Fragmented in Faith: The Concerns and Hopes Found in Student Spirituality and Civic Engagement

We — Emma, who works with Campus Ministry, and Monica, who is on the soccer team and is a Resident Assistant — participated as students in the Civic Engagement and Faith Perspectives conference. In reflecting on the conference and on our own observations, the connection between faith and civic engagement is increasingly central to day-to-day student life and our imaginations of where we want ourselves and our institution to be. Here, we offer our perspectives on the challenges and the necessity of linking civic engagement to our institution’s faith affiliation.

The causes of civic engagement and spiritual engagement exist in a cyclical pattern: low spiritual engagement inspires less motivation for other areas, but also, low motivation in general — due to students not taking advantage of campus resources, generally being overwhelmed with their workload, personal stressors, and pressure from other campus involvements — might stimulate less spiritual engagement. Many of our classmates attend class irregularly for a variety of personal reasons, but also because they say that attending class is not worth the investment. As these students’ commitment to completing the most central part of college — attending class — is often lacking, it is challenging for faculty, staff, and peers to encourage student intellectual, spiritual, and community development. This is the more basic problem that must be solved before spiritual and community engagement among our student body can even be addressed — students are easily overwhelmed by their foundational college experience, and they are not able to seek out “extra” ways to spend time.

We benefit from a tight knit group of active student organizations on campus that address a range of civic or advocacy-focused causes with a small team of executives and regular members. The actual impact of these organizations on campus and in the community necessitates widespread acknowledgment and a consistent drive from the student body to support these efforts. Monica hosted an extremely successful Campus Living event recently where more than seventy students attended to get a free snack. This was great, but the event also aimed for students to hang around and build community when, in actuality, most students got their slushy and left. Emma faces this challenge in Campus Ministry, as student leaders and faculty and staff struggle to figure out how to reach our current student body. Chapel attendance is low, and Campus Ministry-sponsored events successful in the past now result in few participants. If these groups, however, existed on a version of our campus that was truer to its established Lutheran values, students might have better recognition of the importance of fellowship opportunities.

As our Lutheran student population continues to dwindle, it becomes clear that the Lutheran prioritization of civic engagement can no longer be assumed in incoming students. While there has been a commendable attempt to incorporate some Lutheran values in the curriculum and in campus engagement opportunities, there is still clearly a disconnect between that work and the results among our student body. It must be widely understood, then, that teaching Lutheran values — and making them a mandatory central point for student life — does not necessitate student participation in the Lutheran faith or any faith for that matter. Once we establish the distinction between Lutheran values and practicing the Lutheran faith, there are immediately more opportunities to develop our campus identity and culture. Lutheranism has much to guide us on how to live a better and more just life in communion with others. A core Lutheran value is neighbor justice, which, in a campus life context, suggests active engagement in accompaniment service with fellow students and with our community in Seguin. This service should reflect a desire to see better outcomes for those whom we serve alongside. Additionally, keeping the Lutheran value of open and welcoming communion central to our university’s identity would create a broader understanding of why most of our students are not, in fact, Lutheran; our doors are, clearly, open to all who wish to receive an education here. It would also encourage students of various faith backgrounds, or of no faith background at all, to explore how they can express their individual perspectives in a way that is constructive to a more intellectually diverse student body.

Other issues appear more important than our connection to our Lutheran identity. More than ever, our age group is isolated, overwhelmed, financially strained, and anxious about their futures. As a Lutheran institution with a rich tradition of close community, we should value that unique gift as an avenue to solve those broader issues our students may face. It is a hopeful prospect that many institutions do not necessarily have: to harness our most ingrained Lutheran principles in a way that can relieve the strains that are not unique to our own student body, but are still widely felt. Civic engagement appears as non-essential compared to these issues. As a university, many of the civic engagement experiences in which our students participate are incentivized by course assignments, athletic requirements, or financial remuneration. These experiences exist largely because of individual efforts to enhance campus civic engagement, as no one individual can change the landscape and culture of campus life. Incentivized participation is important, but it does belie the greater intentionality of the process of discerning why one wants to become engaged and committing to that process selflessly.

And while it is also essential to Lutheran higher education that we meet the needs of all neighbors by opening our institution’s doors to people of every faith or belief background, we must not let a perceived aversion to our unique Lutheran perspective deprive our student population of the applicable elements of our university’s established values.

Yet, by focusing on our Lutheran identity, civic engagement quickly becomes essential and an essential component to starting to address these issues. One of the key foundations of Lutheran higher education is civic engagement, the idea that each person is called to neighborly service for the purpose of bettering the world. Discernment of the best way to do that service, based on our gifts, resources, and inclinations, can only happen through spiritual engagement. And while it is also essential to Lutheran higher education that we meet the needs of all neighbors by opening our institution’s doors to people of every faith or belief background, we must not let a perceived aversion to our unique Lutheran perspective deprive our student population of the applicable elements of our university’s established values.

Every issue we, and other students, faculty, and staff, have identified may not be solved at once. There should not be an attempt to regress our entire student body back to the times of required chapel attendance. That is because the goal is teaching Lutheran values — a central one being inspired and purposeful civic engagement — but not the Lutheran faith, exclusively. It is essential that we honor our diverse levels of faith and civic engagement backgrounds, but to truly honor that and to fully educate each student, there must be a reflection of passion for this change from individuals in every corner of our campus. Our institution cannot convey a sense of shame or shyness on the topic of our Lutheran name. Professors, especially those who engage conversations surrounding faith and vocation, should encourage a curiosity about the Lutheran heritage of those concepts. And students should be introduced to the possibility of restorative faith and civic engagement that inspires more glad work in their academic, athletic, and social efforts, rather than chapel and community service days tacked on to the end of their already long to-do lists. This is how identity is cultivated; either we fully embrace our Lutheran name by reflecting those mandatory Lutheran values, or we explore a new identity wholly that is rooted in something else that better reflects our current student body.

When we confront our Lutheran heritage as inheritors of this institution, we also confront the need to, on a basic level, communicate to our fellow students that service to neighbor as inspired by our faithful discernment and practice — from whatever spiritual source they choose, not exclusively Lutheran — is not optional, elective, or extracurricular; it is something we must do whether we realize it or not. The intentionality and quality of that work, though, determines how our university is regarded by the world.