Amazing Grace: Congregation finds community in church wreckage

By JT Cestkowski

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    ARGYLE, Wisconsin (WKOW) — Apple Grove Lutheran’s congregation began its Sunday worship by singing Amazing Grace. The rendition resonated in a way possible only when delivered by that choir in that moment.

More than 100 congregants lent their voices to the hymn, standing and sitting in their church’s rubble.

A suspected tornado leveled the church the night before.

“They say you should always have a strong foundation in Christ and, as you can see, the one thing that’s left is the foundation,” Remington Stittleburg said. He and his wife, Shauna, were married in the church two weeks ago. They were the last in a long history of weddings, baptisms, confirmations and funerals dating back to 1893.

Their wedding photographs may be the last images taken of the church while it stood.

The next marriage ceremony is scheduled for October. The church’s pastor, Dan Bohlman, said the couple has decided to hold the event outdoors like Sunday’s service.

Bohlman told the gathered crowd that they should focus on healing rather than worry about what the future holds.

“We’re hurting and we’re grieving,” Bohlman said. “Today is, we’re just going to take care of ourselves, and down the line we can wrestle with questions and answers. But for today, we just rest.”

After the service, the congregants dug through the splintered timber to find their most cherished artifacts: century old photographs, fragments of stained glass and the steeple bell.

Shuana collected her own pieces of the church as mementos from the more than 20 years she spent attending Apple Grove.

“I was confirmed here,” she said. “All my siblings were confirmed here. My youngest siblings were baptized here. There’s just a lot of memories at this church.”

While many teared up before, during and after the service, Shauna remained comforted by looking to the others who had gathered.

“God isn’t just a building,” Shauna said. “God is–it’s people.”

Church President Mike Flanagan echoed the sentiment when asked what comes next for the congregation.

“We know that we have that firm foundation of hope here at this church,” Flanagan said. “And that hope will endure forever.”

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