Guest Post by Lutheran Student Center Campus Minister, Jon Fry.
How can you connect with Campus Ministry?
In Fall of 2011 I met a pastor who invited me to come check out campus ministry at the University of Northern Iowa. All it took was an email and a personal invitation. Little did I know that it would set me on a path to one day be the Campus Minister at the Lutheran Student Center. Over the years our core groups of students at UNI have been students from congregations across Iowa, but that’s not the only thing that connects them. They typically are looking for community and a place to call their second home.
While this is true at UNI it is also true no matter what college or university your students attend. That’s why the LuMin Network matters. It is a network of Campus Pastors & Ministers from all over the country who would love to welcome your youth into their communities.
The biggest challenge is that we don’t know your students are coming to our schools.
That’s why we’ve created a referral system that you can find at http://lumin-networkreferral.org/student-referrals/
The people on the other end of this form are wonderful human beings who want nothing more than to reach out to the students and invite them into Lutheran Campus Ministry. If you have any questions about the Campus Ministers or Pastors at a given school please reach out to me ([email protected]), and I can answer any questions you might have or connect you to them.
Two years ago we were doing our sending service at the end of the spring semester, and one of the graduating seniors came up to me after worship and said,
“I really wish I would have known about this place as a Freshman. My Junior year I finally found a place where I felt like I belonged.”
When your high school senior leaves for their freshman year of college, do you just pray they wander into a Lutheran church? College is a crucial time in the faith lives of young adults. It might be the first Sunday that their parents aren’t taking them to church, or Wednesday night that they aren’t involved in regular programming. The referral link above is an opportunity for myself or my colleagues to reach out to them and let them know that Lutheran Campus Ministry exists and that they are welcome.
