SYCAMORE – Visiting organist Bob Schaeffer played what he could on a grand piano at St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church’s Sunday service.

“I tried to make the instrument do what it could,” Schaeffer said after the service. “Could you hear it all right?”

The pipe organ Schaeffer should have played was destroyed Feb. 9 in the second fire at St. John, 327 S. Main St., Sycamore.

This Sunday, Schaeffer played the piano for an auditorium full of church members and visitors at a service held at Sycamore High School on Spartan Trail.

Church members listened as the Rev. Donald Phelps thanked God that no one was in the church during the fire, that firefighters were not inside the church when it exploded and that neighboring homes were not destroyed in the blaze.

Phelps asked the congregation to keep the families of the two firefighters injured in the explosion in their prayers as they recover from their injuries.

Sycamore firefighter Bill Reynolds likely will remain at OSF Saint Anthony Hospital in Rockford for several weeks, the Rev. Marvin Metzger told the congregation.

The cross that had adorned the church steeple provided a charred background for worship.

“It’s a little worse for wear, a little dirty, but it’s here. We’re here; we’re standing,” Phelps said.

St. John conducted its Sunday service with an altar and equipment on loan from several area churches, Metzger said.

Church offices have been temporarily relocated to the Sycamore Center, 308 W. State St.

The fire that destroyed the church is being investigated and is being treated as a separate incident from the Feb. 8 fire at the same location.

The Feb. 8 fire forced evacuation of the church as early service was beginning. Sycamore Fire Chief Bill Riddle said the fire started in a blower for the pipe organ.

A pipe organ will be absent from the congregation’s hymns again next week, and service will be held at 9 a.m. at Sycamore High School.

Members will meet again this week to chart the course for the upcoming weeks and months and coordinate resources for the church.

Schaeffer will play the piano again next week for the congregation.

“It’s a joy to be a part of the church and to help support them in anyway I can,” he said.