Manhattan: St. Paul's German Evangelical Lutheran Church
A Pastor Works to Repair a Church After Years Decline, Both as a Community and as a Building
In late May, the New York Landmarks Conservancy announced the recipients of the annual Sacred Sites grant, which funds historic religious locations’ “planning and implementing exterior restoration projects” across the State of New York.
The recipients included 14 sites and one of them was St. Paul’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church, located in Chelsea at 315 W 22nd Street. Known for being one of the few city churches conducting services in German, it was built in 1897 in a neo-gothic style, but the community itself has been around since 1841, a time when German immigration to New York City began to increase significantly.
These days, though, St. Paul’s is in need of repair both communally and physically. The Sacred Sites grant will help the church with its repairs, but more funds are needed to fix what the church’s website calls, “a broken church”.
“20 years ago, the church knew there was a problem,” says Pastor Lars Reiman, who arrived from Germany in 2022 to lead St. Paul’s. “But there was a lack of money for whatever reason.”
The Sacred Sites grant will be used to help replace the church’s roof, which is dotted with water damage all over the church ceilings. But that is not the only repair needed. According to its website, the church’s electric wiring needs updating, its two towers are rusting, some of the Rose windows have cracks, the building’s interior needs renovating, and so forth.
By calculation, $6 million will be needed to fund all these repairs. The good news is that St. Paul’s is off to a good start. But it was a bit tricky to get its congregation of mostly ex-pat Germans to give to its church.
“Americans are familiar with the concept of tithing,” Pastor Lars explains, referring to the practice of giving a percentage of one’s income to a religious institution. “Germany moved away from it a long time ago. German people are not used to it.”
Eventually, Germany created a church tax where a percentage is taken out of one’s payroll to finance churches. This allowed a system where money was given to churches without an effort from church members. But it also made Germans who attend church in the United States, such as St. Paul’s, learn about tithing and adjust to the unfamiliar system.
It also wasn’t helpful that St. Paul’s attendance had dropped significantly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many other religious organizations, attendance was steady before 2020, but since then, those numbers struggled to climb. Some places have rebounded. But others hope to see better numbers, including St. Paul’s.
Before he came to New York City, Pastor Lars says there were about 10 people who regularly attended services at the church. He is its only clergyman and the entire staff consists of five people, including Pastor Lars.
However, two years after he took over as Pastor, St. Paul’s is seeing big improvements. There are now 25 people attending regularly, and throughout the past summer, as many as 40 people attended. Younger people are coming, usually between the ages of 25 - 35. Even Americans who grew up on military bases in Germany and can still speak German well are coming to St. Paul’s.
“We’re doing better,” Pastor Lars says. “We’re growing, but not at remarkable speed. Slow but steady. We’re happy and that’s good.”
He hopes the church will grow to about 200 congregants, which he thinks is a good size.
As for the fundraising, St. Paul’s has gained $900K this year and the goal for 2025 will be $1 million or more. Aside from fundraising and donations from contributors, the church also rents out some of its spaces to help bring in money. The day Sacred Places NYC came to the church, a production company utilized part of its basement as a base and had catered food set up for the company’s team. It is all about putting money into the church’s accounts.
Pastor Lars is accomplishing a lot and apparently, the congregation is pleased with his work. But his time is ticking away; his visa ends July 2027. While there is talk among the church to help him apply for a green card, Pastor Lars is not focused on that.
He points out that his commitment to serving Jesus Christ is his biggest motivation, but he is also a problem-solver, and solving St. Paul’s problems is his secondary motivation. He wants the roof to be done before he leaves and work is at least started on the two spires, both would need to be taken down so they can be repaired.
Pastor Lars is working on giving St. Paul’s future and believes that 100 years from now, the physical church and its congregation will still be around. He sees St.Paul’s as an institution that was not only founded by German immigrants in the 1840s, but symbolizes how most Germans in the United States started their journey by first settling in New York City (45 million Americans claim German heritage). Pastor Lars says St. Paul’s is the last symbol of that story.
“It would be really shameful for it to be erased by the death of the congregation and the deconstruction of the building,” he says. “I want to honor that history.”
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