Walking in Wyneken's Footsteps

When the Rev. Elliott Robertson, pastor of Martini Lutheran Church, Baltimore, wanted to help a sister congregation solve a current problem, he looked back — way back — to a time before the founding of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) in 1847.

Although the problem facing neighboring Lutheran Church of the Redeemer was new — significant membership decline during a long pastoral vacancy — at its core, it was the same problem that pastor and missionary (and future Synod president) F.C.D. Wyneken noted when he first arrived in Baltimore in 1838.

Robertson and a group of area pastors got to work on a solution, and soon other struggling congregations were asking, “Can you help us too?”