A Life Well Lived

At 102 years of age, Erika Munger is Northwest Ministry Network’s oldest licensed minister.

Three years after World War I ended, and just one year after the deadly global Spanish flu pandemic subsided, Germany was a toxic mix of hyperinflation, violent unrest and fears for the future.

Munger’s dad saw the writing on the wall. The former World War I German army soldier who’d been a prisoner of war in England, fled from the war-tattered country with his family to build a better life in the United States.

America’s open-door immigration policy was shifting; in 1923, right before the flow of immigrants was dramatically reduced, the family arrived at Ellis Island. She was 2 years old.

The family settled in Rochester, New York, and joined an Assemblies of God church, setting Munger on a course for a life of ministry, music and education across her adopted homeland.

“It seems like I knew the Lord, involved with church and music, all my life,” Munger says. At just 15 she was playing piano for the church’s radio broadcast.

A touring singing quartet from the AG’s Central Bible College (CBC) sang at her church in Rochester, upending her plans to attend Eastman School of Music. Instead, the Lord led her to CBC, which later merged with Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri. In 1942 she graduated with a music degree, later earning a master’s degree in piano from Vanguard University.

She built from scratch the music program at Latin American Bible Institute in El Paso, Texas, before returning to Springfield to teach music and direct the CBC Revivaltime choir that toured the nation and had its own radio program. There she met Al Munger, married, and moved to Seattle where she taught music at Northwest University, and her husband directed public relations.

In 1956, they accepted the challenge of revitalizing a small AG congregation in Poulsbo, Washington, a town of 1,492 located on the Puget Sound near Seattle. She and her husband became pastors of what is now Gateway Fellowship Church.

Under the Mungers’ ministry, weekly attendance rose from 75 to more than 1,200. Gateway Fellowship built two churches to accommodate growth, each expanding in size. They also launched the town’s first Christian school, which today has 500 students on two campuses.

With hearts attuned to meeting the needs of people, the Mungers saw the town lacked activities to engage families. So, they created ways for people to gather and have fun. Under their leadership they launched Holy Rollers Motorcycle Club and a racetrack. They started boating, camping and skiing clubs where congregants developed relationships outside of Sunday services.

Munger organized an all-community choir that put on special musical events, uniting Poulsbo churches. She led the church choir and organized the Northwest Ministry Network’s first youth choir that toured the area. Such community events drew people into the church, which grew 15-fold.

Retiring after 32 years as Gateway’s leaders, the Mungers continued to minister at Northwest University, which housed the AG district’s headquarters.

Al Munger was Northwest’s campus pastor when Jeffery Portmann was a student leader. Munger mentored him weekly one-on-one. Gateway Fellowship was Portmann’s home church.

“It was like meeting with my hero every week,” Portmann says of the mentorship.

Regarding Erika, he says, “There’s two kinds of people: One says, ‘Here I am,’ and the second says, ‘There you are.’” Portmann describes her as that second type.

“Her leadership and influence created a culture where the gospel would be presented in creativity and excellence—more than just words,” he says. “We felt her warmth and kindness whenever we interacted with her.”

In 2020, Portmann became director of the AG Church Multiplication Network, founded to empower leaders nationwide to create healthy churches.

“Their fingerprints on my life are unquestionable,” says Portmann, 53. “They always had clarity of mission and a kindness towards people, which sounds like Jesus.

“They’re not about programs—they’re about people. They understood programs allowed them to better disciple, connect with, and love people.”

Their innovation in ministry: connecting with those who aren’t yet followers of Jesus through creative outreach, such as the motorcycle track or building houses for those in need “all before this was a normal thing,” he says.

In a full circle of ministry, Portmann and his wife Joanne are serving now at Gateway Fellowship along with lead pastor Thomas Duchemin.

Today, Erika Munger continues to serve Jesus and is a shining example of all that God can do through a life well lived.