In the Midweek Extra for November 11, Interim Pastor David Mueller was joined by the Rev. Kathryn Morgan, interim pastor at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant, our next-door neighbor.
Rev. Morgan grew up in Pitman, N.J., and attended First Presbyterian Church of Pitman. She and her husband, David Wible, live there now.
She and Pastor Mueller discuss how church has changed — for better and for worse — this year, plans for Advent season activities and opportunities for continued church collaboration, even with churches many miles away discovered because of the lockdowns.
Here’s a link to the video on our YouTube channel:
One of our closest neighbors, the Bellevue Community Center — located across Duncan Road from St. Mark’s — has served the community for more than 40 years, offering educational, recreational, self-enrichment, athletic, cultural and family support services and programming.
In this week’s Midweek Extra, Interim Pastor David Mueller talks with Joseph Wisniewski, executive director of the center, about its programs and plans.
Among the topics: Bellevue’s community garden, athletic programs, drug and alcohol abuse recovery programs, video production studio and (coming soon) an annex of the Wilmington Public Library. They also discuss how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the center and the plans to reopen the newly renovated front entrance, which has a new hydraulic elevator instead of the previous long, winding ramp.
You can watch their conversation on our YouTube channel, using the link below.
In today’s edition of the Midweek Extra, Interim Pastor David Mueller talks with special guest Mindy Holland, chaplain of Lutheran Campus Ministries at the University of Delaware, one of St. Mark’s ministry partners.
Chaplain Holland talks about her background in the ministry, how campus ministry connects with students’ lives and how things have changed in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“Students want to engage deeply with Scripture and to engage deeply with complex questions,” she said. “… They want to look at the hard stuff and say how does this relate to me and how do I then turn it around so it can bless others? It’s a rich gift to be with them as they engage these new questions.”
If you have questions you’d like Pastor Mueller to address in future weeks, feel free to call the church office or send an email.
Interim Pastor David Mueller welcomes Rob Gurnee, executive director of Lutheran Community Services of Delaware, to today’s Midweek Extra.
LCS has been serving low-income families in Wilmington and New Castle County since 1959, assisting with emergency food, housing and many other needs.
The men discuss the ministries of LCS and how its work and that of other nonprofit agencies have been affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Rob also talks about the “Pick Your Own” LCS Walk/Run for Hunger and the new format for the popular annual fundraising event that many at St. Mark’s have been part of — as donors, runners and walkers. (Check out a few photos from previous events below.)
It’s a good time to make your plan for participating in this year’s Walk/Run for Hunger. As the name of this year’s event suggests, you can “Pick Your Own” route, pick your own day, pick your own starting time. Here’s what you need to know:
The event is open until September 19. Register and gather sponsorships now. YOU decide when and where you walk or run. It can be around your neighborhood, block, favorite walking trail, your back yard, wherever you wish to walk or run. Be creative!
Pick up your T-shirt at LCS headquarters at 2809 Baynard Blvd., St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church at 1301 N. Broom St. or at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 1530 Foulk Rd.
Take pictures or video of your walk if you are able (wearing your T-shirts, of course) and send them to LCS by email
Join the Zoom celebration online at 4 p.m. September 19 to culminate the event
REGISTER NOW! Individuals, churches, teams, dogs — you name it! — can register and collect sponsors OR support someone who is fundraising. If you need help, contact Alex with any questions. All proceeds go to LCS food programs.
In this week’s Midweek Extra, Interim Pastor David Mueller discusses why the Church has an interim process and gives an update on the status of that process at St. Mark’s.
The link to the video on our YouTube channel is below.
Interim Pastor David Mueller welcomes a special guest to this week’s Midweek Extra — the Rev. Clarence Pettit, pastor of Unity Church in Wilmington, Delaware.
Pastor Pettit has served in the ministry for more than 47 years. Before coming to Wilmington, he served the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in Seattle, Washington, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
He has been active in religious and social service organizations in Delaware and recently served on the Delaware Maryland Synod Council.
He and Pastor Mueller are friends and in today’s video, they discuss church growth, race relations and what it takes to be a good pastor.
Interim Pastor David Mueller has a very special guest for today’s St. Mark’s Midweek Extra — longtime friend Rabbi Peter Grumbacher.
Rabbi Peter Grumbacher
The men met years ago while serving next-door congregations in Wilmington — Mueller at Concordia Lutheran Church, Grumbacher at Congregation Beth Emeth — and their friendship has grown and produced many fascinating conversations and encounters for Jews and Christians over the years.
Pastor David Mueller
Some at St. Mark’s will know Rabbi Grumbacher from the 2018 trip to Israel he co-hosted with Pastor Mueller. Others will know him from the class the two men have co-taught on interfaith relations with Sister Jeanne Cashman at the University of Delaware’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Wilmington, where they were affectionately known as “The God Squad.” You can read about that collaboration in this 2017 News Journal article.
In this informal-but-substantive conversation, these two men, who have invested their lives in faithful service to others, discuss Jewish-Christian relations, Israel, the United States and the need for education and respectful dialogue.
You can watch their exchange on our YouTube channel here:
Interim Pastor David Mueller has invited St Mark’s members and friends to send him topics, issues and questions for him to address during these Midweek Extra videos. And the ideas and questions keep on coming!
Today’s topics include:
Creative ways of developing Christian service during the COVID-19 pandemic
Christian nationalism
If you have questions you’d like him to tackle, call or email the church office.
Where’s the joy when we’ve got storm troopers in Oregon?
Where’s the joy when we have such animus between various peoples in our own country?
Where’s the joy when we have economic concerns about how we’re going to manage economically and financially?
Where’s the joy?
Interim Pastor David Mueller attends to that subject in today’s Midweek Extra, an informal video discussion of questions sent to him and his thoughts on assorted issues of the day.
He also discusses making reparations for slavery and other injustices.
Have your own questions for Pastor Mueller? Send them to the church office for future consideration.
Thanks to John Lasher, director of music and worship arts, for producing these videos.
He called for questions — and you are sending them!
This week’s “St. Mark’s Midweek Extra” — an informal, half-hour video hosted by Interim Pastor David Mueller and produced by John Lasher — focuses on the social statements of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the denomination St. Mark’s is part of, and what it means to be a congregation in the ELCA.
Pastor also talks about Christian sexuality in an increasingly permissive society.
If you have questions of your own, feel free to send an email to the church office.
