If you are at all plugged into what is going on outside of Lutheran circles, you have undoubtedly seen news related to the surge of thirty-five and under young people (particularly young men) who are coming back to church… or exploring the faith for the first time.
But they are not just showing up at any church. These young people have done their homework. There is no societal or family expectation from their religiously milquetoast parents that they be in church, and a high percentage of their friends are involved in neo-paganism or the various identity categories that serve a religious function in the lives of their adherents. No, they have come to the end of all that or else they have sensed as much as deducted that something is radically wrong with the world they inhabit.
When they show up at the doorsteps of the church, they have already “deconstructed” the secular, progressive faith into which they were catechized by both their education and the liturgical cycle of television, YouTube, and social media, for they have experienced its devastating fruits in either their own lives or the lives of those they love. By the time they warm a pew for the first time, they may know more about the controversy regarding whether and when the exodus happened, the debates at the Council of Nicaea II, or the history of the Reformation than the pastor preaching to them remembers or maybe ever knew.
While they may know they need spiritual formation and are hungry for such, while the pastor or any experienced Christian may quickly discern how partial or narrow their autodidactic catechesis has been, they are mostly not showing up the way people showed up at church a generation ago did. They are not seeking a vague “spirituality,” to “teach their kids morals,” or “doing what comes naturally” once the halcyon days of their twenties are over and it is time to “settle down.” They have gagged on the modernist Kool-Aid and are seeking an emetic to get the toxins out of their system.
So, they are seeking out orthodoxy and orthopraxy. To the consternation and frustration of theological progressives everywhere, these people are seeking out Latin mass and Eastern Rite catholic parishes, vital Orthodox congregations, and traditionalist Protestant communities. Popular YouTube theologian Jordan Cooper has done some reflecting on why such people seem more drawn to Anglicanism than Lutheranism,[1] but I think his reflections miss one key point; Lutheranism defines itself—at least in part—over and against the very thing these young people are looking for… tradition.
Because of our polemical family history (recounted each autumn as Reformation Sunday rolls around), we emphasize theological and Biblical argument rather than the reception of a precious, historical (and so immutable) heritage.
This need not be so. I am not here proposing that we should downplay our history or heritage, but rather that we should tell the whole story. The Reformation may have settled upon the material principle of the Reformation as justification by grace alone (sola gratia) through faith alone (sola fide) and the formal principle of the Reformation as revelation through Scripture alone (sola Scriptura), but the hermeneutic principle that brought the Reformers to these conclusions was ad fontes—back to the sources. The Lutheran Reformation in particular was an attempt to recover what had been lost, restore what had become corrupt, and expose again the foundation upon which all later Christian theology was built. It does not take much time with the Church Fathers to discover that as they debated the doctrines that would later be deemed the dogmas of the faith, they used the canonical Scriptures to justify their positions. That must mean that the Scriptures were more fundamentally authoritative than the theologians (however exalted intellectually or hierarchically) who interpreted them… Sola Scriptura.
As Martin Chemnitz pointed out beautifully, the Lutheran Reformation was not ultimately about rejectionof tradition, but rejection of authority that made claims contrary to the canonical Scriptures that were in reality the beating heart of the Christian tradition.
“How may I inherit eternal life?” asked the young rich man of Jesus. As modern scholarship has clearly shown, the Jews of Jesus’s day did not feel burdened by the Law, not desperate to “earn their salvation” by their obedience to it—that was the peculiar pathology of the Roman Catholicism Luther later encountered. No, the Jews of Jesus’s time viewed the salvation of the Lord and the means by which they received it (by definition, means of grace) as a precious inheritance to be received from God through their forebears.
Wise Christians should do the same. A principle of the medieval theology from which Lutheranism sprang was that we—whoever and whenever “we” happen to be—are “dwarves standing upon the shoulders of giants.” While certainly they were sinners who got some things wrong and whose ideas would consequentially need to be corrected by consulting “the sources” of the Christian tradition (preeminently the Scriptures) just as our descendants will need to correct us, what they passed faithfully far surpassed the mistakes they made.
While he ended his life in Orthodoxy, Church historian Jaroslav Pelikan was a Lutheran when he penned his most famous line; “Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” Lutherans should embrace the tradition of which we are a part and honor the theology—and practices—of our forebears in more than words, by inhabiting them, practicing them, and making them our own.
There is more to be said about how traditional congregations (and the kind of people who probably read the Lutheran CORE newsletter) can lean into the evangelism opportunities of this historical moment by “living out loud” as who they actually are, but for now, the chief thing is to remember that at its heart, the Lutheran Reformation is not against the Christian tradition, but receives it as the Lord’s inheritance to His people.
Editor’s Note: Jacob Moorman is a member of River’s Edge Ministries, which regularly hosts and leads mission work locally in Maryland, through City Mission, and annually in other states through Cross Country Mission (CCM).
I am certainly no theologian, so I am merely sharing my reflections from our most recent venture into the mission field. I had the privilege of serving on a CCM trip this year after an F3 tornado left a miles long path of destruction through Clarksville, Tennessee, just a few weeks before Christmas 2023.
