Redeemer Lutheran Church, Bryant, Indiana

On April 14, 1971, Redeemer Lutheran Church of Bryant was formed as a merger of Bryant Faith Lutheran Church and New Corydon Zion Lutheran Church.  The founding pastor was Rev. James S. Hundley.  Articles of Incorporation were filed with the state of Indiana on June 10, 1971.

Our present congregation came to be due to an unfortunate circumstance. Bryant Faith Lutheran Church had been established in 1874 and originally met in a sawmill and old schoolhouse in Bryant, Indiana.  Another small congregation in a neighboring town, New Corydon Zion Lutheran Church originated in 1881 and in the beginning had met in an old Methodist church building.  On January 26, 1971, a fire destroyed the Zion church building so the two councils met in April of that year and voted to merge the two congregations into Redeemer Lutheran Church of Bryant.  We officially became incorporated as of June 10, 1971. As of our 2020 Congregational Report, we have 35 Baptized members and Pastor Martin Bornhoeft is currently our Interim Pastor.

We may be a small group, but we are a mighty one! We have several missions we actively support even though they had to be socially distanced now due to the pandemic.  We hold an annual Pork Dinner to help with local and ELCA World Hunger, we support and work in the Helping Hands Food Bank in Geneva, we provide food and serve the Bread of Life meal for those in need at the Portland Asbury Methodist Church, we have helped with the Dots in Blue Water program to help people in Haiti have clean water, and we have been participating in both Jay and Adam County’s Feed My Starving Children’s food packing programs.  Our Women of the ELCA sew beautiful comforters that are given to the children of the Youth Bureau in Portland and to individuals and families in need.  We are active in the Socks for Soldiers program where we stuff stockings with items our military folks may need while serving away from their homes at Christmas. For the last couple of years, we have been putting together kits for baby care, school kits and personal care kits for the Lutheran World Relief program.  We also help with funding good programs and requests with our Eva Houser Mission Fund. We have helped individuals, local organizations and other churches by funding their mission work. We try to stay involved and busy doing God’s work with our hands.