My father-in-law used to love driving. Whether it was to the corner convenience store for a cup of coffee and a newspaper or to an out-of-the-…

A year into his role as Komstad Covenant Church pastor, Dan Davey’s focus is relationships. Confirmation classes and an adult Bible study bring people together, he said, and he’s also working to make connections outside the walls of the rural church southwest of Beresford, South Dakota.

The story passed among congregation members today is that there was a horse race to Yankton with the first one there able to lay claim to the name Zion Lutheran Church. The southern congregation had the faster horse.

Rural church fosters relationships to build following of young families

Central to the church’s mission has always been sharing God’s word and creating a welcoming community. And farmers have always been at the core of the small church’s membership, even in its leadership.

It's a remote church in cattle country, but young families keep it active and growing

“We know each other, we pray for each other, and we care about each other.”

There was plenty to deter early settlers along the Minnesota River valley in Nicolette County – from crop losses and scarlet fever to tensions…

The Covey Church in northwest Iowa hasn’t held weekly church services since 1959, but the 140-year-old building and small cemetery remain as l…

Camaraderie and community support make Union Creek Lutheran Church what it is. It’s been that way for 150 years.

Churchgoers at Preston Christian Church are used to sitting in chairs that overflow into the fellowship hall, but they will have new accommoda…

“You get the sense that the church is not just about me today, it’s people who have been there a long time ago.” 

From atop a hill 11 miles due south of Beresford, South Dakota, Roseni Lutheran Church is a monument to history, dating back to the Norwegian …

A church with Swedish heritage sits just off a curving county road, overlooking one of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes.

The ties between the two Cottonwood County churches go back to 1869. That’s when people of Norwegian descent began to hold services in homes along Highwater and Dutch Charlie creeks.

A block off of Main Street sits one of Groton, South Dakota’s oldest buildings, the first church built after the city was founded in 1881.

The members of Templeton United Church of Christ like being together. That’s evident in the way they laugh as they share memories about growing up in the small rural church that sits between farm fields west of Wessington Springs, South Dakota.

Sitting on the countryside of eastern Kingsbury County, South Dakota, the Lake Whitewood Church looks much the same as it did in photographs from its 1906 dedication. The landscape, however, changed significantly in just the last year.

Having come – through wind storms, economic hardships, world wars and declining rural populations – members are preparing to celebrate 140 years of history at Storla Lutheran Church this summer.

St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church looks like many white clapboard churches from the late 1800s. But in front of the modest rows of wooden pews rises the of glimmering gold and painted green pipes that stretch to the ceiling from the wooden base of the 115-year-old pipe organ.

The older generation at Bergen Lutheran Church in rural Day County, South Dakota, has fond memories of participating in national gatherings of…

A stately and sturdy church sits on the edge of the northeastern South Dakota town of Strandburg. Red brick stretches to the ornate bell tower. But what’s really spectacular is the smell wafting from the church basement.

Sitting around a table with coffee and donuts in the church basement, lifelong members and church officers shared some of the most memorable times from growing up in the church.

The small town of Onaka, South Dakota, in northwestern Faulk County has faded to about a dozen houses, a tiny post office and a bar that’s open three days a week. The town’s only surviving church, St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, will hold its last service June 13. 

German ancestry is strong in the Bialas family and in the Immanuel Lutheran congregation. The family spoke only German at home when Lawrence was young. He didn’t know English when he started grade school. “It was tough, I tell you,” he said.

One rural church in northeastern South Dakota is encouraging people to stop and stay awhile, so that they might experience the special way these small, clapboard buildings connect us with the past--and perhaps even gain a little insight as to why volunteers pour so many hours into preserving them.

For a small church with just 36 official members, Zion Lutheran in rural Deuel County, South Dakota, has a more active Sunday school program than some, and Pastor Krause has performed five baptisms at Zion in the last five years. “That’s what’s different about this congregation,” he said. “The next generation is not moving away.”

It’s a small clapboard country church with simple furnishings, but the music is heavenly. The members of Kellerton United Methodist Church of rural Hazel, South Dakota, find great joy in the music that accompanies Sunday services. “We may not have a lot of people in church, but it’s full of music,” said lifelong member June James.

This summer, members a country church between Hartford and Wall Lake in southeastern South Dakota will celebrate 140 years as a congregation.

Instead of a grand celebration for its 150th anniversary, Lake Campbell Lutheran Church near Volga, South Dakota, commemorated the milestone by ringing the church bell 150 times on June 13, the date in 1870 when the church was founded.

Last Christmas, Merlin Boese shared something special with the children in his church, the Friedensberg Bible Church south of Avon, South Dakota.

When you pour a cup of coffee at Sun Prairie Baptist Church, the aroma hits you with a rich roastiness and you know there’s something differen…

Mission Sunday has always been a special time at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, located on the edge of the town of Henry west of Watertown, South…

A church can feel like home, and for Jaimie Odde, it was a cure for homesickness. 

If not for the square, white bell tower, the historic building southwest of Milbank, South Dakota, would look like a settler’s cabin.

A small church in the northern reaches of South Dakota is looking toward the future.

Now in its fifth year running, Prayers on the Prairie is a winter feature that highlights rural churches across our coverage area. 

The rocks made for a sturdy foundation at St. John Lutheran Church, and the walls were made of four layers of brick. The solid construction helped the church withstand a devastating tornado that wiped out the parsonage and leveled many farmsteads in the area May 21, 1962.

After a snowy winter, members of Goodhue Lutheran Church are ready to hear the Easter message of hope and renewal.

For nearly 95 years, Trinity Lutheran Church outside of Oldham, South Dakota, has held just one service a year, on Memorial Day.

Christmas is a time when Big Springs Baptist Church dives into its history.

There’s a tiny country church in the sparsely populated hills north of Murdo, South Dakota, where the only sounds that break the silence are t…

There was a time when low attendance and dwindling funds pointed to the end of the rural Dawson Covenant Church in southwestern Minnesota, but…

Benton Lutheran Church sits on a hill west of Crooks, South Dakota, as a white, steepled beacon.

Phil Gunderson and Lloyd Sorlien remember when their church was just a pile of field rocks. Now it’s a uniquely constructed stone church tucke…

When Emily Wehde sits in the pews of Swedona Evangelical Covenant Church each Sunday, she’s in the place four generations before her have foun…

Inside the walls of the 128-year-old Lake Madison Lutheran church are books older than the building itself. They keep records of its members g…

Behind the wooden pews of Zoar Lutheran Church near Revillo, South Dakota, mismatched chairs surround a large table.

Bible school at New Hope Lutheran near Hayti, in eastern South Dakota brought out some special traditions.

Polish settlers who came to the Dakota Territory in the 1880s practiced their faith in homes and saw a visiting priest once a month. Today, the congregation of St. Joseph Catholic Church is back to meeting montly, but members find ways to foster a community they've been a part of for generations.