It stands at the top of a windy ridge in the Town of Primrose, on a road aptly named Ridge Drive, a mental hitching post to the past and also a beacon light to the future. This year the Primrose Lutheran Church celebrates it 160th anniversary. And unlike so many small churches, Primrose is gaining members instead of being held together by a few families whose roots are as deeply planted in the church as the roots of the nearby oak trees. Primrose is attracting new young families to its membership.

The current Primrose Lutheran is made up of two different sects of Norwegian Lutheranism an...