Friends, over this past year, we have been blessed to share in ministry with our ELCA neighbors. During this season of rebuilding Lutheran Campus Ministry at Iowa State, I have had the privilege of welcoming ELCA students into our community while serving alongside Interim Campus Minister, Pastor Erika Uthe. I am deeply grateful for Erika’s faithful leadership, vision, and care during this important season of transition.
Today, it is my joy to introduce the next chapter in that ministry.
Pastor AJ Olson (they/them) has been called to serve as Director for Campus Ministry with Lutheran Campus Ministry–Ames (LCM). AJ is a recent graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque. They bring a deep passion for accompanying students as they ask big questions, seek belonging, and discover God’s presence in their lives.
AJ has shared that they hope to build relationships across campus and throughout the Ames community, creating spaces where students experience welcome, grace, compassion, and the expansive love of God. Those are values we hold dear as well. I am excited about the opportunities to continue partnering together in serving the students of Iowa State.
As part of that partnership, we have entered into a one-year space-sharing arrangement that provides AJ an office on our main staff hallway and, working with our Wesley Center ministry, other spaces here at CW for shared and separate ministry activities. Along with amounts to offset their occupancy expenses, LCM will share in the costs of supplies for shared ministries such as food and drink offered through our Student Lounge.
Please join me in extending a warm Collegiate/Wesley welcome to Pastor AJ Olson. We give thanks to God for the ministry that has already begun through Lutheran Campus Ministry, and I look forward to what God will continue to do as we work together for the sake of our students.
Welcome, AJ!
Pastor Jena
