Messiah Lutheran Church Information

Messiah is the outgrowth of a vision by Pastor Eldor Bickel of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Lansing, Michigan who saw a need for a church to serve the Dimondale-Potterville area. It bagan as a preaching station with 16 attending the first service on November 5, 1978, at the Greater Lansing Auto Auction in Dimondale. In the spring of 1979, the service location was changed to the Windsor Estates Mobile Home Club House. The congregation incorporated offically on July 15, 1979, calling the Reverend Terry E. Hoese to serve as pastor to the 44 charter member families. Today five of these charter member families remain as active members of Messiah Lutheran Church. In June of 1980, as we grew, it was necessary to move to larger quarters at the Dimondale Elementary School. By early 1981, it became apparent that the congregation's nucleus was changing from Dimondale-Potterville to the Holt-Dimondale-South Lansing area and our current site of worship in Holt (Delhi Charter Township) was purchased. Worship services were moved to Holt Junior High School in January of 1982. The groundbreaking for Messiah Lutheran Church was April 1983. It was dedicated on Octorber 23, 1983. The Good Shepherd room was added to the church facility and dedicated on August 7, 1988. Messiah's second Pastor, the Reverend Dr. Andrew E. Northrop was installed on April 5, 1992. On November 27, 1994 our third Pastor, the Reverend John A. Schinkel was installed. Since its beginning in 1979, Messiah has grown from a small group of believers who worshipped in an auto auction shop to a congregation of over 400 souls. Expansion plans were finalized in 2000. During the Spring of 2000, the Sanctuary was remodeled. Stone was added behind the altar area, new chairs were purchased, lighting was enhanced and the Sanctuary was painted. Three beautiful stained glass windows were installed in the Sanctuary and dedicated on October 29, 2000. The groundbreaking for the Family Life Center was March 25, 2001. It was dedicated on December 4, 2001. The new kitchen, gymnasium and classrooms enabled us to open the Messiah Child Development Center for day-care, before/after-school care and pre-school. Rev. Stephen D. Grafe was installed as Messiah's fourth Pastor on June 29, 2008. He graduated from Ft. Wayne's Concordia Theological Seminary in 2003 and served as Associate Pastor at Cross of Christ, Bloomfied Hills, MI before accepting our call. Pastor Grafe served Messiah for five and one-half years. Rev. Thomas W. Vanderbilt was installed as Messiah's fifth Pastor on January 25, 2015. He graduated from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri in 1997 and served as Pastor at Ascension Lutheran Church, Madison, Tennessee before accepting our call.