South Troy church needs $10K to save its steeple

Sep. 5—SOUTH TROY, Minn. — Drive north on U.S. Highway 63 from Rochester, and you're bound to see it.

There, in the unincorporated community of South Troy, is the little white South Troy Wesleyan Church, its steeple reaching toward God. It's a community embracing the building's history while planning for the future.

The church building, which opened in 1882, was a place of worship until 2000. But after a decade of minimal use by Camp Victory, Pastor Colleen Hoeft and her congregation have been renovating and repairing the old church.

"We just need to do our part and let God do the rest," said Hoeft.

The congregation is trying to raise $10,000 to fix the steeple that sits atop the church. They've got a ways to go. An ice cream social held Aug. 26, 2023, raised $700 toward the project.

Every little bit helps, Hoeft said.

Since reopening the church on April 8, 2012, Hoeft said the congregation has repainted, upgraded the septic system, fixed windows, refinished the floors and pews and fixed up the basement. They did all without adding any debt to the church's bottom line.

An addition that includes a large gathering space with a kitchen, restrooms and a nursery did come with a $200,000 loan.

That, Hoeft said, is why she's so determined to raise the money before fixing the steeple.

When the church was run by another denomination in 1994, a wind storm blew the steeple off the building. The job of fixing it was not done well, and now every time it rains, a little water leaks into the church through the ceiling under where the steeple is located.

"And sadly, it's leaked ever since when they, whatever company helped replace it, but definitely didn't do it quite right," Hoeft said. "But it's leaking, and we replace those eight (ceiling) tiles about every couple of years up there."

Hoeft said getting an estimate has been difficult, but basically a contractor told her they'll need to take the steeple down, fix the roof under the steeple, then replace the steeple and make it as water-tight as possible.

There was discussion of just taking down the steeple and putting up a cross, which would cost a lot less, she said.

Denise Steinberg, a member of the congregation, said she saw the benefits of just putting up a cross, but as someone who has worked as an interior designer, she understands how the look of a building can add to its function.

"I always had that vision of the little white church when I was a kid, and now I go to that church," Steinberg said in defense of the steeple.

Hoeft agrees. After all, the steeple is a big part of the small country church she fell in love with.

The church holds an important place in Hoeft's heart, and not just because she's the pastor there today.

In 1980 at the age of 19 and as a single mother, Hoeft said she was looking for a place to worship. The small country church not far from where she grew up in Elgin, Minnesota, called to her.

"So here I was, and they welcomed me and and eventually, over the next few years, I grew and became a believer and eventually met my husband here," Hoeft said. "And we got married here in 1986."

It was a tiny congregation with about a dozen people who came to services on Sundays.

But Hoeft said she loved the feeling of the community. At a larger church, she said she would have felt lost.

"You know, not everybody wants to go to great big church or not everybody wants to go a little one either," Hoeft said. For her, though, the little church is the right fit.

Steinberg said she feels the same. When she was looking for a church to attend in 2017, she had gone to some bigger churches. But eventually, the Zumbro Falls, Minnesota, resident decided the small church about 6 miles from her home was a better fit.

It has history, which she appreciates. The age and design give a feeling you don't get from some of the new churches.

"We just loved the country feel of it, knowing those people were our neighbors," Steinberg said. In the smaller environment, she felt more like a participant and less like a number in the pews on Sunday. "I'm involved far more than I'd ever be at a bigger church. I feel a little God calling to me."

During its decade of dormancy, the regional Wesleyan authorities thought they didn't own the church.

A deal had previously been made to sell the church to Camp Victory, which is just down the road toward Mazeppa. But the paperwork on that deal was never finalized.

In 2010, Hoeft said Camp Victory called the Wesleyan authorities and asked if they wanted to buy back the church. Turns out, the Wesleyans still owned it.

In the meantime, Hoeft had felt a calling to become a pastor and was studying and preparing for the task. When she was ordained in 2012, the district church leaders asked her to take over at South Troy and build a congregation, a church community.

There were only four of them when the church first opened its doors again in 2012. But Hoeft had a calling, and that meant reaching out.

"And then we visited 400 homes, I think we knocked on every door," Hoeft said. "When we first started, we just introduced ourselves."

The little white church will never be confused with a mega church, but that, Hoeft said, doesn't mean the congregation doesn't want to grow.

The first step was getting the water out of the basement — there's a high water table that causes the church's sump pump to run almost continuously — and fixing up the basement. The church hadn't been painted in decades. Someone donated windows. Hoeft calls them her windows from God.

In 2018, the addition — the gathering space with the kitchen — was added so they would not have to hold potluck dinners in the basement anymore.

Hoeft's son and daughter-in-law have done a lot of work, including making some coat racks for the addition, bathroom stalls and refinishing the wooden pews.

Today, the church draws about 30 to 40 people on a Sunday morning, except during the summer when numbers run a little low. There's a second Sunday gathering in the evenings called Celebrate Recovery that focuses on the words of Jesus designed to help people "overcome their hurts, habits, and hangups." That service draws about the same number, though mostly those are different people, Hoeft said.

"We have 14 ZIP codes," Hoeft said. People come from Lake City and Rochester, Plainview and Mazeppa. Zumbro Falls, just up the road, is home to some of her congregation. So is tiny Hammond.

Steinberg said in addition to being a fundraiser, the recent ice cream social served as a way to talk about the church to new people. Some asked about the connection to Laura Ingalls Wilder. One of her kin is buried in the cemetery.

But Steinberg said she made sure to talk about the family focus of the church. There's a youth program that meets regularly. There are Bible study groups.

The church operates a food pantry that, Hoeft said, serves more than 100 families a month on average. They take part in the food backpack program through the schools, making sure kids have something to eat when they are not at school.

"We want everyone to be able to learn together," Steinberg said. "We're all broken. We're trying to find people we can have a community with."