Friends from different denominations and different states joined us on the mission to Clarksville. And many people prayed for us from home. Saint Matthew’s Lutheran, a new mission partner from the Baltimore area, provided us with around 80 quilts which we were able to hand out to families. This often opened the door for more intentional conversation and prayer. Mission cannot be done without the support, prayer, and provision of the whole church. Mary and Ken Bates, leaders of the NALC Disaster Response team, paved the way for our ground crew. Members of The Way Baptist Church were gracious hosts, opening their doors to our group so we could serve more effectively.
And yet … despite my experience on other disaster response trips, the Lord taught me new things. I learned about humility (“ … judge not, lest ye be judged.” Matthew 7:1). I learned about His sovereignty (“ … not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9). And I learned about His love (“As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34).
It can be easy to enter another person’s “mess” of life and assume you (I) can fix it. I think this is especially true in disaster zones. I am learning, but sometimes it is hard to admit that I cannot fix everything. The rebuilding process is done one house, one board, and one person at a time. This is often humbling. Even our experienced mission group could only do a minute amount of the work that needed to be accomplished in that hard hit area.
God Teaching Me: In disasters, the physical damage is only the beginning. Sometimes we have seen spiritual decay amidst the destruction, even neglect and pain that has clearly gone on for years … way before the hurricane, flood, or storm struck. It’s so easy to pre-judge when this occurs. But the Lord opened my eyes to a new reality this trip. I have often wondered, ‘Why do broken buildings, fallen trees, hard stories, and sorrowed people break my heart?’ I think the truth is … it is my story! I believe witnessing the physical brokenness after a disaster can reveal the spiritual brokenness in my own soul. Just like getting caught in a catastrophic storm, we are truly helpless in this world. We need help from outside ourselves. Perhaps that is why I feel mission is so important, it puts us in touch with Christ. We can begin to see with His eyes—not just the physical needs, but also the spiritual. External appearances do not guarantee that the soul has not experienced its own spiritual destruction.
Stories of His Love: While in Clarksville, we heard that a school had scheduled its Christmas program for Dec. 9th. It was to take place in a large auditorium which could hold 300+ people. However, the program was moved to an earlier day to accommodate some students who would be moving out of state. God’s sovereign grace was manifest when that very auditorium, which would have held dozens of families, was utterly destroyed when the tornado hit on the 9th of December. Amazing grace, indeed!
I am astounded at the lovingkindness of our Lord. That despite the loss of material goods, He spared so many holy lives of people. What happened was a tragedy, but He worked it together for good and for life. We saw people with no hope, begin to find hope, as we shared our faith and the life of Christ with them. It’s amazing how acts of charity will show forth the love of Christ in a way that words cannot. “Serve one another … ” (Galatians 5:13) Perhaps, in this, we see the truth and power of the Word taking on flesh in our own lives. Christ entered into our messy and broken world—through His incarnation, death, and resurrection Jesus met us in our darkest hour, healed our souls, and fully revealed His marvelous light … the Way of Salvation.
His Mercy: I had the privilege of working on a house which still had a lot of debris in the backyard. In conversation with the owner, I learned that they were present as the tornado came through. The next-door neighbors were home as well. After receiving a tour of the sacred space where their neighbor had lived, I learned that the neighbor, with two other adults and a child, crowded into the bathroom for shelter … Looking at the house it was easy to see that the bathroom was the only room left standing—all others were torn off and even the roof was mostly blown apart! That family was spared. God’s mercy was truly prevalent.
When I see the path of destruction left in the wake of a tornado (or other ‘storms’), it reveals a greater truth. Homes in shambles. People in shock. Tragic death and loss of what was once good. There’s no way to go back, and perhaps that’s the hardest part of the suffering in this world. We must move on. This storm humbled me. Witnessing the vast devastation put me in touch with the devastation of my own soul. It made me realize how much I need Him. It brought to light the spiritual reality that Christ truly is the only One who can heal and restore. While the team worked, we also saw the Holy Spirit work in the lives of those we served. In this same serving, I believe He healed my own soul. Perhaps that is why St. Paul implores us, “Let us not grow weary of doing good…” (Galatians 6:9)
Christ certainly met us on the road to Clarksville this year. I hope that you have a similar opportunity to join in Christ’s sacrificial love by stepping into the brokenness of the world and sharing His Light with those you encounter. May our souls find greater healing as we dare to immerse our very lives in the mission field.
Photographs courtesy of Teresa Dubyoski.
Mission Under Accompaniment
written by Spencer Wentland | May 11, 2026
Director’s Note: Spencer Wentland is uniquely qualified to write this article analyzing the ELCA’s concept of global mission as accompaniment rather than evangelism – as responding to requests for help from indigenous churches rather than being concerned to share the message of Jesus with unreached peoples. Spencer is a member of our young adult group, which meets via zoom about once a month for fellowship and support. He is passionate about reaching people who do not know Jesus. He has much international experience, including studying and serving in a discipleship community in Denmark. He has served as an ELCA lay missionary in Japan and has written on the theology of global mission of different Christian groups.
