 After Melanchthon stepped out of the portals of his seminary in 1961, he was ordained as a Pastor of Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church Society by K. Krupadanam, AELC, then President.Melanchthon then began to minister in Konaseema region at Kothapeta, East Godavari district in the 1960s, where Christianity was propagated in the Delta region by the Lutheran missions in the late 19th century led by a German missionary, Rudolph F. A. Arps.Parishioners were Agricultural labourers and access to Kothapeta, in Konaseema area used to be through a Ferry across Gautami-Godavari river, one of the estuaries of Godavari river, from Kapileswarapuram on the opposite bank.