Arends / Nussman

Arends, also, Nussman. . Arends , Johann Gottfried Arends , December 11, 1740-July 9, 1807 , He came here as a teacher in 1773, German church leaders complied with the request from sixty Rowan families carried by Christopher Lyerly and Christopher Rendleman, endorsed by Governor Tryon and King George III for the 3.000 German Protestants in the colony, by commissioning Pastor Nussmann and Arends. their pastoral and educational ministry extended seventy miles east and west. , Arends was ordained at Organ Church in August, 1774 after Nussmann moved to Buffalo Creek. During the sixteen years of his "First Communion Record, 885 names are listed in instructional groups of about twelve girls and eight boys. , In 1775 Arends married Hannah Rudisill and ten years later moved near her Lincoln County home, continuing some work eastward several years. He is called "Father of the Lutheran Church beyond the Catawba River. , Approaching blindness handicapped his later ministry, ending with his 1807 death while some congregations still listed him as pastor, he served over twenty different congregations, nearly all them existing in North Carolina. , In 1803 Arends was elected first president of the synod. he was secretary of an earlier homeland-aided "ministerium" , , Nussman , Adolphus Nussmann , July 12, 1739-November, 1794 , A man of tremendous faith, a scholar with theological insight, a Franciscan Christian with compassion for his fellowman--this Lutheran apostle to North Carolina saw twenty congregations established on the "Most distant border of the civilized world" during the American Revolution and Independence (1773 - 1794). , He was baptized on the day of his birth by the Catholic Church in Munster, Westphalia: was converted to the Lutheran faith from the Franciscan Order: was instructed in Lutheran theology at Göttingen University and chosen by the Consistory of Hanover to answer the call from North Carolina. , He supported the patriots: though tortured by Tories, stayed in North Carolina to proclaim the word of God: saw many members of st. john's, cabarrus county, serve in the American army. , After independence, he enlisted help from the Helmstedt Missionary Society for the North Carolina mission; lived to see five other Lutheran clergymen labor in the Piedmont; sponsored a school for every congregation; was appointed a trustee in 1785 by the general assembly of North Carolina to establish an academy in Salisbury. , With Christlike fortitude he showed the pioneers how to live and how to die.