Living in Chri ome of you who are reading this article will be heading off to a university or college campus in the next few weeks.This move might be accompanied by a sense of excitement or apprehension. Most likely, it is a combination of both.There is the expectation of a life of greater freedom and new opportunities for learning.There are also the unsettling thoughts of uncertain challenges on unfamiliar terrain.
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As a Christian you can make the move to campus with the confidence that Jesus Christ goes with you for He has put His name on you in Baptism and with His name the promise that He will never leave you. Given the spiritual climate of the university campus, it might be tempting to believe that you are alone, an isolated Christian in an academic wilderness that has long sense consigned Christianity to junk pile of outmoded belief systems that have no integrity in today’s world. Unfortunately, too many young Christians are seduced into believing this lie of the evil one. Far more, however, experience a withering of the faith as God’s own means for creating and sustaining faith, His Word and Sacrament, are pushed aside by other the hectic pace of student life. Your student years are not a time to put your Christian life in storage but instead these years can be time for growth in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Christ’s gifts that enliven you now in your home congregation will be there for you on campus, too.The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod has campus ministries or “contact congregations” at nearly all of the major universities in the United States. Your pastor has a listing of these campus chapels and congregations. He would be happy to put you in touch with the campus pastor or an LCMS congregation near your school. Countless students have found a spiritual home in these campus chapels or congregations.They are
places for support and encouragement in the midst of struggles that often come with being a student. In many instances, they are places where you can meet other students and form deep friendships. Often these campus ministries provide activities such as movie nights, pizza parties, and Spring break trips.This is well and good but there is something that is even more
