By: Roy Aker

Larry Ballard was a University of Minnesota student in 1964 when he saw an ad for Stadium Village Church in the Minnesota Daily and started attending.

That same year, he met and married his wife at the church. On Sunday, the couple attended the church’s 125-year anniversary celebration with other former and current members and church leaders.

For the two-day celebration, current pastors Kathleen Macosko and Lowell Busman organized the event, which included a cruise on the Mississippi River, a historic walking tour and a performance by the church’s alumni choir.

The weekend’s festivities also featured a presentation of the church’s history and a visiting hour for former members.

“We hope to hear stories from the past and celebrate who we’ve become, which is a little different than what it was before,” Macosko said.   

Stadium Village Church, formerly known as Bethany Presbyterian, was founded in 1888 as a small Sunday school for the working-class families who called the neighborhood home.

Today, the church is surrounded by University development and student housing — an evolution that’s changed the congregation’s demographic.

Since an influx of Korean students became church members in the 1950s, Macosko said a number of cultural groups and international students have left their mark on the church.

Of the 120 regular parishioners, a majority are University students from China, Japan and South Korea, or American students with “a global perspective,” she said.

“It’s a great place for people who want to interact with the rest of the world,” Macosko said.

Macosko, who became one of the church’s pastors in 2002, said its message has always been the same.

“We don’t care so much about labels, just about where [members] want to go with Jesus,” she said.

Ballard said he was amazed at the evolution of the church community and Stadium Village.

“It looks so much different than it once did,” he said, “but it’ll always feel like home.”