Ministry Notes | LuMin St. Cloud

Servant Companions

11/22/2021

Would you like to volunteer at the ELCA Youth Gathering and help young people grow in faith and encounter Christ? Serving the youth of this church is a vocational calling that requires careful discernment. Next summer, thousands of youth and their adult leaders from across the ELCA will gather in Minneapolis for the 2022 Gathering, MYLE and the tAble.

The Gathering invites young adults (19-30 at the time of the Gathering) to serve as Servant Companions. Their primary responsibility would be to accompany congregational groups as they encounter and serve the people of Minneapolis during their Service Learning day. Applicants should be comfortable leading a group, thinking on their feet, and speaking about their faith. Servant companions will also help during some evening activities.

The Gathering is more committed than ever to reducing barriers to serving as a volunteer. This cycle, there is no application fee and participants selected to serve will receive round-trip airfare (or mileage reimbursement) to Minneapolis, per-diem, or catered meals while onsite, and shared lodging accommodations.
For more information about the ELCA Youth Gathering or about their Servant Companion program, visit: elca.org/Gathering/Volunteer.

Letter from Pastor Courtney Young

5/18/2020

Dear LuMin in St. Cloud,

This month I gave the LuMin in St. Cloud board notice of my resignation. My official last day will be May 31st.

Over my nearly five years as campus pastor, I have frequently and proudly introduced myself as bi-vocational, both pastor and stay-at-home mom. For nearly five years these two vocations of mine have lived together in harmony. The Covid-19 crisis has brought a startling end to that arrangement.

As St. Cloud State University entered its second and then third week of spring break while at the same time my children’s school closed, and then both education institutions launched distance learning for their student bodies, my life changed dramatically. As a pastor, it felt like the ministry had left as students returned home. As a mother of a kindergartner and a 1st grader and a wife of a community pharmacist, my work at home suddenly became much more demanding and crucial. Since opening schools on all levels looks like it will be a slow and tricky endeavor, it seems to me that the ministry to which I was called has reached an end and a new ministry is emerging, one that I cannot venture with because I need to dedicate my attention and care to my children so that their home feels calm, happy, steady, and safe.

Though this is certainly not the way that I thought that this call would end, that does not diminish the gratitude that I have for this call and all the communities that came together in hope around this ministry and welcomed me in. Thank you students! Thank you SCSU faculty and staff! Thank you St. Cloud community! Thank you Great River Conference! Thank you Southwestern Minnesota Synod! Thank you LuMin Network! In different ways and different places we have come together to dream, to lament, to laugh, to study, to worship, to rest, to play, to pray, and to try and try again. I am grateful to have shared those moments with you. As my first call, this is the place that I officially became a pastor. You have been a part of the group of people who has helped form me into a pastor that is always looking to make a faith in Christ more accessible and personal. I thank you for your support and commitment.

I think one of the hardest things about leaving a call now is being unable to say good-bye in the ways that we all are accustomed to and yearn for. Information about ways to say good-bye in digital spaces will be announced as they are arranged. If you are so moved, cards or emails are always a lovely way to reach out. My email address is [email protected].

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me or the LuMin in St. Cloud board president, Marcia Kleven, at [email protected].

In faith, hope, and love,

Pastor Courtney Young

A Christmas Message from Pastor Courtney - Let's Pretend the Shepherds were Girls

12/25/2019

Luke 2:1-20
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Greetings to you and peace from God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Abiding Holy Spirit.

Luke is my favorite Gospel. There are many things I love about this book: the care and concern for the lowest members of society, the stories that witness to the activity and presence of God the Holy Spirit, the challenging stories that force us to question our relationship with money and power, and all the stories about women. Luke tells more stories about women than any other Gospel. In just the first two chapters, Luke tells us about the hospitality of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, we hear the most detailed account we have about Mary, Jesus’ own mother, and we hear about Anna, a prophetess who recognized God in the infant Jesus. One biblical scholar even nick-named it the Gospel of Womanhood.

