By Pastor Kate Reuer Welton
Campus Pastor, Lutheran Campus Ministry Twin Cities, University of Minnesota
It is, perhaps, no secret that it is a hard time to be a young adult right now. Chaos, cruelty, and dehumanization have taken hold. Faithfully-discerned callings that were their north star through all night study sessions – in research, public health, clean energy, etc. have evaporated due to funding cuts. They want to make a difference, but it is hard to know how. Loneliness remains an ever-present force, that I believe undergirds many of the problems we’re collectively facing. And that is to say nothing of the challenges they bring with them as ordinary students, and people experiencing identity shifts, health issues, grief, and loss – just like we all do.
It is no wonder, then, that our community this year has been marked by a kind of introspection and thoughtfulness, and by a felt need to take rest with one another and especially with God. They come to worship because they need it. They need the community Christ gathers. They need to hear the stories of their faith ancestors weathering the storms, to hear the Gospel proclaimed, and to receive the sacraments. They need to hear that God loves them before and beyond whatever they do or don’t do. There is a hunger within them to receive, to just melt into the love of God.
But there is also a hunger to share that love of God. To extend, to mend, and to build. I am writing this note to you, people of the Minneapolis Area Synod, as our state is in remarkable turmoil and students have not yet fully returned to campus. ICE is everywhere and people are terrified. I cannot say yet, in what ways they, and we, will share that call to love our neighbors. That is theirs to decide. But I can report that in this hostile world, these students are some of the kindest and most inclusive people I’ve encountered in my years on this earth. They are marked by mercy. And however they choose to respond will be creative, loving, and hope-filled – it’s just who they are.
We will continue to gather for worship and to feed people at our weekly free meal, Be Fed. We are leaning into small groups and expanding that ministry as the need for close community becomes needed more each day. We will continue to offer blessings on campus, and host important conversations, and show up alongside other Gophers doing important work. And we will also lean into joy — whether tubing at Theo Wirth or hosting a lock in at a nearby church.
Some need to rest, and others to rise, and thanks be to God we have a community, a tradition, and a God that makes all this possible. The young adults I work with have been my teachers from the start, and I am so grateful to them for that. They teach me flexibility and encourage playfulness. Their deep hunger, earnestness, curiosity, honesty, and creativity has deepened my own faith and expanded my understanding of all that God is capable of in the world.
Thank you, people of the Minneapolis Area Synod, for all of the ways you support and lift up this ministry, in the midst of the over 60,000 young adults at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. We are so grateful!