Our Leadership
Ministry Teams
We have six ministry teams which help create, shape, guide, and support the work that God is calling us to do, especially within Southeast Baltimore. Each team has two leaders-among-leaders, many of whom also serve on the congregation council. Those leaders-among-leaders gather other people from the community who have gifts, passion, and energy for serving in that way.
Those teams are:
Service
Worship
Education
Community
Finance
Property
Church Council
Our congregation council members serve two year terms. Elections take place in June, and new terms begin on September 1st. Council meetings take place the third Tuesday of every month at 7pm--all are welcome to attend.
The council members for this year include Mary Miller (president), Kit Roper (vice president), Corey Brewer (treasurer), Jenna Fisher (financial secretary), Pat Youells (secretary) Joe Burk, Jenn Smith, William Narrow, Marylou Fusco, Stephen Quigley, Pastor Madeline, and Pastor Mark.
The Pastors
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (she/her/hers) is so excited and grateful to serve as the lead pastor of Breath of God.
She currently lives in the Federal Hill/South Baltimore neighborhood, and moved to the city in 2020 after graduating from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She completed a Masters of Divinity and Hispanic Ministry Emphasis. There she met her now-spouse Corey Bergman (they/them), who is the pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in South Baltimore. The two have a very cute dog and two lovable cats.
Most recently, Pastor Madeline has been the mission developer pastor to Rejoice Fellowship (ELCA) in Glen Burnie, walking alongside this community as it embarked on and completed a $2M building project.
She grew up in Frederick, Md., and attended Mar Lu Ridge as a camper and counselor, considering it the cradle of her faith. She went to the University of Maryland College Park where she completed a bachelors or arts in journalism. The Lutheran Student Association (now the Humble Walk) was her strongest community foundation throughout college. The community and spiritual formation at both the campus ministry and Mar Lu Ridge helped her recognize a call to ministry.
After graduating, she participated in the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission program, spending a year in Argentina. She lived just north of Buenos Aires, assisting a small Lutheran congregation and El Arca, a mutually supportive community for adults with disabilities.
Once she was back in the states, she began applying for seminaries and worked in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod office as administrative support to the Assistant to the Bishop for Mobility and Candidacy. The next year she moved to Chicago to begin a seminary education. While there, she served St Andrews/San Andres Parroquia Luterana in West Chicago. And she completed her pastoral internship in both Washington, DC and Vienna, Va., at Augustana Lutheran Church, Comunidad de Santa Maria, and Emmanuel Lutheran Church.
When she’s not at church, she enjoys the New York Times crossword puzzles, spending time with friends, tending to houseplants, walking the dog, and keeping Corey company at Checkerspot Brewing Co. Corey is a bi-vocational pastor, part time at Salem and a part time bartender at Checkerspot, and she loves to sip a beer while Corey works behind the bar.
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This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (he/him) grew up in Otterbein (South Baltimore) with his twin brother Andrew and his awesome parents. He was baptized at Mt. Vernon Place United Methodist Church, and raised in the faith by the community at Christ Lutheran Church. He graduated from St. Paul’s School, the University of Maryland, and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. He absolutely loves his home city and has explored all different parts of it for work, school, community service, and fun. Around town, Mark has worked for the City of Baltimore, the Downtown Sailing Center, and Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland hospitals. He loves to sail, hike, sing, read, bike, play guitar, watch the Terps, and meet new people. Mark and his wife Christine (also a pastor, serving as lead pastor at Epiphany Lutheran Church in Baltimore) have one son and one daughter (students at Balitmore Polytechnic Institute and Patterson Park Public Charter School), an Amazon parrot, and two sweet cats.
Mark is here in this neighborhood for you—even if you’ve never set foot in a church in your life, and don’t intend to do so. Maybe one day you have a question about God, or need someone to talk to, or wake up in the middle of the night and suddenly realize that you desperately need a pastor… then give him a call. In the morning.
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If you would like to listen to a selection of the sermons preached at Breath of God, you can click here.
If you would like to access our full worship service video archive since March 2020, you can access that here.
She currently lives in the Federal Hill/South Baltimore neighborhood, and moved to the city in 2020 after graduating from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She completed a Masters of Divinity and Hispanic Ministry Emphasis. There she met her now-spouse Corey Bergman (they/them), who is the pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in South Baltimore. The two have a very cute dog and two lovable cats.
Most recently, PastorMadeline has been the mission developer pastor to Rejoice Fellowship (ELCA) in Glen Burnie, walking alongside this community as it embarked on and completed a $2M building project.
She grew up in Frederick, Md., and attended Mar Lu Ridge as a camper and counselor, considering it the cradle of her faith. She went to the University of Maryland College Park where she completed a bachelors or arts in journalism. The Lutheran Student Association (now the Humble Walk) was her strongest community foundation throughout college. The community and spiritual formation at both the campus ministry and Mar Lu Ridge helped her recognize a call to ministry.
After graduating, she participated in the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission program, spending a year in Argentina. She lived just north of Buenos Aires, assisting a small Lutheran congregation and El Arca, a mutually supportive community for adults with disabilities.
Once she was back in the states, she began applying for seminaries and worked in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod office as administrative support to the Assistant to the Bishop for Mobility and Candidacy. The next year she moved to Chicago to begin a seminary education. While there, she served St Andrews/San Andres Parroquia Luterana in West Chicago. And she completed her pastoral internship in both Washington, DC and Vienna, Va., at Augustana Lutheran Church, Comunidad de Santa Maria, and Emmanuel Lutheran Church.
When she graduated in 2020, she was thrilled to be coming back to the Delaware Maryland Synod, the best synod in the ELCA. She also came back to this area because she had an established medical team at Johns Hopkins. In 2019, while on her pastoral internship, she learned she had a brain tumor that needed immediate surgery. As far as brain surgeries go, she bounced back pretty quickly. But the tumor was malignant, and treatment decisions were controversial. It was very hard to take in, but she was showered in support by her friends, family and her internship congregations. Her health, wellbeing and faith were all nurtured by this support. Following advice from the Hopkins Tumor Board, she received regular MRIs to monitor things. In October of 2023, it was discovered that her tumor had grown back, and she underwent another brain surgery. Surrounded once more in support, she went on medical leave to recover from the second procedure. Surprising her, Hopkins once again recommended “active monitoring” instead of additional treatment, like chemo and radiation, for the time being. She attributes her community’s support for getting her through this.
When she’s not at church, she enjoys the New York Times crossword puzzles, spending time with friends, tending to houseplants, walking the dog, and keeping Corey company at Checkerspot Brewing Co. Corey is a bi-vocational pastor, part time at Salem and a part time bartender at Checkerspot, and she loves to sip a beer while Corey works behind the bar.
PastorMadeline can’t wait to start getting to know the community at Breath of God. There are already so many wonderful things happening, and she feels incredibly honored to be able to be a part of it. Her first official day will be October 1st, so see you in the fall!