Our Church History
St. Peter Lutheran Church was founded in 1882 by a group of believers who met in the home of Anna and Jakob Lenburg. It was one of the first churches founded in what is now Portage.
The numbers grew and two church buildings were erected by the congregation, a log-cabin style in 1895, followed by a clap-board building across the street in 1905. St. Peter Lutheran Church joined the Missouri Synod in June 1949. In 1969, the congregation moved to the present location on Central Avenue and Mission Street. September 8, 2002, marked the beginning of two different services offered to the congregation. The early service was a praise worship service with a Praise Team of singers and instruments, and the late service remained the traditional service with the liturgy and hymns played on the organ.
In 2008, the addition that had been discussed so many times over the years was finally completed with a large and welcoming narthex, dedicated Sunday School rooms and Youth Room, new offices for the pastor and secretary, and lots of storage. In 2022 we were blessed to be able to fix our parking lot, making our comings and goings much safer and quite a bit prettier, too!
St. Peter has an active Ladies Guild/LWML. At various times we have had active
Sunday School and Youth Groups, choirs, Bible studies, Fellowship Groups. We continued to support the Portage Food Pantry and Portage Christian Resale Shop, as well as other community ministries.
Throughout the years, we have been blessed so richly by God Who has saved us and invited us to be part of His family. As willing workers in His harvest, we follow our mission statement both at church and in the community: Sharing God’s Love with Heart and Hands.