Peggy Mann remembers a time when the area from South Asheville to Hendersonville looked very different than it does today. There were fewer people and more undeveloped land, and if someone wanted to visit a Lutheran Church they would have to travel to Asheville or Hendersonville.
“Nativity has been so much a part of my life,” Peggy remembers, “The idea for the congregation, and having a church out here happened around my parents’ dining room table.” The folks at those dining table conversations decided that “there were Lutherans out in this area, we had Lutheridge and we should have a church.” Eventually, the Lutheran Church of the Nativity was formed. Peggy recalls that it took a while to find a permanent place to worship.
“We met in a community building off Long Shoals Road,” Peggy says, “The building was used for square dancing on Saturday nights.” On Sunday mornings, members of the newly formed congregation would arrive early to clean the place up and get ready for the service. Peggy smiles as she shares that a congregation member built an altar on wheels, “My mother made a cover (for the altar) and we would move the altar into a corner each week” after worship. Her parents carried candles and other items needed for services back and forth from their home.
When the congregation decided it was time to build a church, Peggy’s family was closely involved with the process. Her father was adamant that the new church building “had to be visible,” she remembers. A small hill at the intersection of Hendersonville and Airport Roads seemed like a good fit, but the land owner wasn’t sure. After many friendly conversations with Peggy’s father, the property owner declared, “I don’t know who these Lutheran’s are, but Mr. Keller (Peggy’s father) seems like a pretty good guy and I’ll sell the property to him.”
Though Peggy lived away from the area for several decades, she and her family often returned to western North Carolina and to Nativity and she now lives at Lutheridge. Nativity remains an important part of Peggy’s family legacy. She says, “I know how hard my parents struggled to get it going… I believed in the process and I believed we needed a Lutheran church in this community.”
What would Peggy tell someone who is thinking of visiting Nativity today? “Come and see,” she says. Peggy shares that she has seen Nativity as “a loving, caring, friendly home,” and hopes that others will find that as well.
The seeds that became the Lutheran Church of the Nativity were sown decades ago by faithful people who dreamed together of planting a church to serve their community. Those seeds planted at Peggy’s family table have been tended by many, and today the disciples at Nativity continue to welcome those who “come and see.”