One of the great joys in life is learning something new about things that you already love. I got to have this experience when I visited St. John’s University and their newly opened gallery to provide a permanent viewing location for the St. John’s Bible. The St. John’s Bible is a modern illuminated Bible made entirely with traditional methods. Real vellum, hand made paints and inks, the entire text of the Bible hand-written. It took over 10 years to complete and it is a masterpiece. Illustrations in gold leaf and beautiful jewel tones. Perfectly detailed depictions of bees and butterflies alongside wrecked cars and computer code. If you haven’t seen it, I encourage you to look it up. Currently, the book is unbound so it can visit more places and more people. While I was moving from page to page in the gallery, I came to the painting that introduces the Gospel of Luke. (https://www.saintjohnsbible.org/Promotions/Explore/#book/909) I took in the beam of gold that cuts the picture in half representing God’s presence and power. I saw Mary in her traditional blue leaning over the manger to check on her baby, and I turned my attention to the information plaque next to the page. There, I was surprised to read that given what we know about ancient Jewish culture that it is quite likely the shepherds were actually adolescent girls. I turned back to the painting, the shepherds, shining in gold, reflecting God’s light, had young faces and were wearing head scarves much like Mary’s. One shepherd is even holding a child herself. I smiled at the thought that the Gospel of Luke might be even more a gospel that shows women than I realized. The creators of this masterful Bible, the likes of which we get to see new maybe once every 500 hundred years, thought it was so important to put it down on real vellum in gold leaf and handcrafted paints.

Now we’ll never know for certain who those shepherds actually were, but for this Christmas can we imagine that the shepherds in Luke’s gospel were adolescent girls and wonder together what they might have to teach us about God.

If those shepherds were in fact girls, then we see God’s faithfulness in the choice of the angels to share the good news that Jesus is born with them before anyone else. By coming to these shepherdesses first, God shows Themself to be faithful to Mary’s prophecy in her Magnificat that God “...has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly,; he has filled the hungry with good things, …” You’d be pretty hard-pressed to find someone who fit the idea of “lowly” more than these poor, adolescent, Jewish girls during the time of the Roman Empire. But God lifted them up, not a king or a business tycoon, but them by sharing with them the story of Jesus and making them the bearers of the Good News. They are encompassed in heavenly celebrations. They witness the angels sing praises to God. These girls are given their own divine encounter to treasure and share with others: that God is up to something new with Jesus’ birth, God is setting out to surprise the whole world with what has happened and what is going to happen. God means to be faithful to those who are hungry, who fear for their safety, who worry about their future, who are never taken seriously, because God included them, some lowly shepherd girls, in the telling of the story from the very first moment.

Next, if the shepherds were in fact girls, we see them come into town to search for and meet Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. Here, I see God’s surprising faithfulness too. God did not let Mary find herself alone when she had traveled so far and just accomplished one of the most difficult and rewarding things that a person can do, give birth and welcome a child, and away from family or friends. In a moment when Mary might have been stricken with loneliness, God sends Mary these girls, people who are just like her who understood her, to come around to support and celebrate her and her family. God did not let her be alone. These shepherd girls come into town, and find Mary and Joseph to exchange stories about how God has surprised them. They share their joy with each other. In this something new, they, the lowly ones, will not be used or forgotten anymore. With God, they are and will be treasured. They are and will be bearers of God’s story and faithfulness to each other and to the whole world.

Most nativity sets depict the shepherds as men. But this Christmas, since we’re imagining that the shepherds were girls and wondering what they might have to teach us about God, if you have a nativity set at home that has male shepherds, I’m inviting you to set them aside and find some female counterparts. Maybe you have some Christmas ornaments that are girls that could stand in as shepherds until your festivities are over. Maybe you have some dolls that you could use. Maybe you could dress your shepherds in Barbie clothes. Be creative. But most importantly, take some time to look at your new nativity scene. You might wonder if it does actually make a difference if they were shepherds or shepherdesses. You might wonder what happened as they went about their mundane lives after an experience like that. You might notice that Mary is not surrounded by only men and farm animals now, but has other females by her side to witness to God with her and now have their own stories of God’s unexpected and surprising faithfulness. In the end, whatever you notice, I hope you get to feel the joy of learning something new about a thing, or a person, that you already love. It is one of the great joys in life. It is one of the great joys of the Christmas season. Amen.

