Twice a year, the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities (NECU), of which TLU is a member, publishes a magazine called Intersections. The “intersections,” in this case, are those that mark the crossings of faith, learning, and teaching within Lutheran higher education. 

The spring 2026 issue of Intersections had a special guest editor: TLU’s Dr. William O’Brochta, who was asked to get involved largely because of the success of the Civic Engagement and Faith Perspectives Conference TLU hosted last year under his leadership. 

Right from the beginning of the magazine, TLU was well represented, as even the cover featured a photograph contributed by senior theology/psychology major Emei St Laurent which she took on a trip to Holden Village, a remote wilderness community in the breathtaking North Cascade mountains above Lake Chelan, Washington. St Laurent traveled there with a group of fellow TLU students and faculty.

 Included inside the magazine is a summary of TLU students’ involvement in leading the Civic Engagement and Faith Perspectives Conference, as well as a collection of essays inspired by the conference and the idea of connecting the teaching of principles with choosing a vocation and living a life that is civically engaged.

“This conference represented the first time in recent memory that political science faculty from NECU institutions have gathered to discuss our common opportunities and challenges,” said O’Brochta. “The resulting essays in Intersections demonstrate a variety of approaches to our common call for civic engagement to be a key component of vocational discernment. Our goal is to help guide other, similar efforts promoting civic engagement as a core principle of faith-affiliated institutions and to develop a cohort of social science faculty supporting such work at both NECU and non-NECU affiliated institutions. This special issue also comes at a key time for the ELCA, with the recent social statement on civic life and faith, and so will hopefully be helpful to faculty in considering how to apply that social statement to their work."

The statement O’Brochta is speaking of, which was adopted at the 17th Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA in 2025, contains six sections broken down into 49 articles which conclude that the church will seek the well-being of the neighbor through “active and faithful participation in civic life.”

The magazine is rounded out with a reflective essay written by freshman theology/English major Emma Bohmann and sophomore communication studies/dramatic media major Monica Sitachitta, who shared thoughts about the relationship between faith and civic engagement. 

That piece, entitled “Fragmented in Faith: The Concerns and Hopes Found in Student Spirituality and Civic Engagement,” is both a commentary on the connections between spiritual and civic engagement and a