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The Reverend Herbert Borchelt of Hillsboro
started original groundwork for the beginning of Ascension Lutheran Church
in 1960.
Except for that activity, there was no Lutheran Church in Cleburne until six families in October of 1961 asked the Reverend Richard Patt of Fort Worth to start conducting Lutheran services on Sunday night. On that first Sunday night, they me in the Johnson County Electric Cooperative Building, then located on west Henderson St.
In March of 1962, the Lutherans made their new home in the Dillon-Emmert Funeral Home Chapel and remained there until they moved into their present location. It was at this time that the name Ascension was chosen for the church due to the festival of the Ascension being the nearest church festival that year.
Having been troubled with a quick succession of vacancy pastor, in June of 1963, the Cleburne congregation entered into a dual parish agreement with Christ Lutheran church in Hillsboro. The late Reverend Clemens Thies then served both the Hillsboro and Cleburne congregations until the arrival of Cleburne's first full-time pastor, the Reverend Ronald Timmons, in July of 1965.
Records indicate that the first child to be baptized in Ascension Lutheran Church was on March 1, 1964, and the first wedding observed in the church was on April 4, 1964. The first junior confirmation class was confirmed April 18, 1965.
Shortly after the arrival of Pastor Timmons, architect Joe E. Line was hired to begin drawings for the present church building. In February of 1966, ground was broken for the first building at 205 South Ridgeway Drive.
On Sunday, July 17, 1966, the Dedication Service for the present sanctuary was held. Speakers for the event included the Reverend Robert W. Helberg, 2nd vice-president of the Texas District Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
Other Pastors to serve Ascension Lutheran Church included the Reverend James Hertzog from January, 1968 to June, 1968; the Reverend Carl Rehwaldt from August , 1969 to September 1974; the Reverends Peter Diebenow, Harold Hein and RogerNeeb, as interim Pastors; the Reverend Benjamin Rathgeber from July, 1975 to May, 1997; the Reverend Thomas Bode served as interim pastor from June 1997 to April 1998.
During the pastorate of Pastor Rathgeber, the Burleson Mission was started in October of 1975. In 1981, after 19 years of assistance from the Mission Board of the Texas District, Ascension became a self-supporting congregation. In 1983, Ascension joined several other churches in the Fort Worth area in support of a Personalized Missionary in Africa. The Reverend Dalton Noack of Ghana West Africa is the current missionary being funded.
In May, 1984, the congregation decided to begin raising funds for a new education-fellowship facility. The new facility, as well as a remodeled portion of the worship area, was dedicated to the glory of God in November 1985. The space available for Kingdom works at Ascension was doubled by completion of the new building.
In 1986, the congregation entered into a decade long Every Member Stewardship Involvement program that led to deepened commitment, greater awareness and use of spiritual gifts, and an increase in personal giving. The church council voted to begin first fruits giving of all offerings and to increase giving as a congregation to the district at a rate of 1 percent each year until a goal of 20 percent was reached. As a result of that action the Lord has richly blessed Ascension.
1989 marked the beginning of the LifeLight Bible Study Series. That same year the congregation organized the TETELESTAI offering which resulted in a debt-free status for the first time since 1966.
On April 19, 1998, the Reverend Joseph Ardy was installed as pastor.
Ascension looks forward to many more years of working toward greater
fulfillment of the Great Commission, "Go and Make Disciples."
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