The words of the spiritual bring to mind what the folks of Wittenberg have done through the years since 1870 when the Reverend Samuel Bouknight gathered together the first group of Lutherans who were hungering for the  Means of Grace. So eager were these people for worship services that they improvised a brush arbor as a place of worship.

Pastor Bouknight conducted their first services, organized them into a congregation, and became their first pastor. Although no record is found of sharing food under the brush arbor, one can well imagine that this did happen.

A two-story blacksmith shop located where the McCartha Hardware building stands served as a second place of worship.  The services being conducted in the upper room of the blacksmith shop.

A building lot for the church was donated by Mr. David Shealy, a Methodist, who lived at the end of Main Street, but before undertaking the erection of a church building the first lot was exchanged for the original plot of the present church, parsonage and cemetery lot. The name Luther Chapel was chosen for the new congregation, the first church to be established in Leesville.

In 1874 under the leadership of Pastor Bouknight, the first building was erected. Standing in the space between the present building and the parsonage, the first church was a plain, unceiled, frame structure, 35x30 feet in size. In remained unceiled until the Reverend Emanuel Caughman, who moved to Leesville upon retiring from the active ministry, gave the material and had the building ceiled for the congregation. It served well until about 1887 when it was removed to make room for a better one to take its place.