Church started in hotel turns 50 years old

(Photo contributed) This tiny church, with a 45-person capacity, was purchased by the Le Mars Church of Christ in 1959 for worship. Since then they've built a new church, moved it and expanded it. The Le Mars Church of Christ is celebrating 50 years this weekend with a special service at 2 p.m. Sunday. [Click to enlarge]

A church that started meeting in a hotel with only 11 people celebrates its 50th anniversary this weekend.

The Le Mars Church of Christ is celebrating 50 years of God's blessing this Sunday with a special service at 2 p.m., according to Pastor Casey Kleeman.

The Le Mars community is welcome to attend.

The church's story began in 1959, when Kendall Talbott returned from Minnesota Bible College to start the Le Mars Church of Christ.

For the first church service, 11 people gathered in the old Union Hotel, which was located where Route 3 Tire is today.

Two years later, the church purchased a small sanctuary near Highway 75 in southern Le Mars. It was 14 feet by 20 feet, had room for 45 people and cost $1,250.

Soon work began on building a larger church for the growing congregation. The new building was dedicated in 1962, according to Norma Martfeld, who has been a member of the church since it was founded in 1959.

Martfeld remembers the day in 1988 that 1962 church building was moved across town to its current location at 1333 Adler Drive which offered better parking.

"That was quite a day," she said.

The church has met in several buildings, but according to Martfeld, the strength of the church has always been the people.

"We help each other, and not just ourselves. We try to help the community as best we can," Martfeld said. "We work and have fun, too."

One of the church's newest ministries is Trunk-or-Treat, which gives kids a safe alternative to Halloween trick-or-treating by letting them go car to car in the church's parking lot to pick up candy and prizes. Then families can join in for a bonfire, s'mores and more.

Martfeld thanked the elders, deacons and trustees of the church for their leadership.

"That's why we're still going," she said.

Today the church has between 80 and 100 members, Kleeman said.

"One thing Kendall Talbott often stated to the 1959 congregation was 'let us never lose our passion for winning people to God,'" Kleeman said. "We want to recapture that passion.... Our desire is to rekindle a vision for why we exist and to celebrate God's beautiful work, here in Le Mars."

Along with Martfeld, who started going to Le Mars Church of Christ in 1959 with her sister, DeeAnna Mason, of Le Mars, many other members have been attending for decades.

"We want to honor those who have faithfully served God over the last 50 years," Kleeman said." Friends and family have come and gone, but the work that God desires for us is never finished."

As for Martfeld, she's not sure if she'll be around for the next 50 years of the church, but she'll keep showing up.

"I will as long as I can," she said with a chuckle.

Kleeman invited the public to join in the church's special celebration Sunday.

Seven former ministers and their wives will attend.

"We look back through the last 50 years to identify God's handiwork," he said. "When we identify where we have been, only then can we start to look forward to the next 50 years."