South Blue Earth Lutheran Church is well known for its large array of windows in the front of the church.

On Sunday, Oct. 27, South Blue Earth Lutheran Church of rural Bricelyn celebrated its last official worship service.

The congregation constructed its first church in 1871. Nineteen years later the members of the church built a larger church which still stands today.

It was remodeled over the years including the addition of a new entry on the south side of the church which features a large array of windows.

The congregation had been in a tri-parish the last few years with the congregations of United Lutheran Church in Frost and Bethany Lutheran, which is located south of Frost.

The members of South Blue Earth Lutheran Church are not alone in making the decision to stop holding regular services.

An article in The Guardian explained that many congregations simply do not have enough young people to continue the congregation for the next generation.

According to an article written by Scott Neuman for NPR, a survey taken in 2020 found that the average congregation size across Christian demonimations is less that half what it was in 2000.

The article goes on to say that in 2019, the year before the pandemic, more churches closed than opened.

“We’re going to see thousands of churches closing in America over the next 20 or 30 years in every part of the country, in every region and every state, urban, suburban and rural,” Ryan Burge, a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University, is quoted in the article.

Declining populations and a shortage of ordained ministers have led many congregations to combine with one or more other churches in order to keep their doors open.

Pastor Aaron Evenson served all three churches in the tri-parish. Evenson conducted two worship services every Sunday morning. One would be in Frost at United Lutheran Church. The other service would rotate between South Blue Earth and Bethany on a month-by-month basis.