Living in Christ on Campus

By Prof. John T. Pless

Some 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.

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 Church-Missouri 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 essential. Most important they provide students with a place to hear the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ truthfully proclaimed and an altar from which to receive the Lord’s body and blood.

Contrary to popular belief, the campus is not a spiritual vacuum.The university is not a “godless” place; religions abound here. Many of these religions promote tolerance and claim to champion an inclusive approach to faith. However, you will quickly learn that they are not very tolerant of anyone who confesses that Jesus Christ alone is the Savior. Other groups, particularly, those that label themselves as “non-denominational” ignore the clear words of Jesus when it comes to Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and how it is that God saves us through faith in Christ alone and not by human decision. All this means that a Lutheran student needs to know the teachings of God’s Word and be ready to evaluate other claims to truth using the Scriptures. That is why Bible study and catechesis (yes, you will continue to learn and pray the Small Catechism) is a major component of faithful LCMS campus ministry. Your campus pastor will want to make sure that you are able to give reason for the hope in Christ that you have (I Peter 3:15-16) so that you are not tossed around by every religious fad that blows through the dorm or student union. Take advantage of his knowledge of the Scriptures and his commitment to take care of your soul.

One of the prayers that I would often use with students at the beginning and ending of the academic year goes like this: “Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord” (Lutheran Worship, 262). Your vocation as a student is a venture to be sure. It will take you down some paths as yet untrodden and you will, no doubt, encounter unknown perils. But go to with the good courage that is born of faith in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. His hand will lead you and His love will support you as you live in Him on campus.

Prof. John T. Pless, formerly campus pastor at University Lutheran Chapel (University of Minnesota-Minneapolis) now assistant professor of pastoral ministry and missions at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana.