Milt

This is Milt Herman visiting with Mike Mueller about his life at Grace.

Mike Mueller

Oh gosh, let's see. So for me, becoming Lutheran had to do with meeting my wife at Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp in Northwest Montana. That decision to work there as a counselor came about between my junior and senior year. It was a bit of a rough patch so instead of going back and being a boat guard and a lifeguard in Colorado where I grew up. I decided I wanted to do something different. My percussionist friends helped me with that. I play the timpani and other percussion with various music groups at Grace. My friends had worked at Flathead and they thought I needed to go and become a counselor out there.

So it was a bit on a whim but it turned out to be one of the best decisions ever because not only did I meet my future wife but I actually fell in love with the idea of teaching, going through Bible lessons, teaching elementary and middle school-aged kids.

So that was my initial experience with Lutheranism, aside from attending chapel services at Saint Olaf College, my alma mater, and being a part of that Lutheran community (UM YAH YAH!). Flathead allowed me to realize that, hey, this Lutheran religion is actually pretty cool. And I can say, from experience now, when you teach something that's where you learn it the best, so teaching Bible lessons helped me gain more understanding into Lutheran religion than I ever had growing up.

Growing up— I was United Church of Christ—my parents attended that church, but I didn't know what that meant. I appreciated learning about the Lutheran background through Saint Olaf and Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp. Annette's family was actually quite well-versed in Lutheranism. After I graduated we both decided to be teachers. I took an education program from Pacific Lutheran University, got my masters in teaching and by the time we were ready we both spoke Spanish and wanted to teach Spanish. The Wenatchee school district hired us; they liked that we were a package deal.

Annette became an elementary teacher and I became a middle school teacher at Orchard Middle School, teaching a little bit of everything with Spanish included. As far as churches went we knew we wanted to find a Lutheran Church and Grace was on the Wenatchee side close to us. I don't even know if Celebration was going strong in 1999-2000… it may have been. Their newer building wasn't there, so that would have been interesting to know had we checked that out because we appreciate some of the things that Dave Haven has done there over the years. When Grace became our church we liked it. Pastor Steve Reicke was assistant pastor. Pastor Paul Lundborg was the pastor and literally his last Sunday was our first Sunday in church so we said hello and goodbye to him that same day!

Then we just got involved. I got involved with the percussion, and Annette violin—she's a violinist. But one of the neater things in that first year was the Graceful dining--getting together for a meal with various church couples such as Don & Edie, Roy and Della and Bob and Elaine May. We were in our 20s and the others were 60 plus! You just got together, socialized and ate ... and that was neat because I hadn't really done anything like that, and you get to learn who some church members are and what they do, their jobs and most of them were probably retired by then; it was a lot of fun. There was a transition with youth pastors and in this transition Annette and I led the youth group and activities. We actually were the interim youth group leaders for, middle school, high school youth!

Milt

So at this point, how do you feel about Grace? Do you think it's still a worthy place for your family to be? And why do you stick with Grace?

Mike Mueller

Oh, that's a good question. That's interesting because it made me think of the good times earlier on, and particularly with music when the music program was led by Rebecca Gilmore. She was stellar.

When Pastor Jon Nelson was here for so long, there were times we felt like looking at other churches. Maybe we did once or twice, but we stuck things out.

Milt

Do you feel like other members of the church and relationships you formed really helped you make that decision to stay?

Mike Mueller

Yes, the relationships we made in those first few years kept us grounded with Grace as well as our own level of commitment in the church, for example with the music program.

Our kids are older now. I do feel like change can be a good thing within the church. As an educator staff changes occur frequently and I've grown comfortable with that, accepting new members, new vision and direction, etc. Kai’s going to be in 8th grade so it is an okay age for change to occur there. I feel like that could be another direction of the church. We're interested in coming back after the pandemic to be able to reunite with people that we haven't seen in a while and re-experience things ... in a way it will be a new start, a fresh start.

Milt

Yes, gathering with people at Emily's graduation reception was wonderful.

Mike Mueller

It was good for us too ... It felt bizarre though because we really hadn't seen anyone in a while.

Milt

Well, you're familiar with the church's mission statement. The council in the past has worked on it a couple of times, seeing whether they could update it or change it or in any way improve on it. Would you like me to read it quickly?

Mike Mueller

Annette and I helped give some guidance to the mission statement at one point.

Milt

So the one that's currently being used is, "To proclaim and celebrate the Gospel of Jesus through word and sacrament so that a community of believers is created, trained, nurtured and sent into mission".

Mike Mueller

It is that last part that I feel strongly about, so much so that my family went on a mission. Nicaragua for two years to mentor teachers at a private school in Matagalpa. That spoke to us during our time away. That's a big step for Lutherans, right? The idea of actually going on a mission was laughable to some, we got a lot of interesting takes and replies from people when we would say this is what we wanted to do. That's more of a Baptist thing and so in Nicaragua we didn't know any other Lutherans who were on a service project, mission or volunteering.

