Gloria Dei! Pastor Settles Into Area, Role

Pastor Sarah Garrett Krey has called several places home throughout her life, from her native Nashville to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. But after more than a year leading Gloria Dei! Lutheran Church in Arnold, she has found a community where she feels right at home.

Gloria Dei! began as a mission congregation in 1981, making it a relatively young church by Lutheran standards. Its congregation worshiped in several places before settling at the church’s current location at 461 College Parkway.

“I love the people of Gloria Dei! and I love being their pastor. It is a joy and a holy privilege,” Garrett Krey said. “I love that so many original members and families (are still here), are passionate about sharing their faith, and invite new folks into the community. We continue to grow and be blessed by the presence of new families who bring fresh perspective and vision while holding the memory of humble and courageous beginnings.”

Lutheran is not a large denomination in the Bible Belt, Garrett Krey said, and the church she grew up in was certainly an outlier, both in denomination and the fact that it had a female pastor in the early 2000s, which wasn’t typical in her area of Tennessee.

“I wouldn’t realize it until much later, but seeing a woman in the pulpit during my formative years would have a huge impact on my own discernment and call to ministry,” Garrett Krey said. “Ultimately, my call story isn’t especially flashy or exciting. It was less ‘burning bush or thundering voice of God’ and more whispers, nudges and an occasional hearty shove from the Holy Spirit pushing me out of my comfort zone and into deeper trust and relationship with God.”

She earned a bachelor’s degree in Christian leadership from Belmont University in Nashville before earning a Master of Divinity from United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia (formerly The Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia). There she met her spouse, Pastor Micah Krey, while both were seminary students.

The couple moved to the Baltimore area when she served her first call at Salem Lutheran in Catonsville. In 2022, she was called to serve as assistant to the Bishop for Candidacy and Mobility in the Metro D.C. Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, where she assisted with the transitions of new pastors and deacons. After three years, she longed to be rooted in the life of a singular congregation and parish ministry. In late 2024, her husband was called to serve as the pastor of St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Annapolis. By the following spring she was called to serve as the pastor of Gloria Dei! in Arnold. Her ministry officially began in July 2025 when she and her husband moved into the Gloria Dei! parsonage.

“There is a lot of conversation in Christian circles about the decline of mainline Protestant churches. And indeed, many people – and young adults especially – are seeking spiritual nourishment outside of traditional worshiping communities for good reasons. But I also know that so many people are wondering where God is in the midst of suffering, how to engage with a world that feels so deeply fractured, and what, if anything, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has to do with their day-to-day lives,” Garrett Krey said.

She added, “And in a moment when we are told that we can outsource any problem or question or spiritual hunger by throwing it into an AI chat, I find it deeply encouraging that many people are still turning to ancient words, wisdom, scriptures and embodied ritual.”

Garrett Krey believes there is something radical and miraculous about the fact that people choose to wake up on Sunday mornings and join people with whom they would not ordinarily interact to hear centuries-old words, pray and sing together, and proclaim their belief that the love of God continues to call the world to abundant life.

She highlighted that people have always been and will always be hungry for meaning and hope.

“My hope is that people who find their way to Gloria Dei! encounter the love of Jesus through a group of people who are trying to live out their Gospel calling faithfully,” she said. “Visitors should know that they will not find perfection here. They won’t find uniformity or a shiny, polished utopia where everyone has it together. But they will find welcome and a place at Christ’s table.”

Pastor Sarah Garrett Krey said she is inspired by the Gloria Dei! congregation and how members are passionate about sharing their faith with the community.