Newsletter - September 2019

9/10/2019

Weird and Faithful: Community
Each year LuMin in St. Cloud scouts out a person, lay or ordained, who is doing something that is both weird and faithful in ministry and brings them to St. Cloud to share their experiences with students, alumni, and supporters of campus ministry.

This year we’ve invited Pastor Lenny Duncan, ELCA mission developer and newly published author, to join us on September 27, 2019 at 7pm to share portions of his book called Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the US and engage us in conversation about how to form and maintain communities that have enough space to hold people’s many diversities. Find the event and more details on our Facebook page, LuMin in St. Cloud. If you can’t make it, but would still like to show your support for LuMin in St. Cloud, check out ways to give on the "Support Us" page here or like our Facebook page.

Questions from a Past Project
As I look forward to incoming applications for new student ministry projects, I wanted to share with you some of the work that a student completed for his project last spring semester. He applied to take some of his friends on a retreat to discuss how technology is changing the practice of religion. Though we hit some metaphorical bumps in the road, we made it up to Luther Crest Bible Camp in April for relaxation, good food, and great conversation. I think the student even surprised himself with how well the weekend went! Here are some of the questions that he crafted for our time together. I hope they spark some good conversation for you as they did for us.

Can the religious systems of the past work in the tech world of the future?
Do you think the advancements in social networking technology are helping people connect more or less?
In what ways do you think future technological advancements will change the way people learn religious ideals?

Summer Sermon 2019 - Digging Wells and Seeing the Lord

8/15/2019

Genesis 26:17-22
So Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar and settled there. Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham; for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the names that his father had given them. But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, the herders of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herders, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the well Esek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also; so he called it Sitnah. He moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he called it Rehoboth, saying, “Now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

Greetings to you and peace from God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Abiding Holy Spirit.

You may not be familiar with our story from Genesis today, the story of Isaac clearing out the old wells of his father and digging new wells to meet new needs until he finally declares that the Lord has made room for us. This little story is not included in the Revised Common Lectionary, our schedule of assigned readings each Sunday. I didn’t come across it until I was looking for a reading for my installation service as Lutheran campus pastor at SCSU four years ago. When I first read this story, it felt like I had been handed a gift from God. A gift to help me think about ministry on campus.

But before we get to all that, I want to dive into this little story.

Isaac was actually born and raised in Gerar. If he considered any place the home of his childhood, it would be in that land among the Philistines. But he had moved away when his father, Abraham, had moved, yet again, to pursue God’s call. Now Abraham and Sarah had both died, and Isaac was the head of his vast household. A famine had come to the land so Isaac seeks refuge in Gerar just as his father had done before him, and they do indeed find a safe haven among the Philistines. They grow, they prosper, and yet, it is an undertaking to find a place to truly settle. It is a process getting to Isaac’s declaration, “The Lord has made room for us.”

The first thing that Isaac does is return to the land that he grew up on, to the wells that had been allotted to his father, to the wells that he drank from and watered his livestock from. In other words, Isaac found new life in his heritage. He returns to the wells that had nourished him and cleaned them out so they could nourish him again.

After restoring and being restored to his heritage, it isn’t enough to sustain his expanding household. Isaac and his servants are on the hunt for a spot for a new well. Isaac is stepping up to add to what his father started before him.

As luck would have it, the first place Isaac’s servants dig, they discover running water, but the neighbors protest the well. Maybe the running water cut off their water supply upstream. ::shrug:: In an area where water needed to be carefully managed so that everyone had enough, the unhappiness of a neighbor was a serious matter. So Isaac abandons the well and digs another. Again a neighbor protests his new well. And again Isaac abandons it. Watching this, we see that finding a space to flourish is not simply finding a spot to stay put. It is the joining together of the resources to flourish - daily water and daily bread with the needs of the neighbor, heritage with innovation.

