freedom 5

This church in Minnesota is almost an identical twin to Trinity Drayton.

I started down this path because I had found the statement that there are almost as many ideas about what “missions” are as there are people involved.  Then I noticed the similarity in the churches that came out of the great missionary push from the Missouri Synod to the Dakota Territory and the way many of the churches looked.  Got this email..

“I just read your blog about the similarity of the churches and thought I would mention that the same thing was going on in the 60’s . . . All  Nations Lutheran in Rock Lake and the church in Niagara look very similar and I know I have been somewhere else that had the same “look.”  I remember thinking that there must have been an architect that was “the one” at that time.”

Now that triggered a memory too. All Nations Rock Lake, St. Andrews in Niagara, St. Johns in Hillsboro all look alike and I think they were built by a guy named “Shanerock” or something like that.  He used field stone for the back of the sanctuary.  I remember during bad sermons looking at the figures that could be made out in the stones.  I found a shepherd and a sheep at Niagara.

If anyone can help with the name of the builder and if there are any Shanerock churches on the Minnesota side let me know.

We will think about the different mission ideas tomorrow.