MONTICELLO - To hear Dorothy Wild tell it, Washington Reformation United Church of Christ has always been the kind of close-knit community where just about everyone is related to each other - and often "both ways."
But like a charred prairie that grows back green and lush the next spring, it took a fire to renew the spirit of this 135-year-old congregation.
A strike of lightning burned the church to a pit of ashes in October 1965, leaving only the steeple bell and a pair of gold-plated vases.
The congregation faced a painful decision: build up from scratch, or fold. Membership had been dwindling, and some questioned why a dying country church should be kept alive.
"That was really a terrible thing to endure," said Wild, who was baptized at Washington Reform in 1925 and married her husband Dallas there in 1945. "There was so much heritage in that church."
A staunch group chose to keep going and constructed a church on the same foundation where Swiss immigrant families built the original in 1876, overlooking rolling hills of farmland from a highpoint between County N, C and J at N6026 Church Road.
"Essentially this church has had two births," said Rev. Mary Gafner, pastor since 1999. The congregants who rallied in the '60s were the "new founders," she added. The church has blossomed ever since and grown in number, especially in the past 10 years. It now claims about 250 members, according to Gafner.
On Sunday when the congregation celebrates Washington Reform's 135th anniversary, evidence of the church's 1967 rebirth will surround churchgoers literally, in the wood beams that meet above the sanctuary, and spiritually, said Gafner, in the united morale of the people.
"That's the characteristic of here: servitude and working together," she said.
She and a long-time member of the church, Emily Wild (related to Dorothy), stood in the narthex on a recent afternoon and pointed out the congregation's handiwork, from the paint job on Gafner's office walls to the stained glass in the sanctuary, a gift commissioned by newlyweds in the mid-1970s.
Throughout the years, they agreed, everyone pitches in to help the church and each other. It's left a lasting impression on the building, Gafner said: "It has a warm feeling. There's a sense of home; there's an aura."
Gafner helped bring back a 4th of July tradition three years started by the original founders in 1876, when the congregation gathered in the half-built church to play music, worship and celebrate Independence Day.
"Everybody brought their instruments," she said. "We thought it would be fun to reinstitute."
Dorothy Wild remembers when some services were held in Swiss-German, when the church had an outhouse and when women sat on one side of the sanctuary, men on the other. She sang in the choir for more than 60 years, she said, finally giving it up when driving to the nighttime rehearsals became difficult.
She's held almost every post in the church, from clerk to Sunday School teacher, and even wrote the chili recipe for Washington Reform's annual Chili Day. For years she cooked it up together with her friend Marjorie Wasserstrass, a fellow church member.
"I've never regretted anything I've done for my church," Wild said.
Still, she said she's glad to let the younger generations take over and happy to see new people join. Her advice for the congregation 50 years from now is to "keep the church going and not give up on it."
In more than 80 years, she's rarely missed a Sunday service.
"When I don't go to church on Sunday, I feel sad. When I don't go to church on Sunday, I don't think it's Sunday."
This Sunday's anniversary celebration service begins at 9:15 a.m. and will honor past confirmation classes and founding members' families. Guest pastor Rev. David Moyer from the Wisconsin Conference United Church of Christ is marking the occasion with a special visit. A potluck follows.
But like a charred prairie that grows back green and lush the next spring, it took a fire to renew the spirit of this 135-year-old congregation.
A strike of lightning burned the church to a pit of ashes in October 1965, leaving only the steeple bell and a pair of gold-plated vases.
The congregation faced a painful decision: build up from scratch, or fold. Membership had been dwindling, and some questioned why a dying country church should be kept alive.
"That was really a terrible thing to endure," said Wild, who was baptized at Washington Reform in 1925 and married her husband Dallas there in 1945. "There was so much heritage in that church."
A staunch group chose to keep going and constructed a church on the same foundation where Swiss immigrant families built the original in 1876, overlooking rolling hills of farmland from a highpoint between County N, C and J at N6026 Church Road.
"Essentially this church has had two births," said Rev. Mary Gafner, pastor since 1999. The congregants who rallied in the '60s were the "new founders," she added. The church has blossomed ever since and grown in number, especially in the past 10 years. It now claims about 250 members, according to Gafner.
On Sunday when the congregation celebrates Washington Reform's 135th anniversary, evidence of the church's 1967 rebirth will surround churchgoers literally, in the wood beams that meet above the sanctuary, and spiritually, said Gafner, in the united morale of the people.
"That's the characteristic of here: servitude and working together," she said.
She and a long-time member of the church, Emily Wild (related to Dorothy), stood in the narthex on a recent afternoon and pointed out the congregation's handiwork, from the paint job on Gafner's office walls to the stained glass in the sanctuary, a gift commissioned by newlyweds in the mid-1970s.
Throughout the years, they agreed, everyone pitches in to help the church and each other. It's left a lasting impression on the building, Gafner said: "It has a warm feeling. There's a sense of home; there's an aura."
Gafner helped bring back a 4th of July tradition three years started by the original founders in 1876, when the congregation gathered in the half-built church to play music, worship and celebrate Independence Day.
"Everybody brought their instruments," she said. "We thought it would be fun to reinstitute."
Dorothy Wild remembers when some services were held in Swiss-German, when the church had an outhouse and when women sat on one side of the sanctuary, men on the other. She sang in the choir for more than 60 years, she said, finally giving it up when driving to the nighttime rehearsals became difficult.
She's held almost every post in the church, from clerk to Sunday School teacher, and even wrote the chili recipe for Washington Reform's annual Chili Day. For years she cooked it up together with her friend Marjorie Wasserstrass, a fellow church member.
"I've never regretted anything I've done for my church," Wild said.
Still, she said she's glad to let the younger generations take over and happy to see new people join. Her advice for the congregation 50 years from now is to "keep the church going and not give up on it."
In more than 80 years, she's rarely missed a Sunday service.
"When I don't go to church on Sunday, I feel sad. When I don't go to church on Sunday, I don't think it's Sunday."
This Sunday's anniversary celebration service begins at 9:15 a.m. and will honor past confirmation classes and founding members' families. Guest pastor Rev. David Moyer from the Wisconsin Conference United Church of Christ is marking the occasion with a special visit. A potluck follows.