Steve Millender, II

Hi, my name is Steve Millender.  I have been a member of the Episcopal Church since my baptism as an infant.  My family attended church when I was a kid at St. Matthews in Hillsborough, North Carolina.  It is one of the oldest continuously running Episcopal parishes in the nation and boasts several Tiffany stained glass windows.  After church on Sundays, we would stop by my grandparents’ house in Mebane, North Carolina for picnic lunches and milkshakes.  

As I got older, my family realized the need for my sister and I to become part of a youth group, and so we shifted our membership over from the church and Hillsborough to the Episcopal Church of The Holy Comforter in Burlington, where I grew up.  I was an active member of youth group and went on several Church missions including the trip down to Trinidad and Tobago. 

When I went away to college at UNC Chapel Hill, I once again started going to services at St. Matthews in Hillsboro.  I married my wife, Tarra, in that church, and our younger son, David Brooks Millender, was baptized there.

When we moved to the area, we soon became members of Emmanuel Episcopal Church.  Once there, my wife and I quickly became involved in youth ministry.  Within a few months, we were leading children's worship services on Sundays and had completely revamped the alleluia Chapel program within the church.  

When we started that ministry, we had only about three or four kids on a given Sunday.  When we handed leadership of that ministry off to families with younger children last year, average attendance for Alleluia Chapel was about 18 kids each Sunday! What a blessing.

Our ministry work was so successful that when the position of chaplain at Episcopal Day School opened, the rector of the church asked me if I would be willing to step into the role.  This is my fourth year as chaplain at EDS, and it's been my great pleasure to be allowed to serve the children and families of this community by sharing my faith and helping us all understand better how to live into the Greatest Commandment given to us by Jesus... To love God and one another.