A Century of Lutheran Campus Ministry

Origins

In America, Lutheran Campus Ministry’s origin is traced to 1907, when the first full-time Lutheran campus minister was called to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Over the following decades, students and church leaders built a national movement of faith on campus: forming joint councils, launching student associations, and raising funds to construct ministry facilities at campuses across the country.

By the time the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was formed in 1988, campus ministry had become a well-established, cooperatively funded enterprise stretching across dozens of denominations and hundreds of campuses. Today, approximately 176 campus ministries serve around 11,000 students nationwide, carrying forward more than a century of Lutheran presence in academic life.

National Lutheran Campus Ministry, Incorporated (NLCM)

As campus ministry grew, so did the need to protect and steward the physical spaces where that ministry happened. NLCM, Inc. was founded in 1970 with a clear mission: to help campus ministries acquire, maintain, and protect their facilities.

For decades, NLCM has provided capital funding, first through loans, and since 2014, through direct grants, to help local campus ministries build and maintain the places where students gather, worship, and find community. NLCM is closely tied to the ELCA, with board members approved by the Church Council, but it operates as its own organization with a distinct financial mission. 

“We Care for the Future”: A Legacy of Generosity

Beginning around 1985, NLCM launched an endowment initiative called “We Care for the Future,” a way for individuals and congregations to make lasting gifts in support of Lutheran campus ministry. Local campus ministry sites could establish their own endowment accounts within the program, with NLCM managing the funds and ensuring they were used well.

The program reflected a conviction that campus ministry is worth investing in for the long haul. Earnings from the endowments are used today by dozens of local ministries in their work and by LuMin to train and support campus ministers across the country. Today, the ELCA Foundation administers these funds on behalf of NLCM. The “We Care for the Future” program stands as evidence that Lutheran campus ministry has always inspired generosity, and that the commitment to future generations of students runs deep.

LuMin: The Lutheran Campus Ministry Network

While NLCM stewards capital resources, LuMin supports people and programs. LuMin was born out of a difficult period for ELCA campus ministry: between 2008 and 2015, significant funding cuts eliminated national staff and left many campus ministry staff feeling isolated and unsupported. In response, a grassroots group of campus ministry staff began organizing in 2013. They envisioned a national network that would provide connection, training, and advocacy for Lutheran campus ministry professionals.

LuMin was officially incorporated in 2015 and quickly became the connective tissue of ELCA campus ministry. LuMin hosts national and regional gatherings, trains new staff, curates ministry resources for campus ministry, and links students to the ministry at their school. Today, LuMin serves as the programmatic heart of ELCA campus ministry, with a full-time Program Director embedded within the churchwide organization and regional facilitators in every ELCA region.