
Dear Visitor,
The Sundays after Pentecost are not a season but are called ordinary time, from the Latin “ordinalis” meaning “numbered,” as in the “Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost” et cetera. During the last months of the liturgical year, the color on paraments and vestments is mostly green signifying Christ’s Church on earth growing in the grace and knowledge of her Lord Jesus Christ, His Father, and the Holy Spirit. We celebrate several lesser festivals in the fall including St. Matthew’s Sunday (red for the blood of martyrs), Reformation Sunday (red for the fire of the Holy Spirit), and All Saints Sunday (white for purity and joy).
We are an active, intergenerational parish with many opportunities for worship, study, service, and fellowship. We take seriously that Baptism creates the only identity within the Church, which means we don’t divide people by gender, ethnicity, language, or class. We are self-consciously Lutheran in the way we do theology and ethics, and we interpret Scripture through the lens of Law and Gospel.
St. Matthew’s church welcomes area university and community college students to make their church home with us in order to grow in faith and life. We are always delighted to have all visitors from near and far to join with us in praise and adoration of the Blessed Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
St. Matthew’s is an evangelical catholic parish, which means we confess the Scriptures and creeds of Christ’s whole Church on earth, worship using the liturgy of the western Church, practice one Baptism with water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins, and receive the Lord Jesus’ true Body and most precious Blood in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar every Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, and other feast days. With all Christ’s faithful people on earth, we are unapologetically pro-life.
Out of faithfulness to the Lord and the Scriptures, creeds, and confessions of the Lutheran church, we voted on January 22, 2023, by 98% to disaffiliate from the ELCA (www.elca.org) and by 97% to join the AALC (www.taalc.org). As a former congregation of the Lutheran Church in America (LCA), we must receive a peaceful release by the North Carolina Synod Council of the ELCA.
On Sunday, August 27, 2023, we voted again by 97.3% (110-3) to express our intent to disaffiliate from the ELCA. We continue to pray for, to await, and to expect that peaceful release by the North Carolina Synod Council of the ELCA. Under the supervision and with the guidance of our registered professional parliamentarian, we have crossed every “t” and dotted every “i” according to the constitutional process for disaffiliation and according to Robert’s Rules of Order. Again, in the interim, we persist in giving faithful witness to the Gospel of the Crucified Son of God, Jesus Christ, who alone is righteous and who alone is able to save from sin, death, and the old evil one.
By way of accountability and to set the record straight due to persistent misrepresentation, since 1988, St. Matthew’s has given more than $1.65 million in benevolence alone to the ELCA. We gave even more to world hunger and special appeals for camps and nursing homes (including gifts of $50,000 to Trinity Grove, $35,000 to Camp Agape, and a since deceased member made a $750,000 lead gift to Trinity Grove). From 1983 through 1987, we gave $194,922 to LCA benevolence plus other special gifts and appeals. None of those numbers have been adjusted for inflation. Our annual parochial reports to the ELCA and to the former LCA are the source of benevolence and other giving reported here.
Thanks for stopping by!
Pastor Sam Zumwalt+
szumwalt@stmatthewsch.org
Come Worship with Us
Saturday 6:00 PM
Sunday 8:30 AM
Sunday 11:00 AM
Monday 6:00 PM
Wednesday 12 Noon
THE GREEK WORD FOR CHURCH, “EKKLESIA,” means the ones “called out” of their homes to assemble with the Lord for the apostles teaching and fellowship, the breaking of the bread, and the prayers (Acts 2:42). We urge you to join us in person for worship!
If you can’t worship with us in person, be sure to worship with us on YouTube Live this Saturday @ 6pm; Sunday @ 8:30 and 11am; Monday @6pm; Wednesday @Noon. To access our YouTube channel, please CLICK HERE https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1n7DcvSmSFXYO51dWbdykw
We welcome you in Jesus’ name to celebrate with us the Feast of St. Matthew, September 24, 2023. Vicar Robert Alan Shivers preaches, “Holy Communion: Fills” (Ezekiel 2:8-3:11). The color of the day is red, the color of the blood of the martyrs.
From the console of our 47 rank Austin pipe organ with trompette-en-chamade, Bill Glisson leads Saturday at 6 p.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday in the singing of joyous hymns: “Glories of Your Name Are Spoken” (Entrance); “By All Your Saints in Warfare” (Hymn of the Day); “The Church’s One Foundation” (Recessional). Our Sunday distribution hymns are: “One Bread, One Body”; “Blest Be the Tie That Binds”; “Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation.”
The Joyful Noise Ensemble leads the 8:30 a.m. Eucharist in the singing of joyous hymns and spiritual songs: “Bind Us Together”; “By All Your Saints in Warfare”; “One Bread, One Body”; and “Blest Be the Tie That Binds.”
Special music for the weekend: Bill Glisson’s prelude is, “Praeludium and Fugue in A Minor” (Simon); Bill’s Saturday offering is, “Blest Be the Tie That Binds” (Young); and Bill’s postlude is, “Grand Chorus in B Flat” (Dubois). Joyful Noise sings “Fill My Cup, Lord” (Blanchard) at the at the 8:30 offering. The Adult Choir sings “The Church Shall Stand” (Nygard) at the 11 a.m. offering.
Did you know that you can give online to St. Matthew’s by Clicking Here?
Sheila Whitmeyer oversees the nursery on Sunday mornings for up to five children per service. For more information, please email: slwhitmeyer@aol.com
For online worshipers, be sure to download the bulletin: https://stmatthewsch.org/bulletin/
Live broadcast of each worship service begins several minutes before the posted worship time.
St Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church
612 South College Road
Wilmington, NC 28403
(910) 791-4582
Worship Services
Saturday 6:00 PM
Sunday 8:30 & 11:00
Monday 6:00 PM
PRAY daily
“To be a Christian without Prayer is no more possible than to be Alive without breathing.” - Martin Luther
WORSHIP weekly
"To gather with God's people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer." - Martin Luther
READ the Bible
“The Bible is Alive, It speaks to me; It has feet, It runs after me; It has hands, It lays hold of me” - Martin Luther
SERVE at and beyond St. Matthew’s
“God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.” - Martin Luther
Be in Relationship to encourage spiritual growth in others
"If he have faith, the believer cannot be restrained. He betrays himself. He breaks out. He confesses and teaches this gospel to the people at the risk of life itself." - Martin Luther
GIVE of my time, talents and resources
“I have held many things in my hand, and have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands that I still possess.”– Martin Luther

Pastor Sam's Blog
Read Pastor Sam's blog for current news and inspiring articles
HOLY WEEK @ ST. MATTHEW’S AND WHO’S PREACHING
NOONDAY HOLY WEEK WORSHIP Monday 4/3: Pastor Michael Bergbower, “Not to Be Served But to Serve” (Isaiah 42:1-9) Tuesday 4/4: Vicar Robert Shivers, “Chosen for Service” (Isaiah 49:1-7) Wednesday 4/5:…
Read MoreFUNERAL OF RICHARD THOMPSON ON WEDNESDAY 3/1/23 @ 2 P.M.
The Funeral of George Richard Cunliffe Thompson III (Richard) will be in the nave on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at 2 p.m. Burial follows immediately in the Memorial Garden. A…
Read MoreUNSUNG SAINTS: JIM THE BISHOP
https://mailchi.mp/stmatthewsch/saturday-after-ash-wednesday-5wzscma6jf?e=423ab67a37
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We will give God thanks and praise for the life of Margaret Baldwin French on Friday, February 24, at 1 p.m. at the Bethany Presbyterian Cemetery on Castle Hayne Road.…
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