Advertisement
Softly pressing an organ’s ivory keys in fluid movements as her black heels pressed down on the foot pedals, Jane Lindner played “The Church is My Foundation” for one of the last times in her career at Faith Lutheran Church.
 |
Lindner, 67, has retired after 33 years as the minister of music, choir director and organist at Faith Lutheran Church in Winona.
She crafted messages every Sunday with each selection she chose, messages Lindner hoped the congregation would not only sing to, but that they would listen to and feel.
“That’s what I really need to do is to assist them in their singing,” Lindner said. “The wonderful thing about being within a congregation for so long is they listen and sing.”
Church and music have always been the cornerstones of Lindner’s life.
She grew up in Worthington, Minn., surrounded by music.
Lindner aspired to be like her father, a church choir director who played vaudeville.
“I don’t know if it was anything he said, but he just loved music. He loved to play, to direct, to teach,” Lindner said.
Lindner started playing the piano at age 5 and eventually added the trumpet and coronet to her repertoire. Even her pastor predicted she would be a minister of music, just like her father.
“He told me I needed to teach music because that’s my calling,” Lindner said.
Lindner studied German and music education at Luther College, where she first learned the organ.
There, she met Dick Lindner in the university band’s trumpet section.
In 1963, Dick and Jane married. They moved to Winona in 1967 so Dick could teach music at Winona State University.
They later moved to Iowa City, Iowa, where Dick earned his doctorate.
A few years later, they returned to Winona, where they have been living ever since.
Lindner became an organist at Central Lutheran Church in Winona for a short time before she went to Faith Lutheran in 1974.
At the time, Faith Lutheran’s organ was on its last legs. So, when Lindner heard Luther College was getting rid of the organ she had first practiced on, she arranged to bring it to Winona.
“I think about it sometimes and it’s pretty cool,” Lindner said.
The organ’s intimidating two-tiered keyboard, Lindner admits, isn’t easy to play.
“You have to love it,” Lindner said. “It’s the most unnatural thing you can do, especially with your feet. You’ve got to keep at it.”
“I pay attention to the words,” Lindner said about her concentration techniques.
In his 20 years at Faith Lutheran Church, Pastor Mark Dumke said, Lindner became a partner and confidant. They met monthly to pick out hymns that would reflect the
sermons, and Lindner would practice daily — even hymns she had played thousands of times.
“I don’t even worry about the music aspect of the service,” Dumke said. “Jane has really helped me be a more confident pastor by her partnership and affirmation.”
Lindner loved working with children as the youth choir director. Because she saw her job not as a performer but as a way to assist the ministry, Lindner took the time to pray and get to know children.
Last week, Lindner was working with the youth choir for a cantata and teaching them the liturgy.
“Instead of being the responding people, they have to start,” Lindner said. “And who knows? Maybe it will inspire one or two of them to work within a church.”
Dumke said Lindner’s philosophy of leading kids with music has a deeper meaning.
“She doesn’t rehearse with them to sing a song on Sunday,” Dumke said. “She teaches them about faith and their love of faith. The kids get it and they just adore her.”
Church member Gretchen Erwin said the children gain self-esteem from Lindner.
“When you think of the number of kids that do a solo, and they do it just because of Jane,” Erwin said.
Lindner believes everyone can sing, even if it may seem like a lost cause.
“It took my daughter forever, but she eventually found it,” said church member Mary Laturno. “Jane doesn’t give up on them.”
Lindner has also taught piano for 19 years, and both Laturno’s and Erwin’s children took lessons. But their children learned more than songs.
“My kids learned about God through Jane just as much as anybody,” Erwin said.
Laturno remembered how Lindner would keep a box of Trix cereal by the piano as a reward and how her kids called the Lindners’ residence “home.”
“She was like that with so many of them,” Laturno said. “It was a place to go home.”
Because many members of Faith Lutheran have moved to Winona from somewhere else and do not have much extended family in the area, Dumke said, Lindner also became the parents’ ally.
“Anyone that loves my children the way Jane does, it’s just invaluable,” Dumke said. “Most of the children (at Faith Lutheran) don’t have grandparents nearby. She, in a sense, fills that for kids.”
For many congregation members, Lindner has become a part of their lives in and out of church.
When Lorraine Poffenberger moved to Winona in 1978 during the holidays, Lindner called her to join a Thursday night Bible study even though the two didn’t know each other.
“We haven’t missed many Thursdays throughout the years,” Poffenberger said. “Everything Jane does is out of love. She’s just special.”
Dumke said finding a new organist will be challenging.
“We know we can’t replace Jane with another Jane,” Dumke said.
For Lindner, the music won’t end at retirement.
She plans to continue writing children’s choir anthems and discover new music.
“I’m just going to play,” she said.
Reporter Amber Dulek can be reached at (507) 453-3513 or amber.dulek@lee.net.
|
More Neighbors: |
