Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church sits along Old Frederick Road in Mount Airy, Maryland, just west of the Woodbine and Lisbon traffic circle and a short drive north of Interstate 70 at Exit 73. Its single-story brick building is next door to the West Howard Swim Club, and from the parking lot one can see the beginnings of the rural countryside that gives way to the western edges of Howard County. The congregation draws members from Howard, Carroll, Frederick, and Montgomery counties, and its members speak of it simply as Calvary.

The congregation has its roots in a small log cabin built on Flag Marsh Hill above Woodbine in the 1890s. In 1904 the cabin was lost to fire, and the people rebuilt in Woodbine itself. Years later, when that building grew too small for the congregation, the present church was erected on Old Frederick Road. A memorial garden, an outdoor chapel shaded by trees, classrooms for children, a fellowship hall called Kimberlin Hall, and the spaces where choirs and praise bands rehearse have all grown up around that move. The community of faith has lived in many buildings, but, as Pastor Anke Deibler has put it in her preaching, the bricks come and go while the living stones remain.

Two Pastors, One Call

Pastors Eric and Anke Deibler began their ministry at Calvary on September 1, 2011. They serve as a co-pastor team, a practice they have kept throughout their ministry together. Pastor Eric grew up in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, the son of a church musician, and earned a liberal arts degree from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, before entering Gettysburg Seminary in 1988. During seminary he spent two years studying at the University of Munich through an exchange program, completing his Master of Divinity stateside. Pastor Anke was born and raised in northern Germany, first in Eckernförde and then in Kiel, on the Baltic Sea coast. She studied theology at the universities of Kiel, Heidelberg, and Munich, then won a scholarship to Gettysburg Seminary, where she completed a Master of Arts in Religion and met Eric. They were married in 1991, ordained together in January 1994 at Eric's home church in Snydertown, Pennsylvania, and have served parishes in Loganton and Williamsport, Pennsylvania, before being called to Mount Airy. Their three children, Ezekiel, Julia, and Nora, grew up alongside the rural parishes they served.

The Deiblers share pastoral duties, preach on a rotating schedule, and make themselves available for hospital visits, home communion, baptism preparation, and the steady work of pastoral care that holds a congregation together week to week. Pastor Anke is also the contact for the Stephen Ministry program and the brass ensemble. Deacon Linda Smith, whose ministry grew out of years of service in the congregation, leads the Monday morning Bible study. Terry Manner serves as organist and choir director, and John Praphit directs the music program overall, including the contemporary Praise Group that leads singing at the 9:00 am service.

Two Worship Services, Side by Side

On any given Sunday morning, Calvary offers two distinct worship services that share the same building, the same altar, and the same community of faith. The 9:00 am Contemporary Worship Service uses modern praise music, drums, and guitars, with a teaching style that aims to bring the day's readings into everyday life. The 11:00 am Traditional Worship Service is built around the organ and regularly features additional instruments and voices from the choir, hand bell choir, brass ensemble, string players, and guest soloists.

Both services are livestreamed on YouTube, where recordings remain available for later viewing along with the bulletin for each service. Sunday morning begins to fill in earnest with the 10:00 am fellowship hour, where members gather between services for coffee, conversation, and the kinds of reconnections that make a congregation feel like family.

Worship at Calvary follows the rhythms of the church year. All Saints Sunday brings candles lit in memory of loved ones who have entered eternal rest. Reformation Sunday gives thanks for Martin Luther and the posting of the 95 Theses. Christ the King Sunday honors Jesus as Lord over creation. Cantata Sunday features the choir's annual Advent or Christmas musical offering. A Blue Christmas service on a December weekday holds space for those whose grief makes the season feel heavy. An outdoor worship service is offered in the outdoor chapel on selected summer Sundays, where dogs on leashes are explicitly welcome and the congregation sits under shady trees just beyond the memorial garden.

One of the most distinctive offerings of the year is the German Christmas Service, held in mid-December. Conducted in German and followed by German holiday treats and fellowship, it reflects Pastor Anke's deep ties to her home country and the way Calvary has welcomed the gifts that come with being an internationally-rooted congregation. Christmas Eve itself brings three services: a 3:00 pm Service of Holy Communion with Harp and Candles led by harpist Kris Snyder, a 5:30 pm Contemporary Family Service with the Praise Team that is described as lively and welcoming to children, and a 10:00 pm Traditional Christmas Eve Service with Holy Communion and Candles that closes with the singing of Silent Night in candlelight.

Faith Boosters for Every Age

Sunday school at Calvary has been renamed Faith Boosters, a name that captures its energy and reach. Classes run from 10:10 to 10:50 am, between the two Sunday services, and are open to learners from age three through high school. Newcomers are welcome at any point in the year. The year begins with a Faith Boosters Launch Day in mid-September, when families gather to meet teachers, register children, and learn what the year holds.

