Did you know there's a cure to the clergy shortage?

There are actually four things that research shows make pastors in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Make pastors!  What good news! They might not be surprising to you if you have been listening to Pastor Sarah for very long. And if you're here, you know the importance of campus ministry and other ministries to young people! 

• Summer Camp

• Sunday School 

• The ELCA Youth Gathering 

• Campus Ministry 

Jacob Sorenson wrote an article for The Connect Journal about exactly this subject. About campus ministry, he writes: 

"No surprise here. We know that campus ministry is vital, and we also know that it is chronically underfunded. Less than half of the roster (43%) attended an ELCA college or university. The others attended a mixture of public and private schools not affiliated with the ELCA. At most of these schools, there was a LuMin (or Lutheran Campus Ministry) presence. These ministries, while usually small in numbers, have proven consistently impactful on the participants. Rated in terms of importance on both faith formation and call to ministry, campus ministry was behind only Sunday school, serving on camp staff and the year-long Lutheran service organizations (LVC and YAGM). Like with the Gathering, those who participated in campus ministry (whether with LuMin or at an ELCA school) were rostered at a much younger age, on average, in comparison to those who did not participate or participated less frequently."

You can read the entire article at the link here and learn more about the importance of these ministries. Thank you so much for your continued support for Jacksonville Campus Ministry and campus ministries across the country. You are making pastors! 

If you saw Mackenzie at Jacksonville Campus Ministry, it would appear that she has been a part of our community for ages. She sits down among the students chatting about last week’s bible study and doesn’t miss a beat. But that wasn’t how Mackenzie always felt in religious spaces.

“I grew up going to a bunch of different types of churches but I never felt comfortable in any of them. Especially when I realized I was queer. But even before that, I always had a hard time finding community in those places. The groups that I met seemed clique-ish and it was as if they were just tolerating me.”

Even after these experiences, Mackenzie still looked for a Christian community where she could feel comfortable and welcome. 

“I knew I wanted to find a place to explore my faith and identity together when I came to college.” Mackenzie had heard about our Queer Bible Study and Jacksonville Campus Ministry in her freshman year, but never felt comfortable enough to attend by herself. Last fall, her religion class gave her a good excuse to go observe every week. 

“We had to do a semester-long project. We had to pick a group that we weren’t familiar with and study them for the entire semester. I wanted to do something with queerness in the church because even though I was a part of the community, I didn’t feel like I was a part of the community.”

Mackenzie attended Queer Bible Study every week, participating in the discussion and asking questions as she felt more comfortable with the other students who attended. “It started out as an assignment, but I found that I could easily talk to people and fit in with people even on the very first day.” 

Now Mackenzie is a regular part of not only our bible study but also Food for Thought and our other ministry activities. Our ministry would be incomplete without her. 

“There have been a handful of people who have kind of adopted each other in this space. For the first time in my life, I feel comfortable and even welcomed in a Christian community. I don’t feel like I have to fight to fit in.”   

Your generosity to Jacksonville Campus Ministry makes it possible for us to have opportunities to reach new students like Mackenzie.

Sam came to college looking for something. “I think it has always been a little bit in my soul that I have sought out meaning through religion. But it has always been kind of complicated for me. No one in my family has the same religion. So I didn’t grow up going to a church or a temple or really having any religious upbringing.”

It wasn’t for lack of trying that Sam had not found a community with which he connected. In fact, it seemed that he had done more spiritual exploration than most people his age. “I tried getting into the Wiccan/witchcraft scene, and there was a brief time when I considered converting to Judaism. I joined a local Quaker group when I came to college but I didn’t find community there. It felt like I needed community and tradition. That was always a void in my life that I was trying to fill.”   

Last year, our campus ministry spent some time focusing on faith and sex during one of our Tuesday night dinners. It was there that Sam first encountered our community. “When I think about what Christianity is, a lot of it is a communal thing– it is how you care for the people around you, it’s how you treat strangers, it’s how you treat friends, it’s how you think about family. It’s all about other people. If you aren’t applying your beliefs and your faith in your life, then it’s all kind of academic. That is what struck me about JCM. People are truly interested in being in community.” 

But ultimately it was the tradition of the sacraments that is embedded in campus ministry and Christianity that claimed Sam as a child of God. 

“In general, I love all of our informal traditions like having food together, talking together, introducing ourselves, and having a question at the start of our gatherings. But the first time we had communion, I cried so hard because it felt like, ‘Yes, oh this is it!’ That stuck with me.” 

Several weeks later, Sam joined 11 of our students on a weekend retreat that focused on Eucharist and Baptism. After sharing communion together on Saturday night, Sam was baptized in Crystal Lake. 

