Christ In All Things

Back in the day at St. Paul’s, Alfred Paul “Al” Mueller was known for giving “a little elbow” to someone who ran the baseline too vigorously in the men’s pick-up basketball games. You’ll find a different Al in this interview: gentle, deeply thoughtful, thankful, at rest of soul in Christ. A couple weeks back listeners heard from Al’s effervescent wife, Kathy. Here you’ll find a man deeply thankful for the lessons in servant-leaders...

Part 2 of our interview with Kathy Jane Mueller centers in the importance of worship in the Christian life. Kathy—in her own charitable and humorous way—helps us understand how following Christ into active participation in the congregation is important. As Kathy notes, when you make yourself available, the Lord will send someone in your path to welcome you and make you feel at home and include you, and it will strengthen your faith...

Welcome to Part 2 of “The Salutation is Not a Holy Howdy.” As our guest, Rev. Dr. Timothy Quill notes, when—as a pastoral greeting—The Salutation is given, “the knot of love between pastor and people is strengthened.” We speak about how and when the pastor is to speak The Salutation, and we move from there into a broader conversation about different aspects of the liturgy, the pastor’s conduct of the liturgy, and the evangelical an...

When the Pastor says, “The Lord be with you,” and the congregation responds with, “And with thy spirit” it is NOT the way the church says, “Hello,” even though it is often treated as such. That back and forth is called, "The Salutation.” As our special guest, liturgical scholar, Rev. Dr. Timothy Quill tells us, The Salutation is both a greeting and a blessing. It’s use in the Church goes all the way back to the earliest liturgies. ...

2025 was the 1700th anniversary of the orthodox church’s confession of faith that we call the “Nicene Creed.” During the fall and early winter of 2025 Pastor Jason Schockman taught a class—and preached an Advent sermon series—at St. Paul’s—Oconomowoc based on the book Worshiped and Glorified: A Study of the Nicene Creed, by Rev. Tim Winterstein. In episodes 101 and 102 of CHRIST IN ALL THINGS we interview the author and discuss som...

Laughter is a great gift of God, and laughing at ourselves is a healthy part of a faithful, Christian life. Because St. Paul’s has a number of pastor’s kids in the congregation we thought it would be fun to give a few of them an opportunity to laugh and tell stories (That can be told in public 😊) about their pastor-dads and a pastor’s family life. So, we’ve called this series, “Holy Humor.” This is “Holy Humor: Pastor’s Kids, Part...

Welcome to Part 2 of our interview with Mimi Gebel, who was born in 1928. What a vibrant and generous and resolute Christian soul she is! Her interview is a fascinating window into German and German-American culture, including the almost “arranged” relationship with a boy named Wally, who became her beloved husband and with whom she operated a successful business that put her God-given skills to work in myriad ways. As you’ll hear,...

“Mimi” Gebel was born in the Year of Our Lord, 1928. Just the exploration of her five names was an adventure, and—as it often is—revealing. We laughed at the story of why she is “Mimi” and we loved the discovery of how her names reveal both a personal history and a gradually revelation of her character. Mimi’s family story is a fascinating immigration story, and a story of how “God works all things together for the good of those wh...

“This boy kept coming over to my house, and my father told him not to come over any more. But then he went off to war…” So begins Part 2 of our interview with centenarian, Ruth Polcha, and so begins the beautiful love story between a faithful Slovak Lutheran named Edward Polcha and—you guessed it—a German Lutheran girl named Ruth Zehnder. Together they made a faithful Lutheran family that has bequeathed further generations of faith...

This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation with centenarian Ruth Polcha. This interview is a window into a humble and faithful Christian family. Ruth is a relatively new member of St. Paul’s, but through her daughter’s family, she has a long connection to us. Her daughter and son-in-law, Kathy and Al Mueller, are some of St. Paul’s more faithful and active members. After many years separated across several states, Kathy rejoiced to ...

We have a deep conviction that a consistent, Scripture-based order of service, or “liturgy”—especially sung liturgy—is better for the faith-formation of all ages. You see, the Divine Service—the Word and Sacrament worship of the Church—is a wedding feast. It is the “marriage supper of the Lamb,” (Rev 19.9) where Jesus Christ Himself is our host and the substance of the feast. So, it’s really helpful—and pretty important—that those ...

We have a deep conviction that a consistent, Scripture-based order of service, or “liturgy”—especially sung liturgy—is better for the faith-formation of all ages. You see, the Divine Service—the Word and Sacrament worship of the Church—is a wedding feast. It is the “marriage supper of the Lamb,” (Rev 19.9) where Jesus Christ Himself is our host and the substance of the feast. So, it’s really helpful—and pretty important—that those ...

In this episode, St. Paul’s congregational leaders Matt Dinnauer (elders) and Alec Heffern (finance) discuss “What Does ‘Stewardship’ Mean?,” the third and final part of our “Reflecting Christ” series with the Rev. Dr. Nathan Meador. As in the responses to Parts 1 and 2, you’ll hear genuine “Aha” moments, thankfulness, and a clear sense of the deep call of all Christians to participate in receiving and giving the love and hope of C...

“What stewardship is not is ‘what you do’. What it is is who you are.” As Dr. Nathan Meador reminds us in Part 3 of our “Reflecting Christ” series on Christian stewardship, we are created and redeemed by Jesus Christ as God’s stewards. It is something we observe, but it is activity that flows from our identity. It flows from receiving the mercies of Christ. In this episode we talk about both the deep reality and the practical appli...

Christians are “sons of God, being sons of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36), for the Lord our God “is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 20:38). “Those who deny that there is a resurrection” (Luke 20:27) neither know the Scriptures nor the power of God, but the baptized faithful know “that the dead are raised” (Luke 20:37). For the Lord, who was and is and is to come, knows Israel’s sufferings and has “come down to deliver...

“A great multitude … from all tribes and peoples and languages” cry out, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne” (Rev. 7:9–10). Uniquely loved, Faith-filled saints from every place and time with unified voices eternally magnify the Lamb of God. As His beloved children, we, too, “shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Joined with the throng of angels and countless saints, we shall “serve him day and night in his temple”...