The ELCA defines accompaniment as “…walking together in a solidarity that practices interdependence and mutuality[*]” (Global Mission, emphasis in original). Although often portrayed as a biblical theology coming out of the disciples’ encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, it is strongly influenced by and rooted in liberation theology[†]. My immediate concern with it, as a heuristic to the what and where of mission, is that it is antithetical to the Pauline priority on unreached places.
The Apostle Paul emphasized not building on another’s foundation but to establish the Church where it does not exist. Combined with Jesus’ teaching that the Gospel must be preached in all nations (Gk. ethnos, often understood as ethno-linguistic people groups by many missiologists) and then the end will come, there has been a strong emphasis on sending missionaries to work amongst unreached and unengaged people groups[‡].
While working as an ELCA missionary, I heard about experienced mission personnel being sent home while the Japanese Evangelical Lutheran Church was told how they were going to become less dependent on the ELCA. In the name of being post-colonial, it was an ironically patronizing execution of implementing an accompaniment model.
Accompaniment is actually very good in shaping how we do mission. We should not ignore the presence and work of indigenous Lutherans. If consistent with the values of accompaniment, it’s a good way to think about working together in the larger context of God’s mission. It reminds us that the task of mission must be informed by the catholicity of the Church as well as its apostolic nature. It also informs us to do mission in the pattern and practice of Christ himself who is Immanuel.
The problems with accompaniment are when it determines what the content of mission is and where it is done. When applied to the what of mission, it frames the whole task into a ministry of presence. This collapses into the problem that when everything is mission, nothing is mission. The primary task of establishing the Church in unreached places, making disciples and evangelical mission is diminished into almost oblivion by tasks being determined by the partner denomination. True accompaniment would involve both churches determining the content of mission work in the light of both Scripture and context. Working together is key, not completely abrogating task criteria to the partner church.
The ELCA’s requirement that pre-existing Lutheran churches request the ELCA to send missionaries (an effort in being post-colonial) assures that no missionaries will ever be sent to unengaged people groups. The Japanese are the second largest unreached people group, so there is an odd and good anomaly that work is going on there. During my missionary orientation, I asked if someone had a vision like Paul of a man from Macedonia, saying come here, would that qualify a call (Acts 16)? Is the Holy Spirit leading with the Word, or are we reducing the idea of being spirit-led to a democratized principle of the external call coming through partner churches?
In conclusion, accompaniment is a mixed bag. It’s great for the how of mission, and it is a true gift. However, it needs to be understood in the larger context of the ELCA’s constitution and statement of faith, including its responsibility to work for the fulfillment of the Great Commission. To do this, the primary tasks need to be strategic partnership for the purposes of mission development/evangelical mission and a willingness to send people to places where no Christians, let alone Lutherans, exist.
Photograph courtesy of Spencer Wentland; it is of a protestant church in Okinawa.
[*] “Global Mission.” Elca.Org. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Accessed November 5, 2023. https://www.elca.org/Our-Work/Global-Mission.
[†] ORDÓÑEZ, CLAUDIA. “Public Health Needs Liberation Theology.” Aquinas Emory Thinks. Aquinas Center at Candler School of Theology, February 15, 2021. https://aquinasemorythinks.com/public-health-needs-liberation-theology/.
[‡]Unreached: relative to the population living near a gospel witness. Imagine an American city of about 250,000 people and if there is only about three or four churches of twenty people and no youth groups. Unengaged: has any effort been made by Christians to bring the Gospel and make disciples among this particular people group?
Pockets of Hope
written by Teresa Dubyoski | May 11, 2026
When I think of Baltimore, I often think of my early childhood home with a large magnolia tree in the front yard and a tall, hemlock pine in the back, where my siblings and I used to climb and play amongst the branches to our hearts content. I think of the cookies my sisters and I would sell in the neighborhood without supervision, pulling our bright red Flyer wagon full of a variety of cookies behind us. I was only 6 when we moved away, but I remember, even then, after being robbed multiple times and my brother being held up with a gun when he was 10 for his bike, thatI felt fear.
It wasn’t until I was older that I began to hear negative statistics about Baltimore and I came to see my siblings’ and my childhood experiences there in a new light. Amidst all the negative media coverage, it’s easy to believe that Baltimore continues in a downward spiral and there isn’t much hope.
This year, from the first day of City Mission, I had the phrase “It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon” on my heart. As an athlete, I’ve always preferred sprinting over distance running and that’s true in other aspects of my life as well. The Lord has taught me a lot of patience through the years and, through seasons of burn out, He’s taught me to pace myself more and rely on Him instead of trying to make change happen all on my own. So when this impression came to my heart, I didn’t question it. Looking back now, it feels like a gift from the Holy Spirit because He knew how much I needed that reminder.