“I remember when I came out of the water, one of the first things you said to the people standing on the beach was ‘Welcome your new sibling Sam!’ and something about that– I was like ‘Oh! This is what I was looking for but even deeper.’ It wasn’t that I felt excluded before, but afterward, I felt included in a whole new way that was so profound.” 

“It felt like a family,” Sam concluded. “It felt like yes, I am on the right track now. Like a coming home.” 

Your generosity to Jacksonville Campus Ministry makes it possible for us to go on retreat and dive deeper into community and the sacraments. Thank you for being a part of this ministry that helps create a place of belonging for our college students.

“I used to go to church at least once a month with my family before I went to college,” Alex said, “But when I went to college I didn't really do that anymore.” He wasn’t necessarily looking for a faith community, but he didn’t shy away from one either. He just hadn’t quite found what he needed at that point in his life.  

“I remember Sarah was at the Welcome Week Luau and handed me a popsicle and a card that said ‘Come to Food For Thought’ and I said ‘I remember that club from my freshman year! I'm absolutely going to go!’” He admits that he was mostly interested in the free food at first, but he was also curious about the conversations the group was having from week to week. 

“For me it was a really good space to figure out things I didn't even think I had questions about and I appreciated that there was a place for that on UNF’s campus. I really enjoyed the conversations of current events mixed with Sarah’s views and how she would listen to us and integrate how it relates to faith.” Alex became a part of our leadership team and invited people to join the community. He found the combination of faith and life– the basis for Food for Thought gatherings– to be particularly helpful. 

“Jacksonville Campus Ministry turned into an outlet to explore my journey into what faith means to me and the place it has in my life. Sarah listened to our faith stories and our thoughts– and it wasn't just faith either, it was that she treated us as human beings. She asked us our thoughts and challenged our worldviews, and I enjoyed that.” 

After graduation, Alex stayed in touch with the campus ministry and with many of the current students. In October 2023, he joined the Jacksonville Campus Ministry board as the first alum. He is passionate about the work of the campus ministry continuing. 

“I see serving on the board as a way to give back to the community that uplifted me and my faith. I want other people to be able to experience that.” 

Serving on our board of directors is one of many ways our volunteers invest in Jacksonville Campus Ministry. Thank you for your continued commitment to this important work in the faith and life of young adults. 

Rachel grew up in the Presbyterian Church from infancy. She built a career as a graphic designer, and her artistic rendering of the entrance to her current church adorns the cover of its weekly worship bulletin. 

When her husband John began teaching at Clemson University, they joined a Lutheran congregation that supported a large campus ministry. Rachel became friends with the campus minister and volunteered to help with providing meals for weekly ministry gatherings, which regularly hosted 60 students or more. Through this service, she developed a deep appreciation for the sense of belonging campus ministry provided to students, and the ties they developed with the congregation.

When Rachel and John moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and joined St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, she volunteered to assist with meals for Jacksonville Campus Ministry. This service led to her being asked to serve as a member of the ministry’s board of directors after St. Mark’s previous representative came to the end of her term. She served in this role for ten years, including as the ministry’s secretary. 

This coincided with a very fraught time for the ministry due to the loss of a major funding partner and ministry staff. At one point, she was one of three board members remaining as plans were made to dissolve the ministry. Asked how she persevered, she says, “I just couldn’t give up on campus ministry!” At just this time a new campus minister arrived unexpectedly and revitalized the ministry. Before leaving the JCM Board in 2022, Rachel was able to see the ministry regain a stable footing and embark on a new era of service.  

Rachel feels that her service with campus ministries has driven home to her the importance of outreach by congregations to the wider community in spreading God’s love in a tangible way.

Thank you to all of our volunteers who uplift our ministry in a variety of ways, from providing meals on Tuesday nights to serving on our board of directors. We are so grateful for your partnership in this vital work. 

When Teddy transferred from the University of Central Florida to the University of North Florida in the fall of 2022, he felt lost and alone in more ways than one. 

“When I first came to UNF, I had just left UCF where I was a stage management major and I basically lost all of my community, all of my friends, and I didn’t know anyone here,” Teddy said, “I didn’t know anyone on the UNF campus and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was positively miserable. I was actually struggling a lot with suicidal ideation.” 

To most of the community around him, though, he seemed like an outgoing, vivacious theater-enthusiast. In fact, it was the musical Les Miserables that inspired him to seek out a Christian community. 

“I was listening to Les Mis and connected with how people in religious communities talk a lot about how they value their community and how important their community in Christ is to them,” he said, “and I thought ‘I kind of want that,’ but I was nervous to seek that out.”

