It started with a small Bible study in a borrowed classroom at Miami University in Ohio. It wasn’t anything extraordinary; just a pastor willing to drive twenty minutes to campus each week, a handful of college students asking questions, and evenings spent studying God’s Word together.
Years later, three of those students would become pastors serving congregations across the Michigan District.
Background
Joseph Polzin arrived at college already grounded in the faith. Raised in a faithful Lutheran home, he had moved often as a child because his father served in the Army. But wherever the family lived, church life remained constant. Faithfulness to God, His Word, and His people shaped his upbringing.
When he arrived at Miami University as a freshman, he immediately looked for a church connection. His older brother Lewis, already a graduate student there, introduced him to the campus Bible study led by Pastor Kevin Jud of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Hamilton, Ohio.
Each week, Pastor Jud came to campus for Bible study and invited students to worship with the congregation on Sundays. The gatherings were simple but meaningful. “The weekly Bible study gave us a chance to get together and realize we weren’t alone,” Polzin remembered. “At a large university, it’s important to have your faith supported.”
At the time, he planned to become a high school teacher, not a pastor. But Pastor Jud noticed something in him: a love for Scripture and a thoughtful faith. One day, Jud simply encouraged Polzin to consider ministry. “He didn't do anything out of the ordinary,” said Polzin. “Sometimes all it takes is planting that seed that maybe someone hadn't thought about before.”
Jeff Burgess had grown up in the church, but during his first year of college his father died from aggressive lung cancer. As he wrestled with grief and uncertainty, he struggled to find a church home near campus.
Eventually, he found Immanuel Lutheran Church and joined the campus Bible study. “It was a small but mighty group,” he said. “Maybe ten or twelve people at most. But Pastor Jud showed up every week, and we did too.”
The discussions were substantial. They studied the Augsburg Confession and Lutheran theology deeply—topics he had never really explored before despite growing up Lutheran. “You don’t know what you don’t know until someone teaches you,” he said. “Pastor Jud made theology approachable, meaningful, and relevant.”
Tyson Bentz came from an entirely different background. Raised in a Mennonite family, he became disconnected from church after his parents divorced when he was very young. By high school he described himself as a “religious mutt,” bouncing between churches and asking difficult questions. The answers he received often conflicted, and eventually he decided Christianity made little sense. “Science is the way to go,” he concluded.
Then he met a Lutheran girl.
When she arrived at Miami University, her father called Immanuel Lutheran Church looking for someone who could give his daughter rides to church because freshmen couldn’t have cars on campus. Burgess, a sophomore from the campus Bible study, volunteered.
Bentz got jealous, so he started coming too. At first, he came mostly because she did. But then something unexpected happened: Pastor Jud welcomed his questions. He would listen intently, then say, “Interesting question. I don’t really know because Scripture doesn’t say. Let’s go back to the Bible.”
That caught Tyson’s attention. “For the first time,” he said, “I realized a pastor could just say, ‘I don’t know.’” So he kept coming back. The Bible study became a place where questions were safe, conversations were real, and friendships were formed. Sometimes only three students showed up. Sometimes ten. They talked theology, life, doubt, vocation, and Scripture. They studied the Book of Concord. They lingered after Bible study just to spend time together.
A Faithful, Unassuming Campus Pastor
Pastor Jud never treated ministry like a program to manage. He simply invested time in students. He invited them to help with youth groups and encouraged them to participate in the worship service as readers. He took them seriously and made himself available. Sometimes they met at church, sometimes at a restaurant or bar. Sometimes conversations happened when he was giving them a ride back to campus.
Looking back, the three friends all say the same thing: Pastor Jud made ministry seem possible. “He made it less scary,” Burgess said. Bentz put it this way: “He told us we should be pastors. Then he prayed for us. Then he kept encouraging us until we became pastors.” Polzin added: “He simply was a person who invested in other people and encouraged them, and in this case encouraged young men who showed an aptitude for ministry to think about going into the ministry. And God worked through that.”
The friendships formed there would last long after graduation. All three men ended up marrying Miami University graduates, and eventually, all three attended Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. Their paths overlapped there just as they had at Miami. Years later, all three would receive calls to serve congregations in the Michigan District.
Pastor Jud insists he never had a master strategy for recruiting church workers. He simply cared about students and paid attention to the people God placed in front of him. “You plant the seeds,” he said, “and see what the Holy Spirit does.”
Campus Ministry Can Change Lives
Campus ministry doesn’t have to be a big operation to be effective. In fact, it rarely looks impressive from the outside. The groups are often small. Students graduate and move away. There is little measurable return for congregations investing time, money, and energy into it.
But campus ministry happens during one of the most formative seasons of life. Young adults are asking big questions for the first time. They are deciding who they are, what they believe, and where God may be calling them. A faithful presence during those years can change lives.
Today, the influence continues. Bentz now leads a growing campus ministry near Ferris State University. What began with only a handful of students has grown into a thriving young adult ministry. Several students are already considering going into ministry.
And when he encourages them, he hears echoes of Pastor Jud in his own voice. “You can be a church worker,” he tells them. “You can serve Jesus with your life.”
The story that began in a small classroom Bible study continues to grow through friendships, through faithful pastors, and through ordinary acts of encouragement that God continues to use in extraordinary ways.
Campus Ministry in Michigan
Rev. Dr. Randy Duncan is the Pastor of Campus Mission at University Lutheran Chapel in Ann Arbor who also coordinates the Michigan District Campus Ministry Network. Learn more at micampusministry.net.
For a list of active campus ministries in Michigan, visit michigandistrict.org/campusministry.
Group photo courtesy of Rev. Kevin Jud
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