I spent 17 very good years (1983-2000) as campus pastor at ULC. When I was called to ULC in 1983, the mission executive said "we're calling you to an empty building." He was right. Contention had rocked the chapel and its relationship with the district since the 60's as some within the district thought that the chapel's ministry reflected the activism associated with protest against Vietnam and jettisoning of traditional Lutheran worship. The MNS district experienced the tug of war between moderates and conservatives over fellowship with the ALC and then the trauma of Seminex in 1975. Even though is clear by 1975 that fellowship with the ALC would not continue, strangely the the MNS District entered into an agreement for joint campus ministry in 1975. This arrangement was disputed from the beginning and finally ended by convention vote in 1982. In 1983 I was called to re-start an LCMS campus ministry at ULC.
Freshly ordained and with four years of work under Dr. Norman Nagel at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valpo, I came to the U of M unsure of what the future would hold. A small group of LCMS students were active in the inter-Lutheran campus ministry. Most of those students were angry at the decision of the MNS to pull out of cooperative ministry and moved with their ALC and LCA friends down the street to the Episcopal Center. We started with only a handful of students but with the conviction that the re-established ministry at ULC would be centered in the Divine Service (using both The Lutheran Hymnal and Lutheran Worship) with every Sunday celebration of the Sacrament. Private confession and absolution was offered. I began to teach a Tuesday night "Table Talk" Bible study (a meal followed by the study of Scriptures) and a Sunday morning class. The first years were not easy. A couple of LCMS pastors in the district told me they would not encourage their students to come to ULC but directed them to the ALC/LCA ministry down the street. The tensions surrounding the decision to end the cooperative ministry lingered for a long time and perhaps even to this day.
ULC did prosper and grow. Work was started with international students. Additional Bible studies were offered in ULC itself as well as with residential halls and Coffman Union. The Fall Study Weekend which would become annual feature of chapel life bringing to campus Lutheran theologians who addressed topics suggested by the students. Retreats were planned with other LCMS campus ministries in the upper Midwest. There was a strong accent on the doctrine of vocation. An issue of THE REPORTER earlier this year noted that ULC is one of the top three congregations for sending men to our seminaries. There have been a few deaconesses and Lutheran teachers too. But just as important are the hundreds of men and women who are contributing to the vitality of congregations throughout the world. ULC alumni have gone on to serve in the district and Synod, too. A recent alumna was recently appointed to serve on the Synod's Commission on Theology and Church Relations. In an increasingly graying church body, ULC is a source of young and energetic lay leadership.
When I arrived at ULC, the MNS District was funding the entire budget of ULC (over $120,000 if my memory is correct). The district campus ministry committee encouraged ULC to move in the direction of a town-gown ministry. This we did as some former students remained in the Twin Cities and continued to worship at ULC. Other young adults found the chapel as their spiritual home. Over the years we needed less and less district subsidy as offerings increased. When I left ULC to come to Fort Wayne, the chapel was only dependent on the district for a subsidy of about $30,000 per year I think. As I understand it that amount is now down to less than $12,000.
In the late 80's I began writing for various publications including Lutheran Forum and the Forum Letter. For a while I would serve as a contributing editor of the Forum Letter with Russ Saltzman. Those early writings were largely focused on Lutheran identity and especially liturgy and evangelism as those issues were being pressed by the devotees of the Church Growth Movement. ULC had resisted the not so subtle attempts of some leaders in the district to move us into contemporary worship, cell groups and the like. With the election of a new district president in 1991, the pressures seemed to mount. During those years there were always members of the district board of directors and some vice presidents who supported ULC and its focus on Word and Sacrament ministry on campus. This present attempt to close ULC was not the first. The election of a highly partisan district board of directors (i.e. promoted by the "Mission Vision" group) at the 2010 convention provided an opportunity for what some had been seeking to accomplish for years.
ULC flourished in the 1990's and that flourishing would continue and increase after my departure in 2000. ULC was organized as a congregation of the Synod. Given the disarray in campus ministry at the end of the short inter-Lutheran era, I was called not by the congregation but by the district. Prior to my departure, the congregation requested an opinion from the Synod's CCM as to whether the congregation or the district had the right to call its pastor. The CCM ruled that it was the congregation not the district that retained the right of the call. Within nine months of my leaving, ULC extended a call to a former student, Pastor David Kind who has served the congregation with distinction for the last decade.
ULC's location is crucial for its mission. I can't even begin to count the number of students who came to participate in the campus ministry because we were visible and accessible. I think, for example, of a Chinese post-doctoral student on his way to visit the Mormon Institute for Religion just down the street two blocks from the chapel. This student decided to check out ULC, not knowing the difference between Mormonism and Christianity. That drop in visit led to catechesis and Baptism. There are many other stories like that. One of my mentors in campus ministry, the sainted Don Deffner said "campus ministry is about location, location, location." He was right. The Gospel has produced fruit out of ULC's location on University Ave SE and it would be a shame to forfeit it on account of a flawed and ideologically biased decision of the district's current leadership.
JTP+
