In April 2024, Rev. Dillon Weber was called from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis to begin a more intentional effort of re-establishing an LCMS campus ministry at the University of Washington (UW). He was installed as associate pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Seattle in July and has been working on laying the groundwork for that campus ministry – otherwise known as Chapel on the Ave – ever since.
Chapel on the Ave has had various formats over the course of its life. In the past, there have been worship services with Holy Communion on Sundays; later, that became a meal with a small service on Tuesday nights. While there were no on-campus activities this past Fall, starting the first week of January 2025, Chapel on the Ave began hosting a weekly meal followed by a devotional, reflective Bible Study.
In October, Weber and the campus ministry also received exciting news that they had been awarded a National Development Grant from the LCMS! The grant will be used for a wide variety of things, including equipment for tabling on campus, materials for studies, meals for students, and other related expenses.
The first months of Weber’s time at Chapel on the Ave were devoted to learning as much as he could about how campus ministry works – specifically at the University of Washington. He also worked to make contacts with current and potential students at UW. This entailed reaching out to and interacting with other campus ministries that currently exist there, figuring out what has and hasn’t worked for other groups, and just spending time as a regular presence on campus.
“I think the biggest difference [between serving a congregation and serving a campus] is that a campus ministry is essentially a perpetual church plant,” he said. “If you’re lucky, you’ll have a student for four years. That makes it a lot more difficult to develop leadership and lay a foundation that can be built off of because the time you have to work with students is a lot shorter than in a typical congregational setting.”
Weber wants to foster the campus ministry to become self-sustainable, and raising up student leaders is one of his priorities. Given UW’s demographics, he hopes Chapel on the Ave not only serves as a place where Lutherans are fed (spiritually and physically) but also as a place where people come to trust in Jesus. As such, outreach to the unchurched is another priority of the ministry. This is a huge need.
“Something that I didn’t expect to see was just how many other campus ministries are active on UW’s campus,” Weber said. “Seattle and the University of Washington have a reputation as being very irreligious, and rightfully so; that being said, there are still dozens of campus ministries available to students, and between all of them, there are hundreds of students being served. That still makes up a small portion of the student population, but it was encouraging to see that the campus isn’t necessarily the religious wasteland that some, myself included, may have thought it was. There’s certainly still a desire and obvious need for more campus ministries to reach out to more students, especially Lutheran ones.”
So far, the current group he regularly meets with is small with just a handful of attendees. However, the small group has been a joy to be a part of. It allows students to talk more freely and to get to know one another easier. It truly is a reminder of what Jesus says in Matthew 18, that where two or three are gathered in his name, there he is with them.
The possibilities of what this kind of ministry can become seem endless. Weber has developed a strong relationship with Pastor Matt Gulseth across the state at Concordia Lutheran Church in Pullman, where a campus ministry for Washington State University (WSU) is hosted. The two hope to regularly partner together for various events in the future.
“Having a relationship with Matt and the students at WSU is important because it helps us see outside of ourselves. The church is so much bigger than just the small group of students we have, so having this kind of relationship helps us to recognize that and gives comfort to us that we aren’t alone in this endeavor,” he said.
Eventually, Weber would also like to see all the other campus ministries across the Northwest join for some kind of event or retreat. He’d also like to see Chapel on the Ave become a regular retreat spot/service project location for middle and high school students so that they can garner a look at what college ministry might look like for them in the future.
“There are no downsides to connecting with more people in similar life situations as you. That kind of support is incredibly valuable,” Weber said. “From a campus minister perspective, getting together with other campus ministers allows us to voice frustrations, challenges, and successes with others that can relate to them. It also helps us keep our minds fresh and come up with new ideas or possibly things to avoid. It helps us have a bit more perspective than we otherwise would.”
Weber’s role will transition slightly after he is installed as the senior pastor at Trinity on Feb. 23. Although this means his attention won’t be quite as focused on just Chapel on the Ave, he will still be on campus several times each week and serve as the primary leader for the weekly meals and Bible studies. He and the congregation are still very committed to making campus ministry at UW work.
If you’d like to know more about what’s going on at Chapel on the Ave, you can send Pastor Weber an email. For the time being, please continue to keep him, the students at the University of Washington, and Chapel on the Ave in your prayers.
You can also check out the LCMS U map for other campus ministries all across the country.
