If you guessed Wittenburg English Ministry, you would be exactly right! It's not exactly a place or and event that was directly impacted by Luther, but the reason it exists is impacted by the great Reformer. Yesterday, I posted a couple of pictures that shows you a bit of the behind-the-scenes volunteer work that goes on to make this ministry possible.
Back in 2016, Jo Ann and I made our first pilgramage to Wittenberg, Germany to work with the Wittenberg English Ministry to reach out to English speaking tourists with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thousands of tourists throng to Wittenberg every year to see where Pastor Martin Luther lived and worked as a university professor.
Today, I share with you a brief history about how WEM started. An LCMS pastor by the name of Keith Loesch (still Director Emeritus) came to Wittenberg for his sabbatical for two month in the summer of 1996. During his stay, the Lord Mayor Eckhard Naumann and other town officials, including some local pastors and church leaders got together and asked Pr. Loesch if he would be willing to initiate a worship and outreach ministry in English at the historic Castle Church and St. Mary's Town Church. Both of these churches of course are associated with Dr. Martin Luther where he preached numerous times. The vision at the time was to have a ministry that would be ongoing into the future that would reach out to hundreds of thousands of tourists who come to visit their fair city.
Pastor Keith explained to them that he already had a call back in the states where he served a parish in Virginia. But he did tell them he had other Pastor friends who would love to come and serve in that capacity. So, in 1997 five Lutheran pastors from the USA conducted a ten-week series of English worship services on Saturday evenings during the summer months June to August. In 1998 the worship program expanded to cover the entire six-month tourist season, May through October. Afternoon chapel services were also added on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and that same schedule continues to this very day.
Lay people have also volunteered over the years to serve as Deputy Directors. Their primary work is to greet the Pastor and their spouse when they arrive at the train station and bring them to thier hotel. The Luther Hotel (now called the Marta's Hotel)has been hosting this ministry by providing a reasonable rate for the Pastors of WEM. The Deputy Directors are available to us during our entire stay to answer any questions and to support us with whatever we might need. The mission statement of the Wittenberg English Ministry is this: We seek to enable people to worship Christ and honor Luther, and to do so in such a way that people from every Christian background, can worship God in Luther’s church.
This year our Deputy Directors are a husband and wife team from Olathe, Kansas near Kansas City. They have done a great job for us and we have enjoyed becoming friends with them during our stay. The following pictures show the signs put up at strategic places in town, our friends Susan and Harold, the small office at the information center and a shot of one of the WEM Pastor's conducting a Saturday evening worship service. Oh wait a minute, that would be me. It is a very traditional service compared to our Saturday Oasis service. And by the way, Pastors Don Hinchey, Hank Simon and myself are among the 200 pastors who have served in this outreach ministry over the years. Great team experience! Enjoy!
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