I’ll be honest…It felt heavy seeing a woman come through a food pantry with her face apparently beaten and her eyes red and to watch as they called a volunteer over because she couldn’t walk through by herself. Then overhearing another volunteer reminding her “I’m only a phone call away, okay? One phone call and we can get you out of there.” It feels heavy when you walk into a tent city, hidden from the road, and see kids running around, documented or not, with people passed out on the ground (you hope it’s not worse than that) and you learn that some of these individuals used to be businessmen and women, lawyers, police officers, etc. – people who hadn’t spent all of their lives at the bottom. It feels heavy knowing that a stone’s throw from one of the churches we partner with is the sex trafficking hub of the city. It feels heavy when a woman graduates from a recovery program and dies after running into someone she once did drugs with; one last hit and she was gone… just as she was beginning to rebuild her life.
One evening someone in the group shared that these churches, ministries, and organizations that we partner with in Baltimore are like “Pockets of Hope.” It felt like the perfect description. That’s truly what these places are.
Because of these “Pockets of Hope,” we also experienced joy and immense encouragement, not just heaviness. We got to see how much good happens on a daily basis to help people in need, some desperately so. One of these places, after operating solely as a food pantry for a while, decided to expand and offer a deeper level of care through education, job resources, clothing distribution and more. We toured a large warehouse that is going to be an additional extension of their non-profit organization. It is so exciting to see their vision for the future and to think of how many lives will be touched there.
It’s a joy working together to be the hands and feet of Christ. Going out as a team and partnering with those who are already aware of needs in the city and who are actively giving of their time and resources is both encouraging and helpful to us as we try to make the most of our time there. These “Pockets of Hope” are essential to the mission there. Without them, not only would we become discouraged and overwhelmed, we would be in over our heads. It’s in these places that we’re given a tangible reminder that God truly is at work—whether we see it or not. We’re not there to fix everything, we’re not there to jump in and take over. We’re there to walk alongside, to plant seeds, to water seeds, to give a word of encouragement, a smile, or a hug.
The phrase I mentioned earlier, “it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon” served as a subtle reminder to me to let go and free my heart from the burden of expectation of wanting to see certain results and change happen, in order to embrace being a part of what God is doing right in front of me. I really felt free to do that.
As I’ve continued to think about this phrase, I’ve realized how much it really applies to all of life and ministry as a whole. If we’re in this for the long haul, pacing ourselves and living out our callings through the work of the Holy Spirit within us, is essential. Our hearts were never meant to carry the burdens of the whole world. Many of us are often weighed down from the burden of too much news from all over the world, to the point where our discouragement becomes immobilization and we end up doing nothing. It’s just too much.
In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” My prayer is that we would take this to heart. When we give those burdens to God, we free ourselves up to be a vessel for good instead of being so consumed with worry and anxiety that we can’t be effective at all. When we leave it in God’s hands, it frees us up to allow His love, joy, hope, peace and other fruits of the spirit to take up residence in our hearts and flow out from there. That is such an essential part of being the hands and feet of Christ because those are the things that point others to Christ – the fruit of His spirit within us.
We go, we speak, we care for others and act as His hands and feet, we love, we encourage, we speak the truth… and then we need to let God do the work of the heart. The Holy Spirit changes hearts, not us.
It is such an honor to partner with these “Pockets of Hope” in Baltimore – from recovery programs, to food distribution centers and churches in the heart of Baltimore that are out there every day reaching out to the lost. We are so encouraged and excited by what God is doing in this city and are blessed to be a part of it, even in a small way.
Getting ready to distribute food at the Transformation CenterHelping to clean up for incoming women and childrenHelping an ailing mission partner on home projectsView of Baltimore and the Ronald McDonald House (left) from the rooftop of the Helping Up Mission – The Center for Women & ChildrenAlmost ready for women and their children to move in!
Mother Teresa once said, “The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for and deserted by everybody. The greatest evil is the lack of love and charity, the terrible indifference toward one’s neighbor who lives at the roadside, assaulted by exploitation, corruption, poverty and disease.” Her response to that? “Do small things with great love.”
That “small thing” is significant and may have a bigger impact than you or I could ever imagine.
“Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to do infinitely more than we might ask or think.” -Ephesians 3:20
Images were provided by Teresa Dubyoski.
The Potency of Missional Engagement
written by K. Craig Moorman | May 11, 2026
Dear Friends—
A most happy and blessed New Year to you and yours.
No doubt, many of us reading this article can readily receive such a greeting; but, for some, these words may be welcomed but not so easily received or even believed. This may include an individual who just discovered they have a very difficult illness to contend with or maybe it’s a husband who lost a beloved wife of 35 years or one trapped in overwhelming bondage to an addiction or perhaps it’s a family who experienced a natural catastrophe and lost everything. The list goes on. When facing such a reality, it can be much more difficult to receive a word of blessing, while happiness is illusive at best. This is precisely when the Community of Faith, the Body of Christ, is called to rise up and consider the potency of missional engagement. It is helpful for us, as brothers and sisters who are bound up in Christ, to be aware of those who are struggling and then allow the Great Commandment to settle deeply into that place of compassion: “‘ … and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Mark 12:30, 31) This will necessarily push us towards mission which can quickly and graciously re-prioritize the living out of these most challenging days.
