Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Kahului marks its 50-year anniversary since chartering this month while joining a worldwide celebration of the 500-year anniversary of the Reformation.

A 50th/500th anniversary worship service is set for 10 a.m. Oct. 29. It will be followed by a catered lunch. To RSVP for the lunch, send email to dianeruss@msn.com with names and number in the party.

Sunday School and Bible Study are set for 8:45 a.m. There will be no Lahaina service.

The church overlooking Kaahumanu Avenue off One Street was chartered in September 1967 under the guidance of Hilo Pastor Dennis Kastens with charter members Ruth and Rudy Brockmiller, Jeannine and John Bak, Bunny and Carl Jensen, Armida and Robert Stuhr, Dr. Bertram Weeks and Anna and Lucille Berg, a church timeline said.

Services were held at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Wailuku until the current church was built; a dedication was held Dec. 12, 1971. From 1954 until 1967, monthly Lutheran services were held at the old Maui Palms, which was next to the Maui Beach Hotel.

The Rev. Otto Schlect served for one year after the church was chartered.

He was succeeded by Pastor Milton Fricke. Installed July 21, 1968, Fricke became pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran two weeks after being ordained in California and ministered for four decades on Maui before retiring at the end of 2008.

Fricke remains active in the church and the community, serving as a police and hospital chaplain, said Pastor Joshua Schneider, the current senior pastor.

Schneider was installed as senior pastor in 2010 and two years later, Paul Roschke was ordained and installed as associate pastor. Schneider, who was ordained in Detroit, had served as a part-time associate pastor/full-time teacher at Emmanuel Lutheran beginning in 2006.

Emmanuel Lutheran has 150 baptized members and conducts Sunday services in Lahaina at the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Lahaina services began in 1974.

The church currently operates onsite a preschool-to-8th-grade program, which was built in increments beginning with 12 students in its preschool program in 1972. The program added a kindergarten-to-2nd-grade curriculum in 1978, running the classes out of Kahului Union Church, and three more grades in 1979.

The school programs moved back to the church site in 1985 with the completion of an education building, which required a $370,000 construction loan. A 6th grade also was added.

For the 2002-03 school year, the church became a kindergarten-to-8th-grade campus, after the construction of a two-classroom modular building, which required $71,000 in fundraising, the timeline said.

Today, there are 135 students enrolled in the kindergarten-to-8th-grade program and 36 students in the preschool program, Schneider said.

The church embarked on an expansion effort in the 2000s, purchasing 25 acres from Wailuku Ag, taking on a $600,000 mortgage and setting up a capital fundraising campaign. Plans call for expansion of the school and church on the plot bordered by Honoapiilani Highway and Waiale Road.

The Great Recession in 2008 that brought the country to its economic knees has slowed the church’s expansion plans.

“In our 50th year, Emmanuel Lutheran Church and school is planning its future expansion to a much larger campus, located in the heart of the fastest-growing area of Wailuku,” the church said in a news release last week.

The school has been “the major outreach and ministry of our congregation to the community, and has been for many decades,” the news release said. The church cited Martin Luther, the central figure in the 16th century Reformation, and quoted him: “For the sake of the Church we must have and maintain Christian schools.”

The Reformation began Oct. 31, 1517, in Wittenberg, Germany, when Luther nailed his 95 Theses in protest of the church’s sale of indulgences, Schneider said.

Luther’s writings call for the freedom of Christians to serve in government to establish justice and protect citizens, according to a church article. Luther advocated for Christian education for boys and girls and was involved in the lives of the poor and the common folk.

The Emmanuel Lutheran article said that the “Reformation anniversary is not a celebration of Luther” and that “even the Lutheran church does not celebrate Luther.” It follows his theological teachings.

“Lutheran churches today, on the eve of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, are confessing, ‘It’s still all about Christ Jesus.’ That’s what Luther stood for — Christ to remain as the center and foundation of our salvation and all Christian teaching,” the church said.