Aurora Losing Last Church, Despite Strong Population Growth

Whatever Donald Trump thinks he may be doing for religion, he hasn’t been able to keep churches in Aurora. Despite more than doubling in population since 2010, the town is losing the Methodist Impact Church, the last church in Aurora:

Impact Church will close after worship on Sept. 13.

It was a vote made by 7 members in a 5 to 2 decision made this past Sunday, church member Gloria Pike said.

“That ended it. It is so final,” Pike said.

While attendance declined, expenses did not. Church member Paul Schlobohm said, “Financially, we were dwindling. You are not going to be able to sustain (a church) at that rate.”

The church needs to pay for utilities, insurance, pulpit supply. The church had a minister until she resigned in June, Schlobohm said.

The church is the last of the three churches to close in the city.

…Rev. Brandon Vetter, a conference supervisor with Dakotas Conference, said two local trustees will be managing the facility and working with local groups that use the church building [Rae Yost, “Aurora Growing, But Last Church Planning to Close,” KELO-TV, 2026.07.24].

Aurora’s Methodist church didn’t give up without trying, but with most of Aurora going to Brookings for school and work (the Brookings Economic Development Corporation says Aurora’s 17 businesses employ 51 people out of Aurora’s workforce of 900), it figures folks would just drive the same short trip west for church, too:

Congregation members have been aware of the possible future for their church for several years.

Five years ago, the church started what Pike called, “our last big hoopla.” It decided to expand its outreach in the community to appeal to the younger families moving to the city, she said.

Changes were made in the church’s interior. The church sponsored activities to appeal to families and other residents. “We’d have a fall pumpkin painting and the attendance was pretty good,” Pike said.

The church also provided coffee and bars for bingo events at the local bar and grill.

But events like a spaghetti feed were not as well supported, she said.

The events drew people but not steady attendees to church.

“A new person may come for a week or two and then, you’d never see them again,” Schlobohm said.

Finances, such as the ability to pay pulpit supply, played a role but Vetter said members didn’t have the energy anymore to try new things, Vetter said.

The two church members said various reasons, including children attending school in Brookings so it may be more natural to attend church there, which may be keeping people from the church. Aurora is about three miles east of southern Brookings [Yost, 2026.07.24].

Population growth alone evidently isn’t enough to save a small town’s institutions. Whatever workers and families have driven Aurora’s growth over the last 15 years, they appear to have kept or forged their community ties with Brookings or elsewhere, leaving Aurora, come September, churchless.