Grace Lutheran Church sits near the heart of downtown Westminster, Maryland, on Carroll Street just up the hill from where it meets Main Street near the Carroll Arts Center. The original cornerstone was laid on August 5, 1866, when a founding congregation of twenty-two members pooled their resources to build a house of worship. Today the same address is home to a multifaceted congregation that pairs that 19th-century architecture with modern facilities, three weekend services, a preschool, choirs and praise bands, weekly community meals, and one of the county's more active Scout troops.
Worship at the Heart of Life Together
Worship is central to life at Grace, and the congregation gathers three times every weekend.
The Saturday service at 5:00 pm and the Sunday service at 11:00 am are both Traditional Worship, held in the Sanctuary. Hymnals come from Evangelational Lutheran Worship, the music is led by organ and choir, and lay readers assist the pastors by carrying the lessons, prayers, and distribution of Holy Communion. The basic shape of the liturgy remains steady through the year, but worship planners shift the tone with the church year, more joyful at Christmas and Easter, more reflective during Advent and Lent.
On Sunday morning at 9:00 am the focus shifts to Contemporary Worship, often called Praise Worship, in Grace Hall. The Praise Band and Praise Singers lead from the front, six different contemporary songs are typical each week, words are projected on a screen, and printed worship folders guide the rest. The service still follows a classic Lutheran outline of Gathering, Word, Meal, and Sending. A children's message is included, and worshippers are invited to share where they have seen God at work. Six lay assistants join the pastors to distribute Holy Communion.
Worship is livestreamed on the Grace YouTube channel and on Facebook, with the Sunday 9:00 am contemporary service being the one broadcast each week.
Three Services, Many Doors
Visitors who want to slip in without drawing attention will find several entrances. The Sanctuary is easiest to reach from the wooden doors on Carroll Street or from the door off the parking lot on Winters Alley. Grace Hall, the contemporary worship space, is entered from the back of the Winter Street parking lot through what longtime members call the Little Friends of Grace door, or through the glass door from Kemper Avenue behind the columbarium.
Visitors, including children, are welcome at every service. No one is singled out of the crowd, but a Visitors' Table stands outside Grace Hall and at the back of the Sanctuary with a bag of information about the ministries of the church.
Pastors and Program Staff
The pastoral team is led by Pastor Matthew (Matt) Pensinger, who became senior pastor in July 2022. A 2002 Penn State graduate and a 2006 graduate of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (now United Lutheran Seminary), Pastor Matt previously served at parishes in Mount Joy and Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, and in Burtonsville and Gaithersburg, Maryland. He and his wife Deborah, a high school biology teacher, and their daughter Maura live in Hanover, Pennsylvania; his interests include Bible study, history, running, various fandoms, and disc golf.
Pastor Cody Danner joined as associate pastor on September 6, 2022. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theological and Youth Ministry with a minor in Music from Thiel College and a Master of Divinity from United Lutheran Seminary. Pastor Cody is married to Kyla, a speech and language pathologist; together they have two sons, Jonah and Ezra, a dog named Bishop, and a cat named Gus.
Deacon Donald (Don) Myers serves as Minister of Congregational Care. A lifelong member of Grace, he graduated from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and was an instrumental music teacher in Carroll County public schools before running Stu’s Music Shop with his brother. After the business was sold in 2013, he earned a Master of Arts in Ministerial Studies from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg and was called first as Associate Chaplain at Carroll Lutheran Village. Deacon Don’s interests include pastoral care, music, running, reading, and photography.
The music ministry is led by two directors. Erik Piisila, Director of Contemporary Music, has been part of contemporary music at Grace in some form since the early 1990s. He leads Praise Team rehearsals on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 pm in Grace Hall, draws on years of work with Baltimore bands and contemporary Christian groups, and brings his video and graphic design skills from a marketing career in Frederick. Jacob Ziegler, Director of Traditional Music, is an organist and pianist who previously served as minister of music at St. Marks Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hampstead and holds a master’s degree in musical performance.
Jennifer Schuler directs the Little Friends of Grace Preschool, having joined the program as a parent volunteer in 2015, then as an assistant teacher in 2017, and most recently as lead teacher of the 2’s classroom before stepping into the director role.
Little Friends of Grace Preschool
Little Friends of Grace (LFOG) operates a weekday preschool out of the church building. The program serves the surrounding Westminster community and uses the parish building’s classrooms, including the door that opens directly to the Winter Street lot. A Back-to-School Night in late September gives families a chance to walk through routines and meet teachers, and weekly Sunday School classes on Sunday mornings at 10:00 am extend the same ministry into the weekend.
Christian Education for Every Age
Sunday mornings between the two services are dedicated to Christian formation. The Christian Education Hour runs from 10:00 am to 11:00 am during the school year and offers classes for:
- Birth through age 3
- PreK and Kindergarten
- 1st and 2nd grade
- 3rd through 5th grade
- Confirmation and a Middle/High School gathering
- Adult Sunday School / Bible / Book Study
Confirmation meets alongside the other classes during Christian Education Hour, gathering middle and high school students for instruction and conversation as they prepare to affirm their baptism.
