Lutheran Musings

As a result of circumstances beyond my control and far beyond my understanding, I have recently taken a position as the pioneer youth director at St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Liberty, Missouri. Following completion of my integrated field experience at Northwestern College I didn't really think I'd ever "do youth ministry," at least not professionally (i.e., for pay); but as the fates, luck or God would have it, here I am, overseeing the Christian education of 120 students K-12, and at an LCMS church of all places.

I grew up in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. I went to an LCMS preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, jr. high and high school. My paternal grandparents were LCMS - hard core (if I'm allowed to posthumously describe them as such). My Dad is LCMS - not so hard core, but definitely to the core. My brother went to an LCMS college in NE and is currently at an LCMS seminary in MO studying to be an LCMS pastor. He married a girl who attended the same LCMS college in NE and is the daughter of an LCMS pastor. When they met, she was considering being a medical missionary or a deaconess (LCMS, of course). Her sister, another graduate of the LCMS college in NE, is an LCMS missionary/teacher and her brother is at the LCMS college in NE preparing to attend the LCMS seminary where my brother is currently. My own sister is also attending the same LCMS college in NE, studying to be a Spanish/ESL teacher (with a Lutheran Teaching Degree). She is dating a guy from the LCMS college in NE who is also studying to be a secondary teacher with a Lutheran Teaching Degree. His father is a pastor at the LCMS church in Lincoln, NE where I once worked.

Then there's me. I tried to "break the mold" by attending non-denominational youth groups in high school (yes, I know, I am such a rebel) and going to a small, Christian liberal arts college that was affiliated with the Reformed church (which I had never heard of during my 18 years in the LCMS). When I went to Oxford I attended Anglican churches, sang my first Hail Mary and even went to a few catholic masses (and I liked it). My last semester of college I attended an episcopal church that was led by a woman (gasp) as I was preparing to volunteer with an international community church in England. I've rarely gotten away from the church, even when I've wanted to. It has been a means of travel, a means of community, a means of employment. Of all the subjects I studied in college (and there were many), youth ministry is actually (surprisingly) the only one that I've found a means of using.

So here I am, sitting at a desk inside an office located in the middle of an LCMS church in Liberty, MO. I'll be "inducted" this coming Sunday (I considered choosing Ave Maria as part of the service, but it wasn't in the Lutheran Hymnal). I'm not quite sure what I'm getting myself into, but that's never stopped me before. Lutheran or not, here I go.