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100 Years of Lutheran Campus Ministry
Abstract: ELCA celebrates 100 years of Lutheran Campus Ministry.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) celebrated the centennial anniversary of Lutheran campus ministry in the United States at the annual continuing education conference at Loyola University Chicago, June 25-29. The theme for the celebration was "Expanding Minds, Deepening Faith, Inspiring Service".
Lutheran Campus Ministry began in 1907 with the calling of the Rev. Howard Gold (pictured) to the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "It's the first time the Lutheran church identified a pastor specifically to be in ministry to and with the students on a public campus," said Sue Rothmeyer director of campus ministry for the ELCA Vocation and Education unit.
In the ELCA, for which the congregation remains the most common model for ministry, campus ministry is a kind of anomaly. For example, University Lutheran Chapel in Berkeley, Califormia, having called Pr. Jeff Johnson from the ECP roster, is listed as vacant on the ELCA congregation list. But in the Campus Ministry Directory Pr. Johnson is listed as "staff" for the campus congregation he serves. The ELCA Campus Ministry web site uses the term "Staff" (as opposed to "campus pastor", for example), presumably because it can be applied to ELCA-rostered leaders, leaders rostered outside the ELCA (for example, with the Episcopal Church or the ECP), and leaders who aren't rostered at all.
We wonder what Pr. Howard Gold would make of all this.
