LuMin Annual Conference

This year’s Lutheran Campus Ministry Network (LuMin) Conference had me return to Rocky Mountain Synod where I was ordained and pastored for nine years. It is a joy to be with a hundred other campus ministers, where we share stories, affirm, encourage, support, and reenergize each other. More Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Methodists are joining LuMin every year because we are robust with quality events, resources, and connections all year.

This time the Gather ELCA young adult ministers also joined us at the University of Denver, and it was exciting to see them building communities, like these leaders of a new group in Atlanta.

With thirty years in campus ministry, I have enjoyed meeting thousands of students and staff at one of life’s primary pivot points, as they discern God’s call to expand their minds, deepen their faith, and be inspired to serve. 

     This year’s keynote inspiration came from writer, liturgist, poet, and former campus minister Cole Arthur Riley, author of This Here Flesh and Black Liturgies. Drawing from Octavia Butler, Cole cast a vision of the Creator’s beloved community liberated and healed by beauty and wonder. Noting the volume of trauma directed at us via social media and news, Cole shared her experience of freedom and healing through reconnecting with the body while gardening.

Quoting James Baldwin, Cole reminded us, “I cannot despair. You cannot tell the children there is no hope. Cynicism is a form of obedience, a failure of imagination that accommodates the status quo. Can wonder and beauty get us free?” From her visit to a Palestinian family’s 400-year-old olive orchard, bulldozed for an illegal Israeli settlement, she shared Amal’s mission: “My purpose remains to plant. If I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would still plant an olive tree today.”

With a variety of group activities, we explored human-centered design, religious deconstruction and reconstruction, among many other topics. And we shared the freeing and healing practices of recreation outdoors, here I am wading with Brad from Austin in Bear Creek.

As we closed with Eucharist, I recalled the kind gift of dessert from a local Turkish Muslim group who shared the Ashura traditional “Noah’s pudding”--a blend of barley, fruit, nuts, and spices, celebrating our unity in diversity, where each element retains its unique character even as it flavors the mix.

So too, we serve people of many nations, cultures, religions, and identities, and we stand out as a reconciling presence within large institutions, celebrating God’s beautifully varied human family, and sharing bread for the journey.