Before 1900, the German families of Waldeck, once called Long Prairie, were served by German-speaking Methodist missionaries, and by 1885 a congregation had organized. In December 1899, the Rev. August Wenzel led local Lutherans in starting a new congregation, which organized as Waldeck Evangelical Lutheran Zion. Pastor Carl Baer became the church's first salaried minister. The congregation met in the Waldeck schoolhouse until 1926, when it bought the Methodist Episcopal sanctuary from the declining neighboring congregation at this site. By then, the Lutheran church offered Sunday school classes, and within a few decades it also celebrated with church picnics, programs, and community services that continue today.