Lutheran Campus Ministry of Illinois (LCMI)

Mission fact:  Renewing the Commitment was the name of a mission strategy report that was presented to a recent The Presbyterian Church USA Assembly.  Early in the report the observation was made that all the efforts by the campus ministries of the Presbyterians and their ecumenical partners in campus ministry, plus the number of students served by Campus Crusade for Christ and InterVarsity “still involve less than .009 of the nearly 12,500,000 undergraduate students in our nation’s colleges and universities.”

About the same time, a Presbyterian pastor in Ohio wrote about “Missionaries on Campus.” 

She noted, “We need to be as intentional with our mission on campus as we are on the other mission fields.”  

Think back a second about our past understanding and enthusiasm connected to our mission fields overseas.  We recognized that the missionaries needed to learn the special language of the turf and the life of that culture.  We understood the effort needed to gain credibility and response in that cultural milieu.  We accepted the need to strongly support this mission outreach financially and spiritually, and to trust the instincts of our missionaries.  Yes, and we eagerly waited to hear their stories, and we invited them to tell those stories, whenever available.

Spreading the Good News in the midst of the arena where leaders for society and church are shaped and developed is the calling and challenge of campus ministry today.  Such thinking stimulates our mission imagination.  It invites our faithful support.

• Our Missionaries on Illinois campuses are:

Pr. Robert O. Smith - University of Chicago

Pr. Lloyd Kittlaus - Northwestern University, Evanston

Ms. Sharon Rogers - Northern Illinois, DeKalb

Pr. John Setterlund - University of Illinois, Champaign

Pr. Lisa Goodwin - Illinois State University, Normal

• Along with representatives from the other two synods, serving you on the Lutheran Campus Ministry Illinois Board are:

Pr. Paul Darveau, Ms. Katrina Witwicki and Dr. David Zumdahl

Dr. Marcus D. Pera, ELCA Coordinator for Campus Ministry - Regions 3, 5 and 6