Corner of Fairfield and Pettit
Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church has stood on the corner of Fairfield and Pettit on the south side of Fort Wayne, Indiana, for nearly eighty years. The parish was formally organized on January 27, 1946, with 104 baptized members, all of whom had previously worshipped together under the broad tent of a Sears Pavilion service at Foster Park on Thanksgiving weekend in 1945. Today, Peace belongs to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and continues to do what those original families intended: proclaim the peace of Jesus Christ through Word and Sacrament, and open its doors to the neighborhood around it.
Few neighborhood congregations include a working public cafe, a licensed preschool, a fitness studio, and a network of parish schools under one campus. Peace is best known for exactly that combination, and for the steady stream of programs that grow out of it.
Sunday Worship, Wednesday Worship, and the Education Hour
The Sunday schedule centers on a 9:00 a.m. Divine Service with Holy Communion offered every week. Fellowship in the Sharing Peace Cafe follows at 10:00 a.m., and the Education Hour at 10:30 a.m. fills the rest of the morning with three parallel offerings: an Adult Bible Class led by Pastor Spira in the Cafe Conference Room, Cross Trainers Sunday School for children in kindergarten through fifth grade in the Puppy Room of the preschool wing, and a youth Bible study for grades six through twelve in the cafe itself. Cross Talk, the senior high youth ministry, meets separately on Tuesdays from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the cafe.
A second weekly worship service is held on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 p.m. for those whose week makes Sunday mornings difficult. Communion is celebrated at this service as well. The building's roots reach back to a combined chapel and classroom wing dedicated in 1949, with the larger sanctuary and its stained glass - fabricated locally by City Glass Specialty of Fort Wayne - added in 1963. Music from a Tellers pipe organ and the Parish Choir continues to fill those walls.
First-time visitors can enter through Door #1, the narthex closest to Woodhurst Boulevard. The worship style is classic Missouri Synod liturgy: hymn, confession and absolution, Scripture readings, creed, confession of faith, prayer, sermon, and the Sacrament of the Altar.
Sharing Peace Cafe
Downstairs from the sanctuary, the Sharing Peace Cafe is Peace Lutheran's signature outreach to the neighborhood and the feature that sets the building apart. Open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and Sunday mornings from 8:30 to 11:00 a.m., the cafe serves Utopian coffee, flavored teas, lattes, frappes, smoothies, homemade baked goods, snacks, juice, and soda. Patrons can sit inside or on an outdoor patio beneath a pergola, use the free Wi-Fi, borrow books from a free lending library, play shuffleboard or one of several board games, and watch the Sunday 9:00 a.m. service on an in-house TV.
The cafe's stated mission is to create a safe, Christian environment for neighbors, preschool families, and elementary school families to enjoy fellowship over a cup of coffee or tea. Trisha Niemann manages the cafe and can be reached at 260-458-9382 or cafeministry@peacelutheranfw.org. The cafe keeps its own social feed at @sharingpeacecafe and hosts the senior high youth group on Tuesday evenings.
Children, Youth, and Preschool
Faith formation at Peace begins early. Peace Pre-School, directed by Katrina Marcum, serves three- to five-year-olds in the church's lower level and is open to children from the congregation and the wider community. The preschool's mission is to reach out with the Gospel and the love of Jesus to young children and families by providing excellence in early childhood education.
On Sunday mornings during the Education Hour, Cross Trainers gathers children ages four through fifth grade in the Puppy Room for a Sunday school hour that runs with the school year and pauses in the summer. Junior and senior high students meet with Rose Murphy at the same hour in the cafe, and Cross Talk offers an additional Tuesday evening gathering for high schoolers. The aim of these groups, the church explains, is that no one remains a stranger for long at Peace.
WinGS, Men at Peace, and the Parish Choir
Women in the congregation are automatically members of WinGS - Women in God's Service - and participate at no cost. The guild organizes around five targets: spiritual growth, fellowship, human care, mission work and awareness, and service. Activities include Bible study, mentoring, meals for those with special needs, and mission support through the LWML, Comfort Knotters, and other partners.
Men at Peace meets on the third Saturday of each month at 9:00 a.m. in the Cafe Conference Room for coffee, devotion, fellowship, and an occasional group project.
