The year was 1862; the place was a small rural area at the edge of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.  A small group of Christian settlers within this rural area had been worshipping as a group within their homes.  Their spiritual leader was Dr. H.A. Muehlmeier, pastor of Immanuel UCC, near Mission House (now Lakeland College). 

With the increase in worshippers, that small group of Christians decided to form a congregation, so on Feb. 10^th, 1862, Bethel Church came to life and on March 31^st, 1862, Bethel became a member of the Reformed Church.  Bethel has many founding families – some whose descendants still belong to Bethel.  These founders are families of:  Jacob Spindler, Louis Spindler, Conrad Humke, Martin Roethel, Andrew Papendick, Karl Koeser, George Arnold, Henry Glaeser, Henry J. Schneider, George Maurer, Fred Staeffler, August Wickesberg, George Roethel, and Ernestine Gerlach.

Soon the private homes of these charter members became too small for holding worship, so services were held in the nearby Ada school.  The school building was perfect – for a little while - but the congregation was still growing and in the summer of 1863 this small congregation was blessed with a piece of land donated by Jacob Spindler.  Bethel Church still stands on that same piece of donated land.

Through the next years the congregation saw much growth, which led to more changes.  In 1908, the church was tore down and a new – larger – house of worship was built.  This church is the same church we worship in today. 

Over the years, Bethel has seen many changes, it joined the U.C.C. denomination, increased its membership, installed many new pastors, had many baptisms, confirmations, weddings and funerals and it’s had many changes to the physical house of worship. We have been so BLESSED in this small country congregation!  Recently we’ve added on a new addition, not only increasing our size, but we’ve become fully handicap accessible. 

We’ve added a much larger narthex, a large fellowship hall, conference room, bathrooms, kitchen, copy room and a pastor’s office.  All of these additions were completed with the fruits of labor of the members of this congregation. 

We’ve also added beautiful stained glass windows to the sanctuary and have started a wonderful landscaping project in the front of the church.  All of these gifts are wonderful blessings from God given to our church through the love and generosity of the families of Bethel U.C.C. and their families and friends.