The Lutheran Student Movement guided
many along the path to seminary at LTSP

Ben Krey and Mark Parker are among six seminarians
whose career choice has been shaped by volunteering for LSM

Ben Krey, left, and Mark Parker just completed their first year of seminary at LTSP.

PHILADELPHIA, PA (June 8, 2005) -- "The last thing I wanted to be at one time was a pastor," Ben Krey says. "I wanted to be an engineer. I loved math in high school." Ben was active in youth activities at Zion Lutheran Church in Waterbury, CT, but those activities did not have a role in shaping his career path.

Ben's friend, Mark Parker, was active in myriad youth activities at Christ Lutheran Church in Baltimore, MD. Parker was involved in activities on the congregational and synod level and served on the Lutheran Youth Organization Board in his senior year. Since 7th grade, Mark explains he thought about becoming a pastor. In later years he also considered a career in the U.S. Foreign Service or the State Department, or in the practice of law.

Both were terrifically influenced in their vocational path by involvement in the Lutheran Student Movement during their college years - Ben at Northeastern University in Massachusetts and Mark at the University of Maryland in College Park.

Now both are at LTSP studying to be pastors. And they give their LSM experience great credit for their development. They are not alone at LTSP in having an LSM connection. Seminarians Cora Lazor of Greenville, PA; Emilie Theobald of Pittsburgh, PA; Marsha Anderson of Fayetteville, NC, and Charles Plummer of Canal Winchester, OH, charted a course through LSM involvement as well. Ben and Mark urge young people to immerse themselves in activities like LSM to get an early sense of the difference a church vocation could make in their lives.

"I just started working on things," Ben recalls of his LSM experience at Northeastern. "I discovered I enjoyed working on church stuff, and I found it was becoming a priority - the retreats, the fundraisers. I got to know people in synod offices and pastors in New England and New York." He found himself drifting from a focus on engineering to a church vocational calling. Ben says simply that he has discovered it is important to him "to be doing stuff" in the church, and he wants now to dedicate his life to conducting ministry in that fashion.

Mark notes that he struck it rich with his college roommate. They were both in tune with each other's Christian faith perspectives "and we've stayed fast friends." Mark also found it natural to play a leadership role in LSM in his college years and both president of the Midlantic Region of the organization and then LSM's national president.

"A big part of my call was developed as a leader for LSM," Parker states. "LSM gave me a chance to lead in the church, lead in conducting Bible studies and lead in conducting praise services. It gave me a chance to see what ministry in the church is all about. "I got to experience how God can work through me to be a leader."

"LSM started my thinking of the whole church and how I might fit into a parish or perhaps someplace else in the church," Ben says. "It's just hard to get that perspective only locally." He says learning about organizations like Lutheran World Relief and seeing the church "from the top down" as well as from the grassroots level was key to his development. Ben will do Clinical Pastoral Education work this summer with a series of halfway houses in New York City.

"I'd advise young people in a college setting and beyond not to stress out a lot about career options but just to allow time to think about it," Ben says. "Try to discern where your best gifts and desires match with the world's greatest needs, and God will give you the direction you need without forcing your hand."

Mark Parker says that some young people "may doubt that there is a place in the church for them. You might have to go and find that place in order to figure out how to be part of your community in important ways. I can't imagine not being involved in the church the way I am now. It's important to learn to live in faith and not worry about the future. Faith transcends all of those concerns you might have."