Alumni Spotlight: Reaching the Nations at Our Steps and Through our Doors

Pastoring a congregation of many nations in Munich Germany, Steffen Muller credits his RTS training for laying a strong foundation for his ministry. Muller grew up in Germany, Christian but a stranger to the Reformed tradition. He studied economics and worked as an economist before the Lord’s path eventually led him to embrace a call to full-time Christian ministry as a pastor. 

Muller first learned about Reformed theology through Second Presbyterian Church in Greenville, SC where close friends of his wife were members. When he began considering where to enroll for seminary, he was advised by several mature believers he knew in the US to go to RTS, including Ligon Duncan. He also knew that the professors at RTS hold to the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible, a non-negotiable for him. After much thought and prayer, he decided to attend RTS, starting out at the Jackson campus before switching for years two and three to the Charlotte campus where he eventually completed his Master of Divinity in May 2005. 

While at RTS, he completed an internship at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, NC, a suburb of Charlotte. It was an experience he recalls fondly as having prepared him to shepherd the diverse church he leads today. He also feels indebted to the values RTS reinforced, helping to shape him into the minister he is today, “I am deeply grateful to God that He allowed me to study at RTS. The high view of God and the importance of being faithful to Scripture and the emphasis on personal godliness and humility is so very helpful and much needed. To God be the glory!” 

After graduating from RTS, Muller remained in the US for several years working at a church not too far from his alma mater in North Carolina. Eventually, however, he felt called back to Germany and relocated once again with his wife and two children to southern Munich. There, he planted Gospel Church München in Grünwald with a mission “to preach Christ crucified and risen and to build, Lord willing, a vibrant and biblically faithful church in downtown Munich that subscribes to the Westminster Standards.” By the grace of God, the church is global in scope and though he is a German man serving in a German church he is still able to reach the nations. There are currently people from about 40 different countries at Gospel Church München spanning Europe, South America, Africa, Asia and even a few people from the US. About 80% to 85% are between the ages of 18 and mid-thirties. Many of them are undergraduate and graduate students or young professionals. As he’s navigated the joys and challenges of his new call and ministry, he holds close to what was most deeply ingrained in him during his time at RTS, “that we do everything to the glory of God and that God and his word needs to be the focus in all that we do.” 

The immediate needs of his church have not prevented him from being forward-thinking about the future of the church. Mueller is working to secure the resources that would allow him to host more interns, prospective church planters, and pastors at Gospel Church and provide them with theological and leadership training by ministers from the US who can help disciple future church leaders. Of his own development as a leader, he shared this aspiration, “I think that with the help of the Holy Spirit we need to become more and more bold and clear and loving with the Gospel and with the Word of God. Not being afraid of men but fearing and loving God and thereby being able to truly love people and point them to the only savior: the Lord Jesus Christ!”