So after a couple of failures to secure a new well for a new day and growing household, Isaac moves. Not far. He doesn’t abandon his prickly neighbors or the valley, but he moves. He shifts his perspective, shifts what he is looking for and digs a new well there. Nobody quarrels with him over this well so Isaac names it Rehoboth or broad places. The word reminds me of the sense of broadness you get when you stand in an open place or a high place and the horizon stretches on for miles. Isaac had found his breathing space, his space to flourish, so he declares, “Now the Lord has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

This little story has been a gift. When I found it, it felt like I was being handed a framework for finding a place for new life for ministry on campus. In it is no easy answer, no step-by-step guide for getting your way. Instead it gave me things to keep an eye on. You are nourished because of the heritage that was left to you. Love and care for it, but don’t get stuck by it. Add something, leave your mark, dig new wells, and name them. Even if you have to leave those wells behind, know that they nourished you in their time and might find and give life beyond you. Listen to those around you. They can help you find a place. Don’t be afraid to move, to change your vantage point. It might be just the thing you need. In the end, Isaac identifies all of this activity as the Lord’s activity - old wells and new wells, quarrelsome neighbors, failures and successes not meant to last, and moving and being moved - all of these joined together are the activity of the Lord, which brings us to broad places.

Truly, this little story has given me a firm footing as I have explored what it means to have a space in a bustling place like St. Cloud State University. It re-emerged in my imagination as the last four years of the ministry were reviewed in December by a gathering of our ministry partners - synod staff, neighboring pastors, ecumenical partners, SCSU students and staff, and our board. We gathered together to look at the wells we had cleared, new wells we have dug, wells that need to be abandoned, and spots that could be hiding water. Through this process, the ministry has committed to launching weekly worship on or near campus for this next school year and finding some sort of office space for me so that students can reliably find me. We’re clearing out an old well and digging a new one. And standing firm that the Lord moves through all of this activity.
Now I’m passing along to you this little story that God has gifted me about Isaac digging wells to find his broad place. May it help you see that the world is disorderly and complex and unpredictable but the Lord joins it all together to provide water in dry times and guides us to fruitfulness. Amen.

Newsletter - June 2019

6/5/2019

Roots and Branches
Since LuMin in St. Cloud’s ministry review was completed this past winter, I keep coming back to the image of a tree with thick, full branches and deep, sturdy roots. The hope of the board is that this ministry would be able to grow longer branches to provide a place of spiritual enrichment for more students, but to be able to do that we need to have a more established root system. Developing a root system will be the focus heading into the next academic year. The two areas we are concentrating on that will keep LuMin in St. Cloud well-supported and standing tall are consistent worship and reliable space.

Rooted in Worship
For the 2018-19 academic year LuMin in St. Cloud committed to gathering for more consistent worship. That commitment took shape as Second Sunday Dinner Church. Dinner Church is a liturgical and casual form of worship where a full dinner is served, communion is shared, and the sermon is conversational. The students and I enjoyed getting to engage the Gospel of Luke thoughtfully together, share homemade food, and lift up each other’s prayer concerns. To the right, the students and I are stamping pendants with a word that each person has chosen to guide them for the coming year, which is called the “one word” practice.

Rooted in Place
LuMin in St. Cloud is working toward securing rental office space on or near campus by the start of the 2019-20 academic year. Stay tuned for more information about our new space in the next newsletter! We hope that this space will make it easier for students to connect to the ministry and feel better supported in building community with one another and pursuing their student ministry projects.

Newsletter - February 2019

2/4/2019

Student Ministry Projects
Fall semester I had the joy of guiding three unique student ministry projects: one student wanted to host a space to explore how faith and science can be in conversation, a second wanted to lead a Bible study on faith and doubt, and a third wanted to organize a retreat. To see some thoughts from the students’ self-reviews, click over to the Student Ministry Projects tab. You will see two projects were completed within the semester; the third will be completed this spring.

It has been a joy for me to encourage and empower these students to put their faith in action. I get to witness them ask important questions of themselves and others, make connections between faith and daily life, and build their confidence.

End of FY 2018
We finished our first fiscal year on the Southwestern Minnesota Synod’s budget where we expected to be and on track with previous years. You will notice a new support category this year: ELCA Churchwide. In previous years, that money had been pooled and dispersed from Lutheran Campus Ministry - Minnesota. We now receive their support directly.