The preschool through fifth grade classes use the Spark! curriculum, which moves through Bible stories with crafts, games, songs, and hands-on activities. Middle schoolers in sixth through eighth grade dig into the Bible and its connection to contemporary life through stories, videos, games, and discussion. High school youth take up issues of faith and society, working through questions that matter to adolescents trying to live their faith in a complicated world. Classes are led by trained members of the congregation in a safe and caring environment.

Confirmation is part of the journey from childhood faith to adult discipleship. The youth program also gathers on Sunday afternoons from 2:00 to 4:00 pm for three kinds of activities through the year: continued faith formation in Faith Boosters, service projects such as assembling Grace Bags for homeless neighbors and making lunches for ESCAPE Ministries and the Howard County Cold Weather Shelters, and monthly outings announced in the bulletin. A highlight on the horizon is the ELCA National Youth Gathering, scheduled for June 28 to July 2, 2027, which Calvary youth are preparing to attend alongside thousands of other Lutheran young people from across the country. Lock-ins and youth-led Sundays round out the calendar.

Music Across the Generations

If there is a single thread that runs through Calvary's worship, it is music. The Music Ministry organizes five ensembles that give people of all ages a place to serve and a way to grow.

The Praise Group leads worship at the 9:00 am Contemporary Service with a mix of drum-driven songs and quiet, contemplative pieces, rehearsing on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 9:00 pm year round. The Choir sings at the 11:00 am Traditional Service and rehearses on Tuesday evenings from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, September through May, welcoming any high school age or older singer who enjoys traditional sacred music. The Adult Hand Bell Choir rings a two-octave set and rehearses on Tuesdays from 6:00 to 7:00 pm in the music room, also September through May; no prior musical experience is needed. The Calvary Brass ensemble gathers six to twelve trumpets, trombones, baritones, euphoniums, French horns, and saxophones of all ages for occasional special music, rehearsing on Tuesdays at 6:00 pm. A Strings group is not currently meeting but has in the past provided string music for worship.

Terry Manner, the organist and choir director, has been involved with vocal and instrumental music since elementary school, much of it at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Sykesville. He studied organ with Ted Dix, former organist at Westminster's Grace Lutheran Church, and has also served as organist at several other area churches. John Praphit, the Music Director, has been performing, instructing, and writing music since 2006 and has served multiple churches and ministries across denominations. He sees music as a gift for healing, inspiration, and evangelism, and outside of Calvary he works in music entertainment and marketing while serving as an advocate for mental health awareness.

Bible Study, Book Groups, and Faith Conversations

Adults at Calvary have several weekly and monthly opportunities to dig deeper into scripture and faith. On Monday mornings at 10:00 am, the Bible Study meets in the youth room downstairs with fellowship beginning at 9:30 am. Led by Deacon Linda Smith, the group is currently working through a study titled Elijah: Living Securely in an Insecure World, a series that draws lessons from the prophet's life about finding security in God amid terrorism, disease, famine, and corruption. At 11:30 am on Mondays, Pastor Anke and Ann Roberson lead a discussion of the book Braving the Truth, a collection of essays by Rachel Held Evans, in the same downstairs room; participants are invited to bring a lunch.

On the first Monday of each month at 6:00 pm, the pastors lead a First Monday Discussion Group that begins with a simple meal and continues with conversation. The current study is Staying Awake: The Gospel for Changemakers by Tyler Sit. Once a month on Friday evenings at 6:00 pm, the JumpStart adult fellowship gathers at a member's home or in Kimberlin Hall for a light meal and a guided conversation about the previous Sunday's sermon. Now five years old and grown to more than twenty regulars, JumpStart is one of the church's most effective relationship-building ministries.

For women, Calvary hosts a Book Talk group that meets monthly in members' homes for a light meal, fellowship, and discussion of a selected novel. Recent titles include Isola by Allegra Goodman and The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, with conversations sometimes lasting deep into the evening.

Care Inside the Walls: InReach and Stephen Ministry

When members of Calvary face hospitalization, the death of a loved one, childbirth, or a major life transition, the InReach Ministry mobilizes the congregation's care. A prayer team lifts up concerns shared on the prayer list in the narthex each Sunday. A meals ministry brings food to homes during times of recovery or transition. Stephen Ministers, members who have completed fifty hours of training through Stephen Ministries, walk alongside individuals one on one for as long as the relationship is helpful, providing non-judgmental Christian care that is strictly confidential. The pastors are always willing to visit, pray, and bring Holy Communion to those who cannot make it to church.

The Prayer Shawl Ministry, meeting on the third Thursday of each month from 10:30 am to noon, creates shawls and stoles for the newly baptized, the sick, the hospitalized, and the homebound. Each piece is knitted or crocheted by hand, blessed at a healing service, and given with the prayer that the recipient will be wrapped in the Father's love. No prior experience is required, and most of the work happens at home. The Calvary Scrappers, a crafters' group that meets at the church, sew quilts for refugees and children in hospitals and create festive decorations for shut-ins. Caring Touch, listed among the ministries, extends quiet gestures of kindness to those who need them.