Music That Fills the Building
Music is woven into nearly every corner of life at Grace. The Chancel Choir rehearses on Thursday evenings at 7:00 pm in the Sanctuary and sings at the traditional services. The Agape Bell Choir rehearses at 6:00 pm on Thursdays in the Sanctuary, ringing out across the seasons of the church year. On Wednesday nights at 6:00 pm, the Praise Team gathers in Grace Hall to prepare the contemporary service. The building also hosts weekly rehearsals of the Children’s Chorus of Carroll County, a separate community choir that uses the church’s rooms on Tuesday evenings from 5:30 to 8:30 pm.
Bible Study, Small Groups, and Fellowship
Three weekly Bible studies give the congregation a steady diet of Scripture. Wednesday Bible Study meets twice on Wednesdays, at 10:30 am in the morning and again at 5:30 pm in the evening, both in the Lower Gathering Space. Friday Men’s Bible Study gathers at 7:00 am at Panera Bread on Clifton Boulevard in Westminster. Connect Bible Study meets monthly on the second Wednesday at 7:00 pm in the Library.
Holy Girlfriends is a women’s fellowship group that meets on the third Wednesday evening of the month, and the Prayer Shawl Ministry gathers on the third Thursday afternoon to knit and pray over shawls that are then shared with people in times of need. Stephen Ministry, a lay caring ministry, holds its monthly meeting on the third Wednesday evening. A Racial Justice Ministry Team meets monthly on the third Tuesday. The Church Council meets on the third Monday, and the Finance Committee meets monthly in the Library.
Table of Grace and the Ardent Folk Meal
Grace has long been known for the table it sets for its neighbors. The Table of Grace Soup Kitchen serves a free community lunch every Tuesday from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm in Fellowship Hall. The program welcomes anyone who is hungry, regardless of church membership or background, and volunteers come from across the congregation.
On Thursday evenings from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm, the Ardent Folk Weekly Meal brings together another table in Fellowship Hall. The meal is open to anyone who wants to share food and conversation, and it pairs naturally with the Thursday evening choir rehearsals happening at the same hour. Once a month, members also volunteer at the Shepherd’s Table Soup Kitchen, a community meal served in the area.
Twice a year or more, the church hosts a Red Cross Blood Drive in Grace Hall, opening its largest gathering space to donors from across the neighborhood.
Scouting and Recovery at the Church
Grace serves as the home base for Scout Troop 393 and Cub Scout Pack 393. Boy Scout Troop 393 meets on Monday evenings at 7:00 pm in the Theater, Cub Scout dens meet on Mondays at 6:30 pm, and the Troop 393 Committee gathers on Tuesday evenings. Scout leaders and parents use the church as a hub for outings and committee work.
On Monday nights at 8:30 pm, Rooms 109 and 110 host a Monday Night AA Meeting. The meeting is open to anyone in the recovery community and is one of the ways the church quietly opens its doors to people beyond its membership.
Care, Listening, and Prayer
Deacon Don Myers’s work as Minister of Congregational Care, along with the Stephen Ministers and the Prayer Shawl knitters, makes up a quiet network of pastoral care. Stephen Ministers are lay people trained to walk alongside others through difficult seasons; the Prayer Shawl Ministry turns prayer into something soft and tangible to be given away. Together with the pastors, they keep the congregation connected to one another in times of joy and grief.
What Lutherans at Grace Believe
Grace Lutheran Church is a member congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, part of the Delaware-Maryland Synod. The ELCA motto, “God’s work; Our hands,” is a phrase the congregation takes seriously. The church’s central theological conviction is that, through the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus Christ, all people are made acceptable to God by God. Nothing a person can do earns that gift, and nothing can take it away. Grace is exactly what the name suggests.
Martin Luther’s explanation of the third article of the Apostles’ Creed is a favorite of the congregation: “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”
Vision and Mission
Grace’s vision is to be led by Jesus as an intergenerational, multicultural, inclusive congregation that worships faithfully, learns joyfully, and reaches out compassionately. Its mission grows out of that vision: gifted with God’s grace, redeemed by God’s Son, and filled with the Holy Spirit, the congregation grows in relationship with God, with one another, and with the wider community, and through word and sacrament it is sent into the world empowered to serve.
Visiting, Giving, and Getting in Touch
The church sits at 21 Carroll Street, Westminster, MD 21157. The office is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm, excluding holidays. The phone number is 410.848.7020. Online giving is available through Vanco, and the giving page on the church’s site explains how recurring gifts can be set up. The church is also part of the wider network of Carroll Lutheran School, Carroll Lutheran Village, Shepherd’s Staff, Lutheran World Relief, and Mar-Lu-Ridge, partnerships that connect Grace’s ministry in Westminster to work well beyond the town.
For nearly 160 years, Grace has been a steady presence on Carroll Street, a church that holds its history, opens its doors wide, and keeps its hands busy in the neighborhood it has called home since 1866.