Apple Grove Lutheran Church will rebuild after tornado

The congregation of a Lafayette County church destroyed by a tornado last summer voted nearly unanimously to build a new building on the site of the previous structure. Apple Grove Lutheran Church’s members made the decision at their annual meeting Sunday. The decision was long in the making. The tornado destroyed the church on the evening of June 23. The next day at a Sunday service held amid the wreckage. The congregation chose not to immediately look to the future, but instead to take time to grieve. The church waited two months before having its first earnest conversations about rebuilding. Part of the delay was waiting for insurance to pay out for the destroyed building. The amount Apple Grove received for the loss was not enough to cover a complete rebuild. The replacement does not yet have formal plans, but the pastor said it would lack the iconic steeple of the last building, nor will it have the basement of the previous church.