A Brief History of the Chapel
The Vision...The Presbyterian Chapel of the Lakes began as a summer mission to lake visitors in Steuben County. Sponsored by area Presbyterian churches, the first worship service was held on June 2, 1974 in an abandoned schoolhouse, the Crooked Lake School House #8. The original vision was to provide a relaxed, seasonal worship service between Memorial Day and Labor Day each summer for the lake community of Steuben County. The pulpit responsibilities fell to the pastor of the Salem Center Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Paul Hopwood, who had strongly supported this new mission outreach. With funding supplied in part by the Presbytery of Wabash Valley and the Salem Center Presbyterian Church, in addition to the modest weekly offerings. the Chapel was able to purchase the three (3) acres of property on which the school house sits.
The Vision Takes Shape...
This summer mission broadened in scope considerably with the coming of the Rev. Jack Newell in 1979. Rev. Newell added mission outreach to area university students over the school-year, as well as a year-round Self-Help Center for the unemployed, hosted in an abandoned farm implement building in Auburn, Indiana. The summer worship services were supported with overflow crowds and interest in the Chapel’s growing ministry deepened. And on June 6, 1982 the Chapel incorporated as a new congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) with 51 active members on the rolls, as a yoked ministry with the Salem Center Presbyterian Church.
Because of the size constraints of the school house, the Chapel began plans for the building a multipurpose pavilion in 1983. The shell of the pavilion was erected in the winter of 1984 using $50,000 of borrowed funds from the Synod of Lincoln Trails. And following Rev. Newell’s retirement at the end of 1985, the Committee of Ministry of the Presbytery of Wabash Valley provided funding to enable the Chapel to contract with Rev. Thomas E. Smith as their stated supply in June of 1986, thus unyoking the Chapel from the Salem Center Presbyterian Church. A year later the Chapel voted unanimously to call Rev. Smith as the Chapel’s first full-time pastor.
The Vision Continues...Under Rev. Smith’s leadership, and with a grant from the larger church, the Chapel completed its pavilion construction, increased its membership, retired its building debt, and became a self-supporting congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA). An additional three (3) acres of land was purchased in 1992 and by 1995 the ‘Newell Addition’ was dedicated which provided additional office and classroom space.
In the fall 1996 annual Congregational meeting Rev. Smith requested, and the congregation approved, the forming of a planning committee to create a site plan to guide the Chapel’s future development. Subsequently, a Memorial Garden and brick pathway has been developed, and a large Celtic Cross erected. The future worship facility is to be sited to the south of the current pavilion and nested tightly on the west side of the Memorial Garden.