Mission Church

Mission Church. . Following the end of World War II, returning veterans fueled a demand for housing that led to a surge of growth in Sioux Falls' East Side. In 1953 the national Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and First Lutheran Church of Sioux Falls partnered to cosponsor a mission church in Hilltop, a rapidly expanding residential neighborhood. Tabbert Construction Company donated this site and contracted to build the new building., The name Grace Lutheran was chosen for the future church as a memorial to one of the two churches that had merged in 1920 to become First Lutheran., When the Reverend Arvid Bidne was called in 1955 to be pastor of the mission church, neither a building, nor a parsonage, nor a congregation existed. During the year, a groundbreaking service was held for the church building and work began on the parsonage., On Sunday, October 30, a joyful gathering of 350 worshipers celebrated the first service to be held in the new church. Five months later on February 8, 1956, seventy families officially organized the Grace Lutheran congregation.