When Brynn was in high school, she identified as an atheist. Despite being raised in the church, she struggled with the notion of a loving God. But even while professing atheism, the religious life intrigued her. When she arrived at Pitt, she called herself “agnostic but Christian curious.” Slowly, she began to explore other religious groups because she said, “I was struggling with finding community, and I knew I had a sense of spirituality that was sort of undiscovered, if you will. I had faith, and I didn’t know how to deal with it.”
Sharing her struggles with an aunt who lives near Pittsburgh, her aunt recommended Brynn check out the Lutheran Campus Ministry in Greater Pittsburgh, because she had heard the campus pastor preach at a local congregation one Sunday. Brynn, by then a sophomore, was worried though. “I didn’t think I would be welcome back into the church because of my previous atheism and agnosticism.” So before she ever set foot in the Lutheran University Center she checked out the website, and then emailed the campus pastor. After meeting him, she felt confident enough to come to a meal. “I wanted to find a community where I could just be,” she shared. She was not disappointed. “I was welcomed immediately, which was very shocking for me. It was radical hospitality and welcome right from the get go.”
Once welcomed into this community, what kept Brynn was the way everyone surrounded her. “It was good to know that people would care I was missing.” She continued, “I think a big part of church and being before God in the church is being able to remove the mask that we wear in everyday society, and to just truly be who you are as God called you to be. To be able to experience that in the campus ministry is really life changing for me.”
Brynn experienced a community that helped her hear God’s call. She served as a peer minister during the beginning of the Covid pandemic. She worked to cultivate community even while the students were in exile and isolation. She became comfortable going to worship services and through the ministry of compline, rediscovered her spirituality. Brynn is now a third-year Master of Divinity student at United Lutheran Seminary, where she will soon be looking to begin her internship and continue to develop her pastoral identity. Brynn will be a gift to the larger church as she seeks to pastor a community that expresses the radical hospitality and welcome of Jesus’s love to all who enter. The Lutheran Campus Ministry in Greater Pittsburgh is the place where Brynn’s faith was renewed and cultivated so that she could be sent out into the world.
