Thunder Bay: Lakehead University.

In arriving in TBay, I found my way to the home of the pastor of Evangel Church , a PAOC church which is literally next door to Lakehead University. Gary and Sandy Wilson and I go back to BC days, and it was great to get caught up again. The idea of campus ministry was not unfamiliar to Gary and he was motivated to take me along with his assistant , Jed Armstrong, for a tour of the LU facilities.  It was certainly motivational, especially since Gary has had the awareness since he came to TBay over a decade ago that Evangel was strategically placed to reach the campus. Indeed, he has considered a name change that would reflect this reality.

Jed and Gary

The para-curriculum of the campus...

So, let’s talk about this. There are a number of students who go to Evangel, two of whom are the daughters of the pastor.   However, the University itself is almost a world unto itself, and even though the church is a five minute walk from campus, it almost seems as if it were in another world. This is not uncommon. So, the idea is: how about going to where the students actually are – which is on the campus – rather than luring them off the campus.

To embellish the metaphor, this makes good fishing sense. A number of years ago, a prominent TV sportsfishing personality invited my two older boys to accompany him to the Bay of Quinte to do a youth fishing episode. This fellow gave them a top notch time and by talking with him I learned a bit about fishing, myself. The fact is: he knew how to find the fish. He didn’t troll in the middle of the lake and hope that the fish would come to him. He went to where they liked to hang out- to where they actually were. He knew when they would be receptive. And then he knew how to offer them something that they actually wanted to grab. And finally, he knew how to bring them in and land them. That’s why he could run a successful show. He was rarely shut out.

So, back to the narrative. What if Gary and Jed were to work on campus a few days a week, rather than cloistering in the church office.  What if their students were to form a student club and they could provide complementary programming to the single student ministry on campus? What if Gary were to apply for chaplaincy status, in that he has the credentials. He represents a national denomination. He gives spiritual care to a local congregation and he has a Master’s Degree from Regent College. Anyway, all of that and more… there are some intriguing possibilities at Lakehead which we will need to explore soon.