In 1968, St. Michael Lutheran Church was formed by the merger of New St. Peter Lutheran Church and St. Mark Lutheran Church. The newly formed congregation decided to build on a site which was the home of the first Lutheran Church west of the Alleghany Mountains in Virginia in the late 1700’s. The previous congregation on the site, which was known at various times as St. Michael and St. Peter, closed in 1885 and despite the fact that there is a historic cemetery on the property, the land remained vacant until construction began for the new congregation. Drawing on the history of the site, the newly formed congregation chose the name St. Michael Lutheran Church.
In the years since the formation of the congregation, St. Michael has lived out this calling through expanded worship opportunities, through new facilities and through community partnerships which help people in need. When the congregation formed, its ministry was supported by a sanctuary and small support building. Today, the fellowship hall and classroom addition provide additional space which allows St. Michael to offer two Mother’s Morning Out programs and provide meeting rooms to community groups. When the congregation was formed, it provided meals to families who were grieving or dealing with illness. Today, St. Michael partners with over 200 local community groups to operate Micah’s Caring Initiative which provides over 300 weekend meals to hungry students in Blacksburg, operates a community garden which provides fresh produce for local food pantries, delivers meals to low-income seniors, donates new clothes at seasonal changes to students at Price’s Fork Elementary School and offers dinner to the community on Thanksgiving Day. The on-going helping ministries of the congregation include: the Christmas shoebox project for Head Start students on the Pine Ridge Reservation, a Justice and Mercy Fund which assists an average of 20 families each month with living expenses, a fall collection of school supplies for Price’s Fork Elementary School, a middle school mission trip, a Mother’s Morning Out and a partnership to provide Early Childhood Head Start.
More information on St. Michael’s History:
- A Legacy of Ministry: A history of the earliest churches on the site of St. Michael, beginning in the mid-1700s.
- An 11-minute video on the history of St. Michael Lutheran, compiled and narrated by Burn Gross
- The Church Record of St. Michael Lutheran Church, 1796-1885. This document contains additional details on the early history of the churches located on our site, including baptismal, communicant, and confirmation records. The original book was put together by Clovis Linkous in 1983 and includes sections which were translated from German into English. The document is now searchable, so you can easily look for a relative. Note: This is a large file which may not load quickly on slower connections.