My Story…

Jen & Kent Pierce

In the fall of 1989 I walked up to the big orange doors of Peace Lutheran Campus Center in Stevens Point, Wisconsin for the first time.  Little did I know that walking through the doors of Peace would forever change my life!

I’m not exactly sure why I decided to visit Peace.  It might have had something to do with the prayers of my parents and my grandmother.  I hadn’t set out to become involved with a campus church.   As a matter of fact, prior to coming to the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, I didn’t know that campus ministries even existed.

Through four years of Word and Sacrament campus ministry – Bible studies, worship services, servant leadership training, retreats, mission trips and lasting Christian friendships – the Holy Spirit had worked to change the direction and priorities of my life.  I even met my wife, Jen, through the campus ministry at Peace.  I had come to Stevens Point to earn a Resource Management degree from the College of Natural Resources, which I did.  However, instead of pursuing a career in that field, I went to Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri to prepare to become a pastor!

For me, life beyond Peace has continued to be in campus ministry.  After seminary I spent 5 ½ years as a campus pastor at Kent State University in Ohio.  Since 2005, I have had the privilege of serving the University of Missouri, Stephens College, and Columbia College community at Campus Lutheran Church in Columbia, Missouri.

As a pastor, I can think of nothing more rewarding than sharing the redeeming love of Jesus Christ in the campus mission field – where maybe upwards of 80% of students are experiencing their most formative years without a connection to the body of Christ.

Not only were the doors of Peace Lutheran Campus Center my entrance to a place where Jesus’ saving love is shared and received, but they, like the literal and figurative doors of many other campus ministries, are also sending doors – sending Jesus’ people out to be salt and light in a world darkened by sin!

Let’s open more campus ministry doors!  Help me pedal with purpose!

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has 

passed away; behold the new has come.”  (2 Corinthians 5:17)

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