South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1921-08-30
MINISTER TAKES
CHURCH INVENTORY
Rev. Koehnemann Cites Pas
tors and Laymen Who Have
Aided in Progress.

/ Rev. Fred II. Koehnemann, pastor
OF he Emmanuel German Methodist
church, took an inventory OF the
church and laymen in his sermon
Sunday morning, dealing with the
relationship between the pastor and
I the congregation The minister
gave much credit 10 pastors who
preceded him and 20 those mem bers
I whose names are linked with the
/ progress and development of the I'm
manuel church.
He said in part:
The organization OF most church
es Of the present-day type consists
( in the main Of two factors-the min
lister and the congregation. The sue
/ cess OF their mutual labors depends
largely upon a proper understanding
and helpful cooperation. No two
pastors are alike, no two congrega-
tons are exactly Identical. Every
\ pastor has some predominant ting abil-
ity-one may excel in oratory, an
other in organizing. another in evan
gehstic. and still another in other
lines. In like manner the collect
! i've talents Of the individual congre-
/ cations are varied. Happy is that
church where the natural abilities
I OF both pastor and congregation
complement each other. l am speak
/ ing now Of churches where the laity
take a prominent part in the every
day affairs Of the congregation.
/ Emmanuel church, entering upon
its fifueth anniversary. has been
| ably served in that space Of time by
a great many pastors. Many Of you
will recall the names of p. Wacker,
/ +. Werth, J. Berger, William Keller.
William Wilke, William Haas b
Becker A. c. Eeyser, c. T. Mort,
I T. r. Klenzky, II. c. Apfelbach, +.
/ c. Gruetzmacher, X. Keck, II. Kar-
nopp, A. H. Finger, ]. D. Meyn, J..
Schott and II. F. Mueller. To use
/ the words Of st. Paul, some Of these
men planted, some watered, some
cultivated and some reaped, but
after all, God gave the increase.
Some of these men inspired you by
their oratory, some fired your hearts
with missionary zeal, some of them
were what we term, in German,
/ 'Volksmaenner,' or in English, good
mixers. They were able 20 enter
/ into the life of those with whom they
came in contact.
But, nevertheless, the work Of
the pastors cannot be mentioned
without weaving into the fabric Of
these earlier efforts, the names of ut
least some of an ever faithful laity.
The history of Emmanuel church
would be only partially complete If
| it omitted the names Of such out
standing laymen as Conrad Liphart,
/ A. Nippold, both of the earlier peri
cd, and George Hess and George
Koenig. of later years. These men
have passed away. In addition to
these many Of the city's prominent
business men were at one time or
another active in the ranks of I'M
manuel church.
This church looks back TO a gIo-
rious past Many of her sons and
daughters are now enrolled in the
ranks Of the purely English speaking
Methodist churches. While remain
ding true to her mission among the
German speaking people, she unself-
ishly gave her Americanized youth Il
the mother church. Emmanuel
church was a vital Americanization
factor, long before the present
Americanization program was ever
thought of. And this, by the way,
no group Of the so-called foreign
citizens assimilates the American
language and imbibes American
| ideals more readily, than do rhe
younger generations of the German
American people. OF late this church
| has adopted a two language program
and the gospel is proclaimed in both
the American and German tongue
every Sabbath day"