The ELCA has affiliated campus ministries serving over 240 colleges and universities. Every single one of them is unique. They serve different student populations in different geographies and in different settings. Finding a common thread among them other than the typical age range of its constituents is a challenge. But I suspect among most there will be one: Questions.

There are some great questions throughout scripture that get at the heart of the story. “Who told you that you were naked?” “Am I my brother’s keeper?” “If they ask me ‘What is this God’s name?’ what shall I say to them?” “What is truth?” “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”

We ask many questions in the campus ministry. Sitting around the dinner table every Thursday evening, we will often do introductions and ask questions about everyone. What is your name? At which school do you study? What is your major? Are you a Marvel or DC person? What is your favorite candy? If you were an animal what animal would you be and why? These questions begin to help us get to know one another. These questions are important.

They lead to new folks being welcomed in. They help us go deeper. The questions also begin to help us create an environment in which everyone knows questions are valued. I am consistently amazed at the people within the church who treat questions as enemies. Luckily, in the campus ministries I have been part of, questions are vital. Student questions often drive our main weekly study, GodTalk. We have wrestled with many questions. “What does ‘subdue the earth and have dominion over it’ mean?” “Does Baby Yoda need Jesus?” These questions lead us into many fruitful discussions and often lead to more questions. Amid it all, faith deepens and grows.

Every time we get new people connecting with the campus ministry, I make it a point to sit down over lunch or coffee with them. Again, I ask many questions. And they get to ask questions about me, or the campus ministry, or whatever. We are engaging in Christian community. But there is one question that I have come to love asking. This question sets this conversation apart from just regular getting to know one another.

I frame it as an open question—the person I am asking might not have an answer, but this question is never closed. Over our lunch or cup of coffee I ask, “What do you need for your spiritual life?” This question might be the question that is the center of my understanding of campus ministry. First, the question allows students to understand that they are able to speak for their own faith life. For some, to be fair, this question is the first time they are confronted with the ability to speak to their own need. This question can then cause some blank stares and a moment of quiet. I might get an immediate “I’m good.” I tell folks, there really is no wrong answer. The question itself is an invitation for them to consider what their spiritual needs are.

Others, however, have indeed pondered their own spiritual needs, but have had no one ask them, and so they believe they are left on their own. So often protestant Christianity, with its focus on the individual and Jesus as the sole mediator, can leave people feeling unable to voice questions to others. When I ask these people this question, their response might begin as a trickle, but it soon leads to much more. Still waters and all.

The answers to this question are often beneficial to the larger Pittsburgh Students Active in Lutheran Ministry (PSALM) group. Some people ask questions that can be the very thing others need. One young woman, Lindsey, once started to answer but then stopped, saying she wasn’t sure this was something I could help with. I encouraged her to just say it and we would see. Her single word answer was “prayer.” She didn’t know how to pray, a common concern among many folks. With her permission and with the assent of the rest of the group, we spent a semester exploring different styles of prayer.

Questions can drive so much of our faith journey. Especially within a pandemic, we might do well to regularly ask folks, “What do you need for your spiritual life?” Ask college students who are separated from their school communities this question. Ask senior citizens what they need. Imagine what might happen if a property committee asked its members that question.

PSALM is a community among the universities we serve where questions are at our center because they urge us to go deeper. We ponder what God is up to in our lives and how our faith is being encouraged. What do you need for your spiritual life?

Inside Campus Ministry