Project Connect

Project Connect is an initiative of the Eastern Cluster of Lutheran Seminaries. (Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, and the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.) It is a network of seminaries, colleges, camps, campus ministries, pastors, lay leaders, congregations, social ministry organizations, & volunteer organizations all working in perfect harmony towards a single goal: to involve young adults in programs and projects and retreats and discussions about how God is calling them to build a life.

To put it more formally, Project Connect will engage this network of partners in the God-given task of providing programs of vocational discernment for college-age adults that have theological integrity—in other words, that take our understanding of who God is and what God calls us to be and do seriously.

These programs are offered through three distinct but connected approaches: Identify, Nurture and Sustain. Identify programs will include various discernment events, college courses about vocation, and a variety of opportunities for people in the network to identify young adults who might be interested in this project. Nurture programs focus on deepening the discernment by making connections with outdoor ministry programs, with colleges and campus ministries, with Lutheran Volunteer Corps, with seminaries. Sustain programs will dig deeper still by offering opportunities for immersion experiences in congregational settings and mini-grants that will explore fresh ideas in congregational ministry. Project Connect will enable many young adults to discern a call to public ministry in the church and equip them with a deeper understanding of themselves, the church and the world. But, more than that, the Slovak Zion Synod trusts that by engaging in these programs we all will be changed, that the church will be challenged and enriched, and that we will all stay connected for the sake of the Gospel.