Mesquite Church Reaches Milestone With Renovations

By MAGGIE MCMURRAY

Moapa Valley Progress

The Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Mesquite is celebrating the completion of an extensive remodel of their building. The project is reaching completion in conjunction with the the church’s tenth anniversary on Sunday, March 5. Church leaders are inviting all past and present members, as well as everyone in the community to come celebrate this milestone with them.

The celebration will begin with regular church services at 10:30 am. It will continue at 12:30 pm when representatives of the Mesquite Chamber of Commerce will arrive for a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The theme of the celebration is “Fun, Food, and Music.” It will feature a luncheon at 1:00 pm and a variety of musical acts and entertainment. Performers will include the Highview Country Singers, cowboy poet Paul (Hap) Stuart, singer and guitar player Steve Kimmel with Delores Nardone on the harmonica, and the Prince of Peace choir.

The congregation was originally organized on March 11, 2007. Without their own building, the first services were held in a rented conference room at the Highland Estates Resort with a total of 28 people in attendance. The congregation didn’t have its own pastor at the time, so Reverend George Mather from the Our Savior Lutheran Church in St. George, UT, agreed to drive down and serve both congregations.

After outgrowing the rented worship space, the congregation moved to a business park on Mesquite Blvd on April 20, 2008. There the church members continued to meet until 2012 when they were able to purchase a building in the present location at the Falcon Mesa Business park.

The new building, however, suffered a setback when it flooded shortly before their first service there was to be held. However, the congregation was able to regroup and clean up, and the first service in the new building was held in September of 2012.

Following Reverend Mather’s retirement in May of 2013, the congregation called Travis Lauterbach to be pastor. He, along with visitation pastor Dr. James Murray, have continued to serve the congregation until this day.

Reverend Mather has agreed to come out of retirement for this special occasion, however, and will be the guest preacher for this special service.

In the spring of 2016, extensive renovation on the building was begun. It doubled the size of their worship space and moved the sanctuary to a better location within the building. Overton-based Brimont Construction did the work and the project was recently completed. The ribbon-cutting ceremony planned to celebrate both the end of construction and the 10-year anniversary.

Pastor Lauterbach is excited to mark this milestone in the church’s history. “The day will be a celebration of ten years of proclaiming the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ and serving our neighbors in need through the support of community services,” Lauterbach said. “It will truly be a thanksgiving for all the blessings God has given to the congregation.”

Event organizer Steve Kimmel, of Overton, hopes many Moapa Valley residents will be able to come celebrate with them.
“We are so excited about our newly renovated building and hope many can come and see it and celebrate with us,” Kimmel said. “It should be a really nice celebration with great food and entertainment. We are looking forward to sharing the rich blessings the Lord has bestowed upon this congregation with our friends, family, and communitiy.”

The Prince of Peace Lutheran church is located at 350 Falcon Ridge Parkway, Building 600, in Mesquite, behind Stage department store.