The mission statement makes me also think of what we should do with money in the Fox Trust Fund. Annette and I helped others through our Nicaragua mission and so money that came to us, we gave away (as a gift of service and time). That's where I'm heading with the Fox. I don't feel like we should hang on to much of this money at all. I would say if Grace were to keep any, something like 1% to 2% would suffice. There is a low income housing project that went up near Mission Elementary School. I want our money to go to something like that.

The idea here is to go big. We gift it. We could have our name somehow attached to it (if necessary?). I often think of what Jesus would do if He had this 'X' amount of money. Is He going to keep it for Himself? We chuckled when we saw some of the improvements ideas for Grace -- His own restroom facility at the church, is He going to consider the idea of a shower? It's just a little bit of the wrong mentality. Give it to an organization that can actually do something big with it. Look to the ideas in the community or maybe even a little further out than our community to enact some real change.

Milt

There haven't been any decisions about giving some of it away. Tithing part of it to the mission group within the church, the Social Concerns team. There really is no money that has left the Fox Fund. In fact, it's larger now than when we received it.

Let's go on to another area. What would you tell a non-member about Grace that you think might compel them to at least come in and see what we're about? What would you tell him about Grace? Just say, for example a new teacher or new staff person comes into your school setting and you know they've just moved here. You know they don't know anybody, and you know they're curious, what would you tell him?

Mike

I would talk to that person, make them feel welcome, let them know Grace is a comfortable and structured church. Knowing that Lutheran service has a liturgical structure can be calming for the soul. It's not going to be different each time, rather similar, and I've come to appreciate that over the years!

I would say to him or her that I love the music that is possible within the walls of Grace. And I would ask them, "Hey, do you sing?" And if so be a part of this choir, it's great and we need your talent. If you're a musician, if you play an instrument, come perform. It's a beautiful church with stained glass windows that has really come along throughout the years. I would probably just invite them in if they had young kids too, or were thinking of a family down the road because we need more youth, need more young people at the church.

I would also tell them that Pastor James is great, he and his family are very warm and inviting. He's so smart, a great listener, and I think we have one of the best pastors in the valley. If someone has a need and is looking for someone to listen to, give sage advice and/or spiritual direction ... Pastor James is it.

So I would tell someone interested in Grace a combination of those things.

Milt

Just by talking off the cuff you've covered most of these questions.

So you guys hopefully still feel a part of our community at Grace. Being away like we've been for so long it may be hard coming back. Celebration Lutheran began from a big riff at our church and both congregations have held together fine.

Mike

You're saying that was before Pastor Jon Nelson? Or was it around that time?

Milt

Yes it was before. I hear you with your concerns about some things that really need to change. I think they will. What a great effort it took to put the columbarium together.

Mike

Right, you know the struggle behind that. At times there can be some stinginess on the financial side of things. Some people want to safeguard the funds and put that money in a cupboard or lock it up.

Milt

I really like your thoughts and you staying with Grace, even when the pastors change every once in a while. Did you have any children when you joined?

Mike

No we didn't. It was just Annette and I.

Milt

So yours have all grown up in the church. We've seen yours from you carrying them on your shoulder to out there on their own.

Mike

That's actually been fun. Mackenzie being so little and—thank heaven she was a girl because she was simpler and easier for us. She had some good interactions with members of the church, people like you who were always there. At the time your children are young, running around and distracting you as a parent during service, it's hard to tell that other members are being supportive of you and your children. And you guys did so great, so that was nice to hear.

Milt

They're perfect like we were. Keep talking, I just want to show you something.

Mike

I told you and Jan that Kai entered himself in the Arts for Kids at Apple Blossom a couple weeks ago, the middle school age division for 2D watercolor. He made a landscape and he was selected by the judges to receive first place; everyone was pleased about that! (Milt’s showing me a sketch Kai made on a pew envelope for gifts and offerings, and it shows an example of Kai’s artistic ability ... it's a profile of you Milt, right?

Milt

I was just sitting in the pew with him and I didn't even know he was doing it and he just handed it to me.

Mike

So Kai would have been maybe fifth grade. He's in 7th grade now.

Milt

Is that his writing there? So he signed it.

Mike

It is actually. It's pretty good and that's probably one of his first profile sketches.

Milt

We have a daughter who is an artist. Her art is really, really good, but she's working professionally now as an artist and doing great with it. Is Mackenzie going to PLU?

Mike

Yes, she finished her freshman year. She wants to pursue math so she's going to be a math major. She's great with her Spanish from our two years in Nicaragua. I can picture exactly what she must be like as a Spanish student. She's the student you hear speak in class and you think, 'How does she do that so well? That girl is phenomenal. Just listen to her. So native sounding and fluent!'

Milt

What do you think we could do better? Anything else you can think of -- our intern program specifically?

Mike

Uhm, for Grace in general, maybe the idea that we can do better with giving. More social justice causes. Bergen himself is going to be good for how the internship program could be better. I'd be curious what Bergen has for input here. This outreach in your project, wanting to get some ideas, perspective, thoughts from members of the church. That's smart!

In a way Grace is getting some feedback and some reflection from an intern who came from elsewhere, outside, and who got to see the inner workings of our church a little bit during an interesting time period, right?