He began coming to one of JCM’s most open and welcoming events, Food for Thought, as the semester began and became friends with the other students in the ministry. 

“There were no questions asked. I didn’t feel like I wasn’t Christian enough or a UNF student-enough.” He quickly became a leader in the community and was attending every week. His involvement with the ministry didn’t stop there. When JCM began plans for safe, affordable, inclusive housing, Teddy was integral in the planning. 

“Redeemer House has been a big deal for me. I’m not estranged from my family, but it is nice to have a space where I am able to have more independence and freedom.” He said, “And Redeemer House gives me that opportunity in an affordable way and in a way that I can still have community.”

When Redeemer House opened its doors to students in the fall of 2023, Teddy was the first student to move in and became the resident advisor. Teddy continues to be a leader in the community and a link for students who need a place that is safe and affirming, whether it is a place to eat on Tuesday night or a place to call home.  

“This was quite literally a life-saving community for me.” Teddy said, “And I have learned through JCM that I have the ability and space to be that person for somebody else now. I can provide a warm space for somebody if they need it.”

Your generosity to Jacksonville Campus Ministry allows the community to flourish and provide a safe and inclusive place for students like Teddy to be transformed into leaders in Christian community. Thank you for your incredible generosity to this ministry.

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. We know the song. We can sing the verses. If we hide our light under a bushel, our light is lost, it goes out. There are so many conflicting messages in our world today about bragging, yet we live in a culture where our dinner gets posted on social media for the masses. 

What if we lived in a world where we felt comfortable sharing God’s story with such passion and ease? When we are excited about something, we can’t help but share that with others. Excitement and passion are contagious. Our excitement about the mission and ministry of our ministry to college students can also be contagious. It is not a matter of bragging; it is a matter of invitation. When we share our faith story and how our campus ministry formed and shaped us through community living out the Gospel, we are inviting others into God’s story. What better place to be? When we are part of something positive and bigger than ourselves, it changes us. We find acceptance, forgiveness, and belonging. We learn to strive for justice and peace in all the world. Our transformation serves to transform. Our generosity serves to spark that same generosity in others. 

Creating a culture of generosity starts with each of us. We must evaluate our own comfort with giving from what God has first given us and sharing the story. If we want this to be cultural, we must welcome hearing these stories from others. We must honor the stories and give them time in our gatherings. If this feels scary, consider this phrase, “10 seconds of courage.” Our 10 seconds of courage to start telling our story, will open our hearts and others to growing in generosity and sharing their own stories. Let our light so shine.

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If you already have a legacy gift in place for Jacksonville Campus Ministry, thank you. We would love to hear why you made that decision. You can contact Pastor Sarah at jaxcampusmin@gmail.com to share your story. 

Milesh grew up in a non-religious environment. "My parents and grandmother were religious but didn't really pass that on to me," he shared. His parents moved from India to England and then on to America. They kept their Hindu religion and would take Milesh along with them sometimes but never expected him to follow the practices. 

As a student, Milesh was attending an anime club that happened on the same night as Food for Thought, a Jacksonville Campus Ministry program. "It was a Christian thing, but they didn't care if we weren't Christian. I started going for the free food," he said. "But then, it was like, I actually like this, and I would stay for the full time and then go on to anime club."

"Food for Thought is a weekly program we are known for," Milesh shared. "It is on Tuesday night in the student union where clubs highlight their meetings. Every week, Pastor Sarah comes up with a topic. Not every conversation is religious. Once, she read phrases, and we had to decide if they were Taylor Swift lyrics or passages from Lamentations. Some conversations are deeper. She talks about Christian culture. What is purity culture, for example? The topics range from being more serious to more playful. We have a lot of students coming and even some alumni that stop by."

Milesh has been attending Food for Thought for a number of years now. He is currently a graduate student in history and eventually wants his Ph.D. Pastor Sarah recently asked him to be an intern for the ministry. "It is a nice privilege to have Pastor Sarah ask me. I felt emboldened to help decide where the ministry goes, and I really enjoy working with her. I enjoy seeing this club I am a part of keep getting better. I appreciate that she recognizes where I am and continues to teach me about Christianity. I like the lens she shares on liberation theology, and I go to her church every now and then. I am taking my faith at my own pace, but I could see myself converting somewhere along the line." 

Your generosity to Jacksonville Campus Ministry makes it possible for us to offer Food for Thought programming to students from all walks of life so everyone has a safe place to ask questions and learn. Thank you for being a part of this ministry that helps shape the future of our college students. 

