint Louis became aware of emergency requests from hospitals for pastors to visit patients. Busy pastors were not always available when a sick or dying patient at some institution wanted a minister's services. Some pastors were not sure that it was their responsibility to visit the social "outcasts" - criminals in prison, the insane, and even the poor.

In 1898 a group of concerned laymen and pastors met to discuss the possibility of employing a pastor to serve as minister to persons in Saint Louis institutions. Eventually they called the Rev. Frederick Herzberger, Lutheran pastor in Arkansas, to come to our city and create a special ministry to sick, confined or deprived persons who could not reach the local churches. In 1899 Pastor Herzberger was installed as the first "City Missionary" of the Lutheran City Mission.

Eventually "City Missions" was renamed "The Lutheran Mission Association," indicating that an association of some 45 Lutheran congregations had supported the work of LMA financially and in other ways.

Two chapels in inner city locations were operated for many years, somewhat as "store-front" mission stations, and even as schools for Christian education.

In the fall of 1965 the LMA Board began an intensive self-study.