06/08/2026
129 years ago, 19 people started something that is still here.
On January 16, 1897, the Bethlehem congregation in Lund (now a part of Elgin)was established with nineteen adults and twenty children — on the Texas prairie, in a small farming community built by people who had crossed an ocean to start over.
The congregation was given land by P. V. Nelson, Nels Ankarstolpe, and J. E. Rivers, and an additional acre was set aside for a community graveyard. They did not just show up. They gave the ground itself.
Two brothers, Carl and Fred Bergman, wrote letters to their sisters in Sweden from their home at Lund. In a letter dated January 23, 1896, they stated, "West of us there live nothing but Swedes for a distance of about sixteen miles." They came from one world and were building another. They were strangers in a new land, and this church was where they found their people.
Through two World Wars, the Great Depression, and decades of change in rural Texas, the congregation held.
Then on April 7, 1980, a tornado came through Lund. The Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Lund was lifted from its foundation and had to be demolished. The building was gone. The congregation was not. A large brick structure with a bell tower was built to replace the historic church.
That building is still standing. That congregation is still worshipping.
Maybe you are an immigrant, or the child of immigrants, just like the people who built this place. Maybe you are new to Central Texas and looking for a place to put down roots. Maybe you have been away from church for a while and are not sure where you belong anymore. Maybe you are just looking for a spiritual home and a family to belong to.
This is that place. It always has been.
We still look like church. We still sound like church. We still believe like church. We still worship like church. And we have been doing it on this ground since 1897.
This Sunday, June 14, at 9:00 AM — come and see.
📍 17900 Lund Carlson Rd, Elgin, TX 78621
www.lundchurch.com