Reaching Outward: Outreach and Social Ministry

Calvary's OutReach Ministry, working from the verse Let all that you do be done in love from First Corinthians, organizes the congregation's service to neighbors near and far. The Social Ministry committee meets on the third Wednesday of each month at 7 pm and welcomes new participants. Through this ministry, Calvary has reached out to Baltimore's homeless population, provided Thanksgiving turkeys to area families, sponsored families at Christmas, assembled lunches for ESCAPE Ministries, participated in Lutheran World Relief's Crop Walk against world hunger, and supported a missionary.

The youth fill Grace Bags, plastic bags stocked with items useful to people experiencing homelessness, and distribute them through the cars of members who encounter need in the community. Calvary's Sunday School Cares program collects a designated non-perishable food item each month from October through May, with monthly themes such as juice boxes in October, canned fruit in November, and soup in January. Donations are split between Mt. Airy NET and the Morgan Chapel Food Pantry, where need has grown to roughly five hundred families a year. In partnership with the Howard County COAD and the Neediest Kids Network, Calvary has also hosted clothing giveaways that have furnished children across the region and supported a Nigerian couple shipping clothes to children overseas.

Calvary also maintains relationships with a number of larger ministries. Lutheran World Relief, Lutheran Disaster Response, the ELCA Good Gifts program, the Community of St. Dysmas (a Lutheran congregation inside the Maryland State Prison System), Helping Up Mission in Baltimore, The Samaritan Women, NAMI Howard County, the American Red Cross (hosting on-site blood drives), the LWR Farmers Market, and Tackle Hunger are all listed among the ministries Calvary supports. The Earth Advocates ministry reflects the congregation's care for creation and helps shape the annual Creation Care Sunday services, which feature readings from Job about the witness of the natural world.

Top of the Hill and the Life of Seniors

Top of the Hill is Calvary's senior citizens' fellowship, open to all older adults from the church and the surrounding communities. The group meets on the second Tuesday of each month from September through May, gathering at noon for a meal prepared by the Women of Calvary and staying for fellowship and entertainment. A freewill offering is taken at each meal to help cover expenses. Beyond the meal itself, Top of the Hill offers a regular rhythm of connection for retired members who value the chance to see old friends and meet new ones. A separate monthly Lunch Bunch meets at Twin Arch Tavern on the fourth Monday of the month at 1:30 pm for those who want to add a midday outing with friends to their week.

Men's Fellowship and Family Events

Men at Calvary have their own gathering rhythm. The Men's BBQ and Brew is a quarterly social that the church describes with no small amount of warmth, an evening of grilled meats, cold drinks, tall tales, and easy company, typically hosted at a member's home with everyone bringing a dish to share. The Men's Fellowship ministry complements this with regular chances to serve and connect.

The year at Calvary includes several signature community events. The Fall Festival and Yard Sale each September brings pumpkins, mums, and baked goods to the church grounds. The Blessing of the Animals in October is a community-wide celebration that includes pet adoptions, dachshund races, a pet costume contest, and an inflatable race, with pets of all kinds welcome for the blessing itself. Vacation Bible School runs for a full week in mid-July, welcoming children from age three (with an accompanying adult and potty trained) through sixth grade for mornings of stories, crafts, games, and songs. The Christmas Market in November fills the Country Kitchen with baked goods, jams, jellies, cheeseballs, and gifts from local vendors, and includes the always-popular White Elephant Room. Advent wreath-making workshops help families prepare their homes for the season.

Stewardship, Giving, and the Wider Church

Calvary members participate in an annual stewardship program of prayer, conversation, and discernment about the gifts of time, talent, and treasure that each person offers back to God. Online giving is available through the Give Plus platform, and members can also sign up for AmazonSmile, with Calvary Lutheran Church Mount Airy, MD as their designated charity. Checks can be mailed to the church office. The Calvary SCRIP Program offers another way to support the church through everyday gift card purchases. The FUNdraising team organizes events throughout the year and welcomes new helpers.

Beyond the local congregation, Calvary is connected to the wider church through the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Members attend Synod Assembly and have been part of synod worship services and the consecration of new deacons of the Order of St. Stephen. The congregation supports the work of Lutheran World Relief, Lutheran Disaster Response, ELCA Good Gifts, and other churchwide ministries. Looking ahead, Calvary youth are registered for the ELCA National Youth Gathering in the summer of 2027, a celebration of courage, grace, joy, love, and welcome that draws tens of thousands of young Lutherans together every three years.

Visiting Calvary

Calvary's address is 16151 Old Frederick Road, Mount Airy, Maryland 21771, in Howard County. The church office is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and on Sundays from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm. The phone number is (410) 489-5280 and the office email is administrator@calvarylutheranmd.net. Visitors who want to know what to expect can sit in on either Sunday service, watch online, or simply stop by the fellowship hour between services for coffee and a conversation. From Mt. Airy, Damascus, Olney, Ellicott City, Eldersburg, Ijamsville, Frederick, and Baltimore, Calvary sits conveniently in the middle of four counties, a place where the rural feel of western Howard County meets the rhythms of an active Lutheran congregation that has been gathering for well over a century.