Volume 2, Issue 1
Eboo Patel and the Interfaith Youth Core Visit Luther
By Studnet Writer Kristi Holmberg
The Opening Convocation at Luther College is always a wonderful event as the community welcomes new first-year and transfer students to the college. This year, the inspiring and empowering words of the speaker, Dr. Eboo Patel, challenged us work together for the “equal dignity and mutual loyalty” of all people. Patel is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core and author of .Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. The book was the assigned summer read for all first-year Paideia students. Read more
College Ministries and the Luther Diversity Center Launch Interfaith Initiative
By Editor Pastor Amy Zalk Larson
The visit of Eboo Patel, founder and director of the Interfaith Youth Core, served as the beginning of Luther’s “2009-10 Interfaith Initiative”, a joint effort of College Ministries and the Luther Diversity Center. The Interfaith Initiative seeks to help Luther College live out its mission of striving to be a “community where students, faculty, and staff are enlivened and transformed by encounters with one another, by the exchange of ideas, and by the life of faith and learning”. Read more
Luther Alum Serves College Ministries as Interim Campus Minister
By Student Writer Kristi Holmberg
College Ministries welcomes Carl-Eric Gentes as the interim campus minister for this year. He will take on the responsibilities of Pastor David Vasquez who is on sabbatical until June. Carl-Eric and his wife, Rachel (Wachter) Gentes, graduated from Luther in 2002. As a student, Carl-Eric was heavily involved in numerous outreach groups and participated in the drama and worship teams for Focus, Luther’s student-led worship service. He also served as the co-coordinator of Church Youth Fest. In fact, in some ways, Carl-Eric feels he learned more being involved in College Ministries than he did in the classroom. He explains, “College Ministries is like a big laboratory that gives you the freedom to try and learn by doing”. Read more
A WILDYE time at Luther College
By Student Writer Kristi Holmberg
This summer Luther College once again hosted the Wholly Iowa Youth Leadership Discipling Event (WIYDLE). The event is a cooperative effort of three ELCA Synods in Iowa. Each year, approximately sixty high school leaders from their local congregations come together for a week for leadership development and spiritual formation in mid-July. Read more