The Parish Choir rehearses on Thursdays from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. September through May under choir director Gary Gerke, with Krista Koch at the organ, Tammy Schaaf at the piano, and Makenna Landrey accompanying the choir. The choir does not meet during the summer. New voices are openly welcomed.
Parish Wellness
The Peace Parish Health and Wellness Committee promotes the health of members and neighbors through Christ-centered care that embraces body, mind, and spirit. The Sharing Peace Wellness Room, located downstairs next to the cafe, hosts a $5 walk-in fitness schedule: Cardio Tone on Mondays at 5:00 p.m. and Thursdays at 6:00 p.m., Chair Yoga on Mondays and Fridays at 11:00 a.m., and Zumba on Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. Cash is collected at the door.
A parish nurse is available for health questions, and free blood pressure screenings are offered in the church lounge thirty minutes before and after the second Wednesday midweek service and the third Sunday service each month. Mental and behavioral health resources are listed through LookUp Indiana.
Lutheran Schools on the South Side
Peace Lutheran has been a founding member of Lutheran schools on Fort Wayne's south side for generations. The current network began with a daughter parochial school in 1948 and grew through several reorganizations, the most recent in 2009, when Peace, Bethlehem, Mount Calvary, and Historic Zion entered into the Lutheran South Association and renamed the inter-parish school Lutheran South Unity School (K-8). Many classes meet on the Calhoun Street campus near Peace.
Congregation families also send students to Concordia Lutheran High School in Fort Wayne, and many Peace adults prepared for ministry through Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne. Together, the schools offer a continuous Lutheran education from preschool through seminary on the south side.
Cross Connections Counseling
Peace partners with Cross Connections, a Christ-centered counseling and training center that provides affordable professional counseling and equips lay counselors - called Covenant Partners - to offer biblical guidance to others. All Cross Connections clients are referred by their own pastor, and Covenant Partners serve after eighteen months of training under professional supervision. Members of Peace who are interested can contact the church office to begin a referral.
What We Believe
Peace holds to the historic Christian faith as confessed by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The congregation teaches that God is one being in three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that Jesus is true God and true man; that God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for our sin, that whoever believes in Him might have the forgiveness of all sin and the gift of eternal life; that the Holy Spirit delivers these gifts through the means of grace, namely God's Holy Word and His Sacraments; that the Bible is the Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit, without error, and completely trustworthy for all of life; and that the two sacraments instituted by Christ are Holy Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar, in which communicants receive the true body and blood of Jesus Christ in, with, and under the bread and wine for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of faith.
The church's mission is to reach the lost and to provide for the spiritual growth and nurture of the family of believers through the education and ministry of Word and Sacraments.
The Story of Peace
South-side families had been meeting since the early 1920s at the branch parochial school run by Emmaus Lutheran Church on Lexington Street, with a long-held wish to start a daughter congregation closer to home. When that branch school closed, the proceeds from the sale were earmarked for a new congregation south of Pettit Avenue. In June 1945, builder John Worthman and Nellie Wood arranged the sale of three acres at the corner of Fairfield and Pettit to the forming group for one hundred dollars. The first worship service was held on November 25, 1945, at the Sears Pavilion in Foster Park, with subsequent services led by retired pastor W. C. Meinzen at the Jefferson Community Center.
The Rev. Edgar H. Albers became Peace's first full-time pastor in September 1946, oversaw the construction of the original chapel-classroom building designed by Milwaukee architect Hugh Haeuser, and welcomed the first eight-grade parochial school class in 1948. The Rev. Hartwig M. Schwehn succeeded him in 1956 and led the congregation through the construction of the larger sanctuary and a Tellers organ, both dedicated in 1963. The Rev. Luther Strasen served for twenty-eight years beginning in 1968 and helped build the inter-parish Unity school. Pastor James R. Teasdale followed and initiated a ministry to the growing Hispanic community. The Rev. Galen Drawbaugh served an intentional interim beginning in 2006. The Rev. Paul J. Spira was ordained and installed on July 13, 2008. Kevin Mann now serves as pastor.
Into the present, Peace continues to proclaim the Gospel on the corner of Fairfield and Pettit, hoping to be a steady, welcoming neighbor for the families of Fort Wayne's south side.