Church Looks for New Members, Ways to Continue Public Service

By Jonathan Farrell

Despite a drop in parishioners and rumors of its imminent demise, Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church's Pastor Paul Mullins reassured the church is "in excellent shape."

He surmised why the rumor has been going around.

"While the church is doing well financially and is very self-supporting, our membership has declined," he said. "Our social ministry is still active and while we are small, with less than 100 members, our congregation is still vital."

"In fact, we just had a major fundraiser on Jan. 16 which had more than 150 people in attendance and raised about $4,000," he added.

But, despite his upbeat mood, Mullins, who has been pastor at Grace Evangelical Lutheran for the past six years, said the problems were not unique to his church.

"The decline in attendance that we are struggling with is what many churches today are struggling with," he said.

Mullins hinted that changing times and the pull of the high-tech modern world has made it very challenging for traditions like church and family.

"Weekends are crazy for most people," Mullins said.

Jim Schimek, parish council president and former pastor at Grace, agreed.

"My son and his wife both work. And, with their schedules it is difficult for them to make the time to attend church services on a regular basis," he said.

Schimek, who has been serving on the parish council for the past seven years, grew up in the neighborhood and was baptized at Grace, as later was his son. He said that as far back as he could remember Grace was "very Scandinavian, the times were different."

Mostly people of Scandinavian background founded the congregation in the 1940s as the Sunset District, the City and the entire nation were emerging from the Great Depression and WWII.

"The church was a little hut when it was first built in the 1940s," Schimek said.

As the post-WWII era prospered, like the rest of the nation at that time, the congregation expanded and replaced the little hut with a proper sanctuary and other changes over the years.

"Back then, we had over 200 members with a lot more outreach, like a youth group, etc." Schimek said.

The main sanctuary as it is today was built sometime between 1957 and 1961, as Schimek recalled. At age 56, he now lives on the Peninsula but has many happy memories of growing up in the Sunset and being a part of the congregation. And, of course, he is honored to have served as pastor, and now being on the parish council.

Both Schimek and Mullins said that even though the congregation is small they are determined to help Grace Evangelical Lutheran build a future.

"Our members are excellent stewards of what has been a part of their lives for so many years,"

Mullins said. "Yet, they want to see the congregation grow and meet the future." Mullins said talks about the future of Grace Evangelical Lutheran are ongoing and he hopes more people will join in the discussion.

"We welcome both friend and stranger," he said.

For more information about Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, located at 3201 Ulloa St., at 33rd Avenue, call (415) 731-1305 or visit its Web site at http://sites.google.com/site/gracelutheransf.