Worship with Us  Saturday 6:00 PM Sunday 8:30 & 11:00 AM  Monday 6:00 PM Wednesday 12 Noon

St Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church

" Proclaiming Christ Crucified "

Read Today's Advent Devotion

Welcome to St Matthew's Lutheran Church

Dear Visitor,

Advent, like Lent, is a penitential season. During Advent, like Lent, we are preparing our hearts and minds to celebrate one of the two primary festivals of the Christian faith. We practice repentance because we know that our sin shows us our need for the Savior of the World, God’s Son Jesus. Because all sin and fall short of God’s glory and because the wages of sin is death, it was necessary for God’s Son to be born of the Virgin Mary in order the He would live the perfectly obedient life we cannot and die the perfectly innocent death we cannot. Without Christ being both fully God and fully human, there can be no salvation. Christmas like Good Friday-Easter is essential to our rescue from sin, death, and the old enemy. Luther called them the “unholy trinity.”

As is our tradition, we will prepare for the celebration of our Savior’s birth with the addition of midweek Advent services at noon and 7 p.m. on December 5, 12, and 19. As with Advent weekends, the tone of worship is quieter and more contemplative to keep before us our need for God’s rescue. When we gather for Advent worship, unlike the culture around us, we don’t celebrate Christmas. We hopefully prepare like parents and others for the birth of a child. We prepare our hearts and minds like getting a nursery ready for the Child on the way. And so repentance, the on-going practice of Baptism, of drowning the old Adam or Eve in us, is the hallmark of Advent. John the Baptist’s cry becomes our own: “Prepare ye the way of the LORD.”

Thanks for dropping by!

Pastor Sam Zumwalt, STS

Come Worship with Us

Saturday 6:00 PM

Sunday 8:30 AM

Sunday 11:00 AM

Monday 6:00 PM

We welcome you in Jesus’ name to begin the penitential season of Advent with us at St. Matthew’s. From the console of our 25 rank Austin pipe organ with trompette-en-chamade, Bill Glisson leads the congregation in the singing of joyous Advent hymns on Saturday, December 1, at 6pm and Sunday, December 2, at 8:30 and 11 am. Similar to Martin Luther’s German Mass, our Advent liturgy incorporates several hymns in place of major sections of the ordo of the Eucharist. The mood is both mysterious and one of quiet expectation.

The chosen hymns for December 1-2 include: “The Advent of Our God” (Entrance); “Savior of the Nations, Come” (the historic Hymn of the Day for Advent 1); and “The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns” (Recessional). Sunday distribution hymns include: “Once He Came in Blessing” (the penitential hymn by Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf) and “I Am Trusting Thee, Lord Jesus.”

We begin a preaching series entitled “The Great Physician” which will carry us through Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, the Sundays after the Epiphany, and the Feast of the Transfiguration. On December 1-2, Pastor Sam Zumwalt, STS, preaches: “The Great Physician: Will Close” (Luke 21:25-36).

During Advent we also have Midweek Services on Wednesdays at noon (Eucharist with Healing Prayer) and 7pm (Sung LBW Evening Prayer). The midweek Advent preaching theme will be the first three “O Antiphons.” On December 5, Pastor Peter Hoyer preaches, “O Wisdom.” On December 12, Pastor Sam Zumwalt preaches, “O Adonai.” On December 19, Pastor Marvin Schedler preaches, “O Root of Jesse.” The Hymn of the Day will be select verses of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” which is based upon the “O Antiphons,” historically used in the daily prayer offices of the Church from December 17 through December 23.

St. Matthew’s has a brief Bible study, currently on portions of the chapters of the Book of Exodus, on Mondays at 6pm. The assembly sings LBW Evening Prayer at the conclusion of the brief, conversational Bible study.

A Wednesday noon Holy Eucharist with Healing Prayer continues weekly throughout the year.

 

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

We Are a Discipleship Center

We encourage each other to:

PRAY daily

“To be a Christian without Prayer is no more possible than to be Alive without breathing.”   - Martin Luther

View Daily Prayers

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

Worship Services & Sermon Transcripts

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

Today's Bible Verses

SERVE at and beyond St. Matthew’s

“God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.” - Martin Luther

Service Opportunities

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

Growth Opportunities

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

Giving Opportunities
St Matthew's Pastor Sam Zumwalt

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