Light shines in darkness with new electric sign

“We wanted to make sure that the Cross was central to what we communicated as a church,” Pastor Matt Miklasz of Faith Free said regarding the new electric church sign installed recently by La Crosse Signs out of Eau Claire, lighting up for the first time on the night of Wednesday January 13. “Especially now with all the political stuff.” Although Faith Free on Madison Street previously had a non-electric church sign with a lighthouse image at the south parking lot entrance on same place on Highway H, Miklasz said that the lighthouse could be a somewhat vague symbol and that Faith Free wanted to be clear as to where they stood: Jesus Christ at the center.

As such, the congregation affiliated with the Forest Lake District of the Evangelical Free Churches of America (EFCA) had collaborated with La Crosse Signs to decide just what they wanted on the sign, using a long-standing improvement fund balance to pay for it, the fund building for some time. There’s one on the road and there’s one on the building,” Miklasz said of the new sign design. “They (La Crosse Signs) were a big help with the visual,” he said of the company with offices in Onalaska and Madison as well as Eau Claire. Meanwhile, the sign graphic designers also helped with installation, a truck with a boom lift labeled “La Crosse Signs seen hoisting the new light-emitting sign into place for installation along County H/North Franklin Street this January 13. The sign itself incorporates blue, purple, and white, along with the words “Faith Evangelical Free Church, Together Connecting With Christ,” and an invitation to “join Us for Sunday Service 10:00 a.m.”

Taking its beginnings as a congregation from a series of home Bible studies among six familes in 1963 (Centennial newspaper), Faith Free stated out meeting in teh upper rooms at 118 South Broadway, then Long’s South Side Store, now converted into separte one and two-story apartments nemed for saidAuction Mart.

Robert Christiansen was the churches first pastor, while a building addition for a new sanctuary was begun in May 1981, made necessary by growth “in all areas,” according to the Centennial newspaper of that year. Pastor Christiansen left in 1967 and was replaced by Reverend Allen and family, then Pastor Dwight Cook, who arrived with his family in a blizzard and was installed February 7, 1971. Now years later, the church is pastored by Miklasz.

Pastor Miklasz, who returned last year after a several year hiatus, said that Faith Free had been a part of the Free church “from its conception.” First holding services in the upper hall of Long’s South Side Store (118 South Broadway Stanley, now apartments), the present Madison Street church was dedicated in 1966. With the current church building now over 53 years old, it was time for some improvements. Like a new sign re-announcing the Reason to gather.

“It’s a together thing,” Miklasz said of the sign on County Highway H, with additional signs on the front and back of the church building itself on Madison Street. “We’re not exclusive.”

Along with the new church signs, Faith Free up on Madison Street also has new basement tile, new chairs and carpet, and an expanded parking lot with a blacktopped surface and curb installed. Entrances to the church lot from Highway H and Madison Street allow for dual entry or exit from the church property, while a steeple surmounted by an empty cross (symbolizing the Resurrection) is visible without apparent change in a photo from 1981, the year Stanley celebrated its Centennial. At the same time, the comparison reveals that the church has undergone expansion and renovation in the past, as the steeple is located on the front of the building in the photo from 1981, but is now above what functions as a side entrance some forty years later. Additionally, a concrete block foundation to the north is supplemented to the east, south, and west with poured concrete. The new road signs, meanwhile, will have the effect of putting Cross back front and center—which is what it’s all about.

Asked as to just why the church had chosen to undertake its improvement projects now, Miklasz cited the shutdown as being a good time to do the work.

“We did a total renovation of the basement, basically,” he said. Shining bright long into the night, the new church sign on County H returns Faith Free to its foundational roots, and also welcomes others in—or as Miklasz put it, “we’re in this journey together.”

Above, the electric sign being installed around noon. Below, the sign logo as it appears on the Madison Street side.