March 28, 2024

German Fest celebrates heritage, benefits church community

germanfest2
Authentic German dishes were served at the festival including traditional German sausages.

On Saturday Sept. 20, First Lutheran Church and School celebrated its German heritage with their first annual German Fest. Festival goers were treated to authentic German dishes, live polka music and a variety of locally crafted beer.

Lindsey Hofman, a church member and first-grade teacher at the school, discussed where the idea for the festival originated.

“We have a great German heritage here at our church,” said Hofman. “Our church was the first Lutheran church in Knoxville. We’ve been here for 140 years and we thought that there’s no time like the present to really get ourselves out there and give the community something fun to come and enjoy.”

Founded on the teachings of German born Martin Luther, who became one of the most influential figures in Christianity in the 16th century, First Lutheran Church and School will use any proceeds from this and future German Fests to benefit not only upgrades of technology at the school, but the scholarship program as well.

“Any profits that we have are going to go to improving technology at the school,” said Hofman. “And other profits will go to the scholarship program for students who want to come here and can’t quite afford a quality Christian private education. And that’s a very important thing to our church and to our school, that we can share the love of Christ with people who maybe can’t afford a private school.”

For more events at First Lutheran Church and School, click here.

Edited by Jessica Carr

 

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