The Rev. Dr. Marta Poling-Goldenne

Pastor Marta Poling-Goldenne serves as pastoral staff at New Song Lutheran Church in Henderson, Nevada. In addition, she serves as an evangelism consultant and seminar presenter for NET RESULTS, Inc., of Lubbock, Texas. For the past five years, she has led a one-day seminar titled, Reach Out: Growing Your Congregation, for numerous mainline Protestant middle judicatories across the United States.

Prior to her current work, she served as Assistant to the Bishop and Minister for Outreach (January 2002-February 2005) in the Grand Canyon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In this call, Pastor Marta was responsible for mission planning with established congregations and church planting for the denomination in Arizona and southern Nevada. For nine years, she served in the ELCA denominational headquarters as Director for Witness and Evangelism Ministries (October 1996-December 2001) and Associate Director for Evangelism Training and Programs (October 1992 –October 1996). She is an experienced church planter, having worked with the Holy Spirit and her husband, David, to plant Living Hope Lutheran Church in Saukville, Wisconsin (August 1987-September 1992). Pastor Marta has published extensively on a variety of practical evangelism topics.

Pastor Marta received her Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, in the fall of 2004. Her final project paper, A Strategy for Empowering Evangelism Among the Mid-Size Congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, chronicled the development and implementation of a major denomination-wide effort that impacted thousands of mid-size congregations in 41 of the 65 ELCA synods. She is currently in the process of writing a user-friendly version of this paper for use in mainline Protestant congregations. Pastor Marta received her Master of Divinity degree from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, Illinois, (1986) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Applied Psychology in the Mental Health Services from the University of Illinois (1980).

Marta has been married for 28 years to her partner in life, love and ministry, Pastor David Poling-Goldenne. Together, they parent two children: Joshua, a recent electrical engineering graduate of Valparaiso University, Indiana, and Jessica, a high school senior. The Poling-Goldennes live in Henderson, Nevada, where together they pastor New Song Lutheran Church. In her free time, she reads, sews, exercises, enjoys the arts, and delights in the antics of feline family members.