Lutherans can find God in a multitude of places. For Tyler Beane, a first-year M.A. student in systematic theology at Luther Seminary, God works through film.

Nature’s chief tool for sustainability is diversity, said Jeff Hawkins, ’80. Hawkins is executive director of Hope CSA, a working and teaching ministry for pastors that is located on Hawkins’ 99-acre farm in North Manchester, Ind. “Just as sustainable farming requires producing a variety of crops, having only one way of being church is more fragile and less sustainable,” said Hawkins, a former pastor. “The farm teaches students an organic way of life through direct experience.”

If anyone ever says, ‘Oh, where’s the church going?’ … the only thing I can think of is, ‘Where the church is going is great places,’ says Kevin Massey, ’93, director of the ELCA’s Domestic Disaster Response. Young volunteers and church members who assist in disaster situations around the country “really show an energy and a commitment to mission and ministry that is really uplifting and meaningful to me,” he says.

For many young adults, finding faith comes through embracing the unknown. Likewise, for Karis Thompson, laying the groundwork for a new faith community of young adults in the Fargo-Moorhead area has meant
embracing unknowns about what that community will become.