A Time for Reflection and Review
For decades, in-depth ministry reviews have been a cornerstone of how the ELCA cares for its campus ministries. This past December, LuMin in St. Cloud underwent such a review for the first time since we have embarked on our building-less ministry model in 2015. It was a great time to reflect on how far the ministry has come and a time of invitation to consider where the ministry might need to change course or go further. In the future, the board and I will be sharing highlights from what we’ve learned from the experience on our blog and how it has shaped our vision and hope for the ministry.

Newsletter - September 2018

9/12/2018

Weird and Faithful 2017 with Pastor Margaret Kelly

Give Your Information
While you are exploring our website, you will find a link to a form at the top of the “Support Us” page. If you would, please take the time to fill it out to help us make sure we know how you fit into the LuMin in St. Cloud community. When the ministry transitioned from belonging to a congregation to being a ministry embedded in campus life, we were unable to retain critical information about our alumni.

Weird and Faithful 2018
In 2016, I announced the beginning of a new annual event - Weird and Faithful. Each year LuMin in St. Cloud will scout out a person, lay or ordained, who is doing something that is both weird and faithful in ministry and bring them to St. Cloud to share their experiences with students, alumni, and supporters of campus ministry. For one afternoon, people from all areas of our church’s life can share a meal and consider how God might be nudging them outside of their boxes.

On October 14, Dr. Jake Sorenson, a practical theologian and researcher who finds joy in bringing scholarly attention to ministry especially experiential ministry, will be coming to Salem Lutheran Church in St. Cloud, MN to present on his latest research project. He set out, along with Dr. Roland Martinson, to discover exactly what Lutheran Campus Ministry looks like across the country and what it offers to students and the larger church alike. The research has taken over two years to complete and is the largest study of its kind. Come and hear what Jake has discovered about the character of campus ministry in our Church.

Summer Sermon 2018 - Conversation Across the Chasm

8/15/2018

Luke 16:19-31
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.
The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham.
The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’
But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.’
He said, ‘Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.’
Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’
He said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Greetings to you and peace from God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Abiding Holy Spirit.

On Saturday, August 12th 2017, I watched a Facebook livestream as a few dozen counter-protestors walked the streets in Charlottesville, Virginia in silence. The counter-protestors were clergy who were only two or three degrees removed from me through a variety of collegial relationships. I watched them walk the streets in their vestments until they came to Emancipation Park and lined one of the sidewalks with their arms linked. Then they started to pray - just like we pray every week together as a church. One at a time they prayed for God’s peace to reign, for justice to prevail, for God’s healing presence to settle on the city. The space they created with their prayers felt eerily pristine as the city was frothing with tension. As they prayed, members of the Unite the Right protest approached them chanting ugly things. The last thing I saw before I turned off the livestream were two divergent groups of people facing each other over a sidewalk. An ordinary sidewalk. With green grass on both sides and trees lining the boulevard. Never had a sidewalk seemed as vast as that one did in that moment. I turned off the livestream because violence seemed likely if not imminent and I could not watch anymore. Those clergy were just like me, and the streets of their city, Charlottesville, were not safe that day.

As I turned my focus back to my life - to the beautiful summer day, to my beautiful, joyful children, to the comfort and safety of my home, I marked for myself that this was happening in a college town - not 10 minutes away from the University of Virginia. The thought that developed was that this year was going to be different, and I, as a campus pastor, had better get ready for it.

The question I placed before myself for the 2017-2018 academic year, the question that has come up again and again, is - How do we cross seemingly uncrossable chasms between one another? Jesus does my question one better and in the parable we just heard about Lazarus and the rich man we get to hear how these chasms are formed.

Jesus tells a story about a rich man, who wears luxurious, purple clothes, who hosts sumptuous feasts, and who seemingly never notices or speaks to the beggar named Lazarus who is just outside his gate, who is extremely ill, and who is hoping to get some sustenance from scraps from the rich man’s table. Both of these men die - the rich man ends up in Hades and Lazarus finds rest and comfort in the bosom of Abraham and “between them a great chasm had been fixed.”

It is then that the rich man belies the fact that somehow he does know Lazarus or at least knows his name when he is desperate for relief, and even in death, in Hades, requests that Lazarus be sent to quench his thirst as if he were a servant. Abraham, not unkindly, explains that the rich man got his good things in life and besides they cannot cross the chasm. So the rich man asks that Lazarus be sent to warn his siblings, again as if Lazarus were a messenger. Jesus ends the parable with Abraham asking this question - What is the omen of a ghost going to change? Your siblings already have all of God’s laws and the prophets to teach them how to embody those laws. If they have all that, what is one man rising from the dead going to change?