In 1 Corinthians 12, St. Paul paints a beautiful and profound picture of what it means to be a community of faith and concludes with these striking, life-altering words: “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” (v. 26) The writer of Hebrews says it a bit differently in 12:12, “ … lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.” Again, we can see our ‘calling’ to come alongside and help lift up and literally be the hands and feet of Jesus, especially for those whose hands are failing and knees and feet weak. This is what it means to be fully engaged in mission.
This brief article is an invitation for you to join us in an upcoming missional event or better yet, and more practically speaking, connect with a local church body and engage in mission … in your own backyard! Prayerfully consider engaging—Not only will it help bring restorative healing to any given situation but you will experience restoration and healing as well. Just engage.
Last year, I wrote an article for the July CORE Voice Newsletter (click here) regarding the power and potency of such missional engagement. It is there that I describe a particular outreach called City Mission (CM) which was birthed out of Cross Country Mission (CCM). Dennis (Nelson) asked that I write this article to share just a bit about our upcoming CCM. Again, though I’m inviting you to participate in this event, more so I’m inviting you to simply participate in mission at some level, somewhere.
On January 30th through February 4th (link for more details @ https://www.riversedgeministries.org/ ), River’s Edge Ministries will be headed to Pine Island, Florida, for our eleventh disaster relief/rebuild effort. We are a multi-generational group of ordinary people coming together from many denominations to be His Church. Our fervent hope is to be a Christ-centered family on mission and avail ourselves to the needs of those who were severely impacted by Hurricane Ian, causing over 150 fatalities in Cuba, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia; but most of the deaths were in Florida. Ian also caused catastrophic damage with losses estimated to be more than $50 billion. The cities of Fort Myers Beach and Naples were particularly hard hit. Millions were left without power in the storm’s wake, and numerous inhabitants were forced to take refuge on their roofs. Sanibel Island and Pine Island were hardest hit by the storm surge. Clearly, thousands are still in the recovery phase and are only now rebuilding their future. It will be our sacred honor to be part of that rebuilding.
Please note that we are currently working with Mary Bates (NALC Disaster Relief) who has established our base of operation, housing, missional work, etc. (Thank you, Mary, for all of your extraordinary work for the Kingdom of God, especially as it manifests itself in the midst of utter chaos and ruin.) Our plan is to arrive to First Baptist Church on Pine Island by the evening of January 30th. Upon arrival, we’ll set up our base camp on the church grounds in their building and outside in the parking lot, etc. We will work from 9:00 until 3:00 on January 31st, February 1st and 2nd, and then depart on February 3rd and arrive back home to MD by February 4th. We will travel just over 1000 miles by car, van, and truck with the hope of bringing a small caravan of hurricane clean-up-rebuilding workers and prayer warriors. Some are even flying in. As alluded to before (cf. Mark 12), our hope is to minister to heart, soul, mind, and strength. There will be a broad range of work tasks, including ongoing clean-up, framing, electrical, drywalling, roofing, meal prep, and on-the-ground intercessory prayer. We are praying for many skilled and unskilled co-laborers, but mostly willing hearts! At the present time, nearly 20 have committed to this event; but, it seems that we’ll have closer to 30 brothers and sisters participating in Cross Country Mission: Pine Island, FL; again, from 16 to 70+ years of age and at least 7-8 different denominations. And to think that we, a church of the NALC, get to sponsor this event—What an honor and joy!
If by chance you become interested in participating in this effort or have an interest in hosting a similar event in the future, please register here or contact me directly. But the gentle invitation and challenge from this article remains: Simply engage in mission somewhere … it’s right in front of you. I’d like to thank CORE and many individuals for supporting this missional endeavor with resources and encouragement.
Do take care, stay the course, and keep your eyes on Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith.
K. Craig Moorman
River’s Edge Ministries, Mt. Airy, MD
(Images in this post: Flickr)
A Note from a College Missionary in Italy
written by Jackson Watts | May 11, 2026
“Ciao! I’m Jackson. I’m from the United States. What’s your name?”
This is the gist of how I started conversations during my time in Italy this past May and June. It was usually accompanied by the question, “Do you speak English?” and a handshake. This introduction was often followed by the student asking me why I was in Bologna, Italy. Since you’re probably wondering the same thing, I’ll give you some context.
Jackson Watts
My name is Jackson Watts. I am going into my senior year at Oklahoma State University, and I am considering attending Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA for my MDiv in order to become a pastor in the North American Lutheran Church. This past school year, I joined the campus ministry group Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ), where I attended weekly Bible studies and other events. Early in the fall semester, I heard that Cru did summer mission trips at universities around the world, and the OSU branch of Cru was affiliated with Cru at the University of Bologna in Bologna, Italy.
I told myself that it sounded cool but wasn’t for me. As often happens to me with ministry opportunities, the more I told myself that I didn’t have the time or the resources for it, the more I realized it was God’s plan for me. After speaking with the team leader about it in November, I decided to apply to the six week Bologna summer mission trip. Since then, I have seen God work in more ways than I ever could have imagined, and I have had countless opportunities to grow in my faith.
