St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

The Rev. James T. Heckman

Located at 1530 Augsburg Drive & Hilltown Pike Line Lexington, Pa. 18932

Office Phone (215) 822-9108

 

            My first visit to the church was October 30, 2003. My initial interest was to locate the church, take a few pictures, and look at some of the old church records for my own information as well as copy old records for the church. While there The Pastor’s secretary Heidi Strouse, led me to the church library where she presented me with a copy of a book entitled From the Smallest of Seeds, which 260 copies were published by Suzanne Fellman Jacobs in the year 1978. The book is a hard covered book containing 279 pages of well written history of the church as well as many of the baptismal records dating from the early history of the church in 1805. This book contains a variety of very interesting information, including early Lutheran immigration, newspaper articles and Pastor’s writings. This book is a must for people wanting to research the Lutheran families of this church. I believe anyone attending this congregation should also consider contacting the office of the church to purchase a copy if available.

            The original church was located in the older church located about a hundred yards southwest of this newer structure which was built circa 1981. This left the Reformed Church to the old stone edifice, which I will write about at a future date.

            My first glimpse of the church left me somewhat disappointed, lacking the century’s old stone work, the sagging creaking wood doors, covered with layers of paint, steps that are worn in the middle to half of their original thickness and the typical pew that has been stained and varnished seemingly a hundred times.

            This church visit offered something very different than most of my church visits. First and foremost a church where the pastor was present and attending to his duties. He is a new pastor, very pleasant and somewhat jovial. Heidi the secretary (okay she is a cousin) took the time to proudly show me around the complex and introduce me to a number of people busily working on projects during the day. Several hours were spent looking over church records as people continued to trickle in. Although Heidi did introduce me to all, I really wasn’t paying as much attention to the happenings of the day as I should have. I had a job to do and wasn’t wasting much time on the cordial welcomes of the people. At the completion of coping all that I needed Heidi asked if I would like to look into the church, take a few pictures and visit the cemetery. We did all of the above including looking at the rooms in the church. At the completion of my tour and as we were about to part the parking lot, perhaps at 6 p. m. a few more people had stopped to ask my personal guide more questions. She obliged and stopped to answer other questions long after her call of duty. It was then that it dawned on me. This church is better than okay it is great. It is everything we expect a church to be and more than we normally find, yes it is far more than a house of worship, it is a house of the people. Yes, that’s right, caring people, many were just starting their tasks at 6 o’clock at night. Volunteers busy doing whatever they need to do. This then brought me back to my thoughts of the pastor. He seemed to be a very well educated man, handsome, (all right he could lose a couple in the midsection, but couldn’t we all) at some points even a little comical. Congratulations to the members of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Hilltown, you have a fine leader and I am sure the enrollment will increase when the people of your community realize what a treasure the church and staff are.