Wendy VanderWal Martin – St. Croix Church

Love Across the Veil

Author: Teena Brown • January 26, 2025

Wendy VanderWal Martin offers a beautiful contribution to our new teaching theme by exploring the possibility that those who have come before us and those who have ‘loved us in the flesh’ are still present to us beyond death and can be significant portals of Love. She turns to the great cloud of witnesses mentioned in Hebrews 12 to help us imagine this and shares her own experiences of this kind of presence in her life. Wendy invites us all to be open to the idea that we are truly never alone.

The Connection of Witness & Resilience

Author: Teena Brown • July 7, 2024

Pulling from the lectionary readings and our current teaching theme, Wendy VanderWal Martin offered a beautiful teaching on the significance of ‘witness’ and how bearing witness to one another (and to our own lives) as we truly are and in ways that assure us we are seen, known, and loved, is a powerful root of resilience.

From Fear to Love

Author: Teena Brown • November 26, 2023

Reflecting on today’s lectionary readings and her father’s life and legacy, Wendy shares a vulnerable and compelling message on the extravagance of God’s love, and how messed up theological assertions of a God who elects some and rejects others really is. Weaving together stories and experiences from her own life, and her commitment to a gospel that centers on our belovedness above all else, Wendy offers a powerful alternative to passages in scripture that would suggest anything else.

Grief and Hope

Author: Walter Thiessen • June 19, 2022

Wendy VanderWal Martin spoke today about church denominations that have chosen to exclude churches that affirm same-sex marriage. This talk is powerful and is full of grief, lament, anger, and then hope, though Wendy resisted the temptation to tie it nicely in a bow. She asked questions and the people gathered shared their thoughts. Some of the responses were about unjust systems and some were about individual grieving. Music before and after the talk was by Wendy’s husband, John Martin.