After more than a century, St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Benton Harbor is closing.
Church officials announced late last year that the church will merge with Benton Harbor’s Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and become the Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church. Both Churches will hold their last service January 29th.
The combined congregation will use the current Good Shepherd church at 1965 Broadway in Benton Harbor as its home. Nathan Buch, who has pastored at both St. Matthew’s and Good Shepherd for the past year and a half, and will continue as pastor of Beautiful Savior.
“Many families have roots at St. Matthew’s, but their children have moved to other parts of the area, other cities and states,” Buch said. “Many of those extended families, children and grandchildren can be found in the other WELS Lutheran congregations in the area. This left St. Matthew’s with an aging membership that simply could not accomplish the many tasks of ministry effectively. When the discussions occurred with the congregation and the leadership, it was felt that the two congregations would be in a much better position to reach out to the community with the Gospel as one congregation, rather than two separate ones.”
The opening service of Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church will take place at Sunday, February, 19th.
See the full story at Moody on the Market.
Renovations at Good Shepherd
(Photos via St. Matthew’s Facebook)