One of the first ways in which I saw God work was in fundraising. I started fundraising in February, giving myself three months to raise the $6,000 needed for the trip. The fundraising started off well. Lutheran CORE was my first supporter! However, I soon faltered. With three weeks left, I still needed $2,500. There were 30 people I had mailed for fundraising who hadn’t gotten back to me. I began to lose hope when I realized that even if all 30 of those people gave me $50 each, I would still be $1,000 short. I spoke to my team leader about it, and he told me he was confident God would provide the $2,500 I needed in the next three weeks. I didn’t believe him, but I continued to fundraise, talking to new people and texting those with whom I had already been in contact. Not only did God provide me what I needed, but He provided an overabundance! Through the unexpected generosity of many people, I raised all the money I needed with significant extra, which I gave to other members of the team.
On May 17, 2022, eight other students, three Cru staff, and I departed for Bologna, Italy, to spend five weeks doing ministry at the University of Bologna. The University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, having been founded in 1088 A.D. It has an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 50,000 and a postgraduate enrollment of approximately 35,000. The Cru group there has approximately 50 active students, and it calls itself Agape Studenti.
I soon discovered several major differences between the University of Bologna (UB) and traditional American universities, some of which made ministry difficult. One major difference was that UB doesn’t have a finals week like most American universities have. UB students finish classes at the end of May and take their final test any time during June. Most students were free to leave Bologna for a week or two before coming back to take tests.
This made ministry difficult because we met many students who couldn’t meet up again because they were about to leave Bologna and go back to their parents’ house for a few weeks, or for the rest of the summer. I met several students who were interested in my faith in Jesus and wanted to know more but weren’t free to meet up until after I left Bologna. This was one of the most frustrating parts of the trip.
Another major difference was that there were no clubs at UB like the clubs at universities here in the U.S. This was a challenge to ministry as well. When talking to students I couldn’t present Agape Studenti as a club with weekly meetings at a designated time and place. The students would see that as a very strange thing. In fact, Agape Studenti doesn’t have weekly meetings at UB. They did in past years, but the staff decided to drop the weekly meetings because of low attendance. Because the idea of a club is so foreign, students at UB prioritize hanging out with friends over weekly meetings with an organization at a designated time. Now, the staff meets with students one-on-one to read the Bible together.
Although I’m more comfortable with the American style of campus ministry, I had to adapt to the culture. When doing ministry in the United States, I prioritized getting students involved in weekly Bible studies. In Italy, I had to focus on being friends with students whom I met, telling them about how my faith in Jesus has changed my life, and introducing them to an Agape staff member.
The difference which was most relevant to ministry was the extremely low number of practicing religious adherents of any kind. As a group, we met around 300 students and had spiritual conversations with around 200 students whom we didn’t meet through Agape Studenti. To my knowledge, none of those people consistently attended a worship service, mass, mosque, or synagogue. We did meet one Italian student who considered himself an evangelical Christian and grasped the concept of salvation by grace through faith only, not by works. We met another two to five students (forgive me for not knowing exact numbers, as it was hard for me to keep track of the students contacted by other members of my group) who could be considered practicing Roman Catholics because they attended mass a few times a year. We met three to six students from other countries, or whose parents were from another country, who considered themselves either Protestant Christians or Eastern Orthodox Christians. One of these students was already involved in Agape Studenti. The rest were not involved in any Christian student organization or any local church. The majority of the students we met were Italian students who had been baptized and confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church but had not been to mass in years.
It may come as a surprise that Christian international students who come to Bologna don’t make more of an effort to get involved in a Christian group. However, this makes more sense given that many of these students can’t find a Christian group of any kind.
Although there are a few protestant churches on the outskirts of the city, there are only two in the center of the city, and both of these have fewer than 100 in attendance per Sunday. This is in a metropolitan area of around 1 million people and a city center of around 100,000 people.
In addition, to my knowledge, there is only one interdenominational Christian student organization at UB, Agape Studenti. I heard of a Catholic student organization, but this organization seemed to have a low presence on campus. Out of the 300 students whom we had conversations with outside of Agape events, we met only one who was an active member of any religious student organization (in his case, Agape Studenti). Given the extremely low presence of religious organizations on campus, it’s easy to understand why Protestant Christian students coming to the University of Bologna don’t know where to turn to find fellow believers. Part of my job was to find those students and get them involved in Agape.
In order to find interested students, we had to meet students. There was no easy method for meeting students; we just had to start conversations with strangers. One of the easiest places to start a conversation was in line to get food in the cafeteria. I always started with “Parla Inglese?” (Do you speak English?) To which they usually answered “Sí.” I then asked what food I should get. After they answered that question, I introduced myself in the manner I explained in the first paragraph. When I met students in other places, I had to start with a different question, or just introduce myself and start talking. They were often confused at first about why an American started talking to them randomly, but they were willing to continue in conversation. They usually asked why I was in Bologna, which gave me an opportunity to explain a little about Agape, and possibly about my faith.