During this Season of Giving, your generosity to Jacksonville Campus Ministry serves to grow the faith of our misfit group of students searching for who they are and how they relate to the sacred. This past spring break, we took 17 students to Germany with the Lutheran Campus Ministries from UNC and App State. Our JCM students were a mix of Episcopalian, Lutheran, Jewish, and others looking for a way to connect to something ancient, holy, and sacred. They hadn’t found their foothold for that connection when they started coming to our primary means of weekly gathering, Food for Thought. 

During our first weekend in Wittenberg, we worshiped in German at Castle Church. At the end of the service, our students surrounded me and lowered their voices. “What about the wine and the bread part?” They insisted that I go ask the pastor. I learned that the church only offers communion once a month. “That is not really okay with us. You talk about how important communion is all the time. And now we are here all together in Germany worshiping. We really want communion.” 

A few days later, we were in Mansfeld Castle, and when our students saw the 600-year-old chapel, they said, “This is it. This is where we want to have worship and communion.” They planned an interfaith worship service and offered beautiful readings from different places of faith. We celebrated Holy Eucharist with our misfit group of college students. Nothing about the ancient setting and the modern readings made real sense to anyone but us, but they insisted that we share the body and blood of Christ Jesus together. 

Now, every time we end a significant gathering, I ask them how they want to mark our time together. They insist on communion. Once, it was an expensive bottle of wine and hamburger bun my mother had on hand as we ended a retreat in her home. Another evening, it was a mini bottle of cheap wine and a giant sheet of lavash. These experiences were a first for many of our students, who have since expressed a deep desire for worship and communion. They crave the sense of community and connection that comes with these rituals.

During this Season of Giving, your generosity to Jacksonville Campus Ministry will provide for the ongoing ministry of Food for Thought, retreats, and pastoral care helping make space for our students to ask questions, grow, and deepen their relationship with God. We invite you to consider a gift of $20, $50, $150, $500, or even $1000 or more to invest in this vital ministry with young adults. Thank you for partnering with us in this ministry we all share. 

"I was predominantly raised in the Southern Baptist, Hispanic tradition," said Ama. "Most of my childhood, I learned about God, and then I saw people in my life being the opposite of what we were taught to be. It always felt like a disconnect. So my mom, sister, and I tried a Methodist church. We eventually returned to the Southen Baptist church, but I honestly started feeling like maybe I didn't believe in this at all. Then I found a Pentecostal church I fell in love with. I did a theology internship there and was still a bit disconnected. People would say things like, 'Oh, you are a progressive Christian, or you can't be gay, or they needed to train me out of that belief.' It worked a little, but then when I got to college, I was like, I have beliefs, but I am also Christian."  

Coming from her high school, Ama never heard the term interfaith before. When she arrived at UNF, she attended a program called Quest for first-generation minority college students. There, she learned about job opportunities, and she needed a job to pay her bills. She was hired at the Interfaith Center on campus and immediately met Pastor Sarah. "At the time, I was deconstructing from my Christian roots. I thought she was awesome, but I didn't join right away. After a year of some healing, I was comfortable with my spiritual, non-religious place. I decided to give it one more try. I wanted to find someone I could model my own call after and Pastor Sarah popped into my mind." 

Ama has been attending Jacksonville Campus Ministry for about three years now. "With Pastor Sarah, I have been working hard on my journey of figuring it all out. Things about Christianity are still super important to me, and she is still helping me find out things for myself. We are doing a deep dive into the Bible for the group. It is an open invite, and I am super excited for this so I can learn. I am going to church more than I have in a long time. I still feel spiritual nonreligious, maybe I am moving back a little, but she keeps answering my questions." 

One of the key pieces of the ministry for Ama was the Alpha program. Pastor Sarah did the program with Ama and two others who are not Christian. Together, they dive into the hard stuff about Christianity. "It was a super intimate setting. We have been doing the heart work to figure things out for me and many other people." 

Today, Ama serves as an intern for the ministry. She helps with the behind-the-scenes event planning, and her big project is the giving back serving campaign. They hope to work with the homeless community, beach clean-up, and the domestic violence shelter. She also helps write up the newsletter. "JCM is one of the most unique environments I have ever been in," she shared. "For a Christian space to be so open and all students to journey at their own pace is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It is a manifestation of God's work. Pastor Sarah is soooo patient, and her religion has shaped how she sees the world and us and it has been so beautiful to be a part of this. So many students needed this to find their way. I see people come and leave feeling more seen and more like they belong." 

Your generosity to Jacksonville Campus Ministry allows Pastor Sarah to gather students with the patient care they need to ask questions in a safe place. Thank you for your generosity to this vital ministry to young adults.