The situation that Jesus lays out is pretty dismal. God had made it abundantly clear that it is the responsibility of God’s people to care for the vulnerable in society - the poor, the widows, the orphans, the strangers among them, and the sick. This rich man didn’t do that - couldn’t even do that for poor Lazarus lying right outside his gate - obviously in need. Even though he somehow knows his name. Silence and fear and selfishness and ignorance and power lay between them until that gate ruptured into a chasm and they lost their chance to be reconciled.

It makes me fearful that there might be some point of no return. Some point when no matter how physically close we are that we cannot see or be seen, we cannot hear or be heard. Was the sidewalk I saw in Charlottesville, Virginia truly uncrossable? Was it a ruptured chasm right before my eyes?

My intuition that this academic year was going to be unlike anything I had seen before has turned out to be accurate. Students feel that the stakes are high right now - their actions and conversations have an extra urgency. Hate groups have raised their voices with more frequency. Vulnerable students don’t know who to trust to protect them from those who want to see them as less than a whole person. In the midst of living in a world on edge, they still have to manage all the normal young adult growing pains of first loves, first jobs or first real jobs, balancing work and family and friends and school, and figuring out how faith fits into all of this.

But thankfully Jesus doesn’t leave us considering a point of no return. When our sin takes on a life of its own and we are not only separated from God but separated from each other. A point when our communities lose the capacity to see and value the individuals in their midst. Thankfully Jesus ends his parable with this tongue-in-cheek statement - If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone rises from the dead.

Instead, Jesus, the son of God, is sent to us, to the siblings of the rich man who are still alive and shows us how to care for the vulnerable in our midst. Not to see the label, not to see the hashtag or the propaganda that tries to fix chasms between us, but sit with and eat with and listen with curiosity to those people who are just on the other side of our gates.

When we fail at that, because we will, Jesus died and crossed the uncrossable chasm. Jesus sealed the rupture between the rich man and God, and the rich man and Lazarus. There is no point of no return because Jesus came back to us. There is no point of no return because God will not let silence or fear or selfishness or ignorance or earthly powers have the last word. Grace will be the last word.

Now back to the question that has been guiding my ministry at SCSU this year - how do we cross seemingly uncrossable chasms fixed between one another? You stick your hand out. You run your hands along your walls until the texture changes, until you feel something different, until you have touched one of your gates. You push open the gate, flinch a little at the squeaky hinges, and look to see who is out there. Amen.

Newsletter - June 2018

6/7/2018

The End of an Era
In October I was a part of a group of faithful lay and clergy who had undertaken the work to dissolve Lutheran Campus Ministry-Minnesota (LCM-M), which was an organization that had provided a place for fellowship, accountability, and cooperation between the nine campus ministries in the state for many years. This year will be the last that they will appear as one of our contributors. Now LuMin in St. Cloud has been moved on to the budget of Southwestern Minnesota Synod directly. I have been working with Bishop Jon Anderson, the synod council, and the other Southwestern Minnesota Synod campus ministers to begin the work of creating a new space for accountability and cooperation.

We are thankful that our synod has made the commitment to maintain the level of funding that we had received from LCM-M over the last few years.

2017 Sources of Support
We finished the year well, but continue to build a stronger base of support so that we can engage more students. As the board anticipated, we were able to increase my time from 20 hours/week to 25 hours/week. The additional time meant I was able to use my hours on campus to more intentionally focus on supporting students including the roll out of our new program to sponsor student ministry projects.

The Start of Something New
LuMin in St. Cloud sponsored two student ministry projects - the first was a potluck to fundraise money for a local backpack program and the second was a Bible study where the student had the opportunity to develop their own curriculum and study with their friends. For the students’ reflections on their experience check out their stories on our website.

PS - If you know of a student headed to St. Cloud State University in 2018, please send their name to me directly or through the LuMin Network student referral website, which can be found at lumin-networkreferral.org/student-referrals/.