Telling students about my faith in Jesus wasn’t always easy. At some point in the first conversation, I usually got a chance to ask students about their religious beliefs. I only met two students who didn’t believe in any god at all. Most students said they believed in a God but didn’t see any point in practicing the religion they had grown up practicing. They had gone to mass regularly as a child, but the ritual prayers there felt meaningless. The idea of a personal relationship with God was a mostly foreign idea to them. The message of the Catholic Church was that a personal relationship with God comes through regular attendance of mass. Because Italian students did not feel any joy or connection to God through this participation, they usually stopped participating after confirmation.
By the time I met them, they usually felt resentment towards the Catholic Church for various reasons often having to do with positions on sexuality. They had very little knowledge of the Bible, but what they did know tended to follow a pattern: Jesus taught good morals, and the Old Testament has scientifically incorrect teachings and defunct morals. This was usually a good avenue for me to share what I believe about the Old Testament – it shows the brokenness of humanity and points to a coming savior – and the New Testament – Jesus is the savior of all who repent and believe in him. These concepts were mostly foreign to Italian students. A few times I asked what they had been taught in confirmation class. None of them could remember.
Through the difficulties of having to share my faith day after day to new people who didn’t understand it, a passage which guided me and gave me encouragement was the story of the woman at the well in John chapter 4. Jesus started his conversation with the woman with a simple command, “Give me a drink.” The woman questioned why Jesus would talk to a Samaritan such as herself. When Jesus says he has what she needs for eternal life, she seems to miss the point and is instead interested in finding a way to avoid coming to the well again. When Jesus shows her that he knows her past, she realizes he is a prophet.
However, she is determined to create a division between herself and Jesus. She says, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” She creates a division between “my people” and “your people” with her words, and she points out a difference between them that was not even relevant to what Jesus was talking about. However, Jesus is unfazed. He says the truth of why he came, and how she can have a personal relationship with God. Three times the woman pointed out the divisions between their societies, but Jesus focused on how to end the division between herself and God.
I found myself in similar situations often. I wanted to tell students about the Living Water, Jesus Christ. When I brought up my faith in Jesus, they brought up the hottest topics of the day which divided us, usually having to do with homosexuality, or the Catholic Church being hypocritical in some way. When they found out I was American, they wanted to hear my opinion on the most recent American news, of which there was always too much. I learned to not get wrapped up in politics, or get defensive, but focus on the task at hand. After the woman at the well tried to create a division, she realized what Jesus’ true message was. She went to the town to spread the news of what Jesus had done for her. I tried to do the same. I have access to many resources, and I know my Bible well. However, I try to keep my initial message simple when talking to students: look at what Jesus has done for me.
At the beginning of the trip, we decided as a group that if even one person accepts Jesus as their savior as a result of our mission, our mission would be a success. It seemed like a good goal at the time, but now I view the mission differently.
According to statistics we kept during the mission, we initiated conversations with 372 different people (not all of whom were students). This doesn’t count people we met at Agape events who were previously involved in Agape. We had 270 spiritual conversations with students (conversations with the same person at different times were counted separately). We presented the gospel 63 times.
We saw zero decisions for Christ. Even though we didn’t have any decisions for Christ while we were there, I still saw evidence of God’s working in the lives of the students we met. We connected several Protestant Christian students to Agape, giving them a safe place to profess their faith in Jesus and giving them a resource to help them spread that faith to others. In addition, our final Sunday in Bologna, two UB students attended church with us at a local Protestant church.
On a separate occasion, one of the students I met bought a Bible and read all of Genesis in five days. He told me it was beautiful. Over the course of the trip, I had several students express interest in getting together to read the Bible with me.
Our final week in Bologna, Agape hosted an event to which we invited all of the friends we made during the mission. At the event we discussed the meaning of love, focusing on its meaning in John 3:16 and John 13:34. Around 25 UB students attended, and they were all introduced to at least one Agape staff member. Earlier in the trip, we had several previously agnostic students show a genuine deep interest in our message of salvation through Jesus. However, I do not consider the trip a success for these reasons. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.” Back in November, I realized God wanted me to go to Italy this summer. Because I love God, I trust He is working for good in ways I can see and in ways I can’t. Therefore, I consider the trip a success.
Global Missions 2021: How Did We Get Here … What Now?
written by Bill Moberly | May 11, 2026
Rev. Bill Moberly is the Founder & Director of Awakening Lives to World Missions, which exists to call, equip and network congregations for more effective global outreach. ALWM draws on his 30+ years of experience in training churches across the US.
“The joy experienced during these months will never be forgotten,” he wrote, “the joy of telling people ‘The Old, Old Story,’ a story which they never before had heard. That joy cannot be described; it can only be experienced.” (Rev. Ralph D Hult, Lutheran pioneer missionary to Africa.)1 Those stirring words echo Jesus’ teaching in Luke 15:7 “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” The powerful stories of the thousands of Lutheran missionaries who served the predecessor bodies that formed the ELCA, going back to the first missionary sent in 1842, are rooted in this truth and the call that compels us to pray, send and go.
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matt. 28:18-20
This is still the primary Global Mission task given to His Church by our Lord Jesus Christ: to go and make disciples of all the nations (ethne)! If your only frame of reference for global missions is the past generation, during the decline in the number of synodical Lutheran missionaries, and the increasing focus on the “accompaniment” mission model in the ELCA, it might surprise you to learn, for example, that China (including Hong Kong & Taiwan) and India have received more Lutheran missionaries since 1842 than any other country! Lutheran pioneer missionary efforts among the unreached and least reached over the decades have always included proclamation of the Gospel, discipleship, along with building schools, hospitals and other humanitarian efforts.
With my undergrad degree in history, I love looking at where we have been – both for the powerful stories of people living and serving – but also to learn from the past. When I heard for the first time in the early 1990’s about ‘accompaniment’ as the likely new ELCA global mission, I had just begun working more directly in global missions. In that role I was learning terms like ‘unreached people groups’ and distinguishing between the unreached and unevangelized. My first thought on ‘accompaniment’ was, ‘how can the more than three billion unreached people, where the church barely exists – if at all – ever invite us to accompany them?’ Nearly half of the world’s population, the “all nations” still needing to hear the Gospel, were ignored. So, let’s look back to 1988.
When the ELCA formed, there were more than 780+ long term missionaries serving the three predecessor synods: ALC, LCA and AELC. By 2002 the collective number had dropped to 166. This now also included long term and short term missionaries (1-2 years). Now, according to the ELCA:
Personnel positions in long-term service meet core programmatic needs in the ELCA’s global mission program… The number of long-term positions is limited” 4
The long-term pioneer missionaries of past generations – who learned the local language, adapted culturally and toiled continually to bring the Gospel to new ‘tongues, tribes, peoples and languages’ – are no more. What happened? Dr. Robert Benne put it this way:
“Convinced that all missionary activity was corrupted by western colonialism, the ELCA decided soon after its formation to forgo pioneer missionary efforts – bringing the Gospel to peoples who had never heard it before. Instead it opted for accompaniment, ie helping already established younger churches in whatever way they determined. While accompaniment itself is a noble enterprise, the refusal to carry the Gospel to those who have never heard it was a direct repudiation of the Great Commission. The number of missionaries plummeted, while social service helpers increased.” 5
The number of missionaries declined sharply, and the core task also drastically changed. The words of Rev. Hult, above, stand in sharp and disheartening contrast to the words of another Lutheran missionary written nearly a century later:
“My job as a missionary in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is not to convert anyone to anything. The ‘accompaniment model’ for missionary work, to which we subscribe, is defined as walking together in solidarity, practicing interdependence and mutuality.” 2
“I usually associate evangelism with an effort to convert nonbelievers to Christianity, something that makes me very uncomfortable. Too often the desire to bring about conversions grows out of a belief that nonbelievers need to be ‘saved’ from eternal damnation by adopting the Christian faith. To the extent that evangelism is about ‘saving souls,’ I want nothing to do with it. I approach matters of faith and belief with humility, unwilling to assert the superiority of my own religious beliefs over those of others.” 3
The ELCA describes it this way, in the Living Lutheran at their website, in a post that has since been removed:
“Today, missionaries with the ELCA serve in 48 countries. . .Most missionaries from Europe and North America are now lay people with special expertise, rather than clergy intent on conversion.”
Essential to finding your way when you’re lost is knowing where you are, and how you arrived there! Although many reading this may not agree at all with the loss of evangelism and pioneer missions, or some of the startling statements, the truth is that in many Lutheran congregations global missions has diminished, and in some cases virtually disappeared. That is the tragic ‘new normal’ that has emerged in many churches after nearly 30 years of accompaniment, and a global missions decline that can be traced, in fact, back into the 1960’s. I don’t write here to cast blame or point fingers. Those persuaded that missions = colonialism, or church members in our pluralistic age that believe that all religions are roads to the same God, are probably happy with the state of things.
On the other hand, there also many of us who want our congregations to return, in words and in actions, to the priority of Jesus’ global mission mandate! Rev. August Carlson, pioneer Lutheran missionary to India, anticipated a time like ours today when global missions would diminish. He urged the publication of a periodical solely on missions, “expressing the fear that missionary information might otherwise eventually come to be relegated to a less important place and missions itself come to be looked upon as secondary in importance”.6
The path forward for us is always found as we return to the Word of God and the Lord of the Church! Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) The resurrected Jesus Christ said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8). Jesus’ command to HIS church is still to go and make disciples of all the nations! This still starts in our congregations: in our worship, Sunday school, in teaching, in our gatherings of various kinds, and when our members, councils and teams meet to pray and plan. Every congregation – rural or urban, large or small – is to be purposefully and personally engaged in helping fulfill the global great commission. We are called to be actively engaged as prayers, givers and goers. After the effects of the last generation, in many churches it may have been so long that you don’t remember how or where to start. To put it another way – the fact is that ‘we don’t know what we don’t know’. But ignorance as people and congregations in knowing how to genuinely answer God’s call to the nations is not bliss. Resources exist, the Lord is calling, and people are still waiting to hear the ‘old, old story’ of forgiveness and life in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
[For assistance with evaluating and energizing your global missions ministry, write Pastor Moberly at missionshelp@alwm.org]
p and network congregations for more effective global outreach. ALWM draws on his 30+ years of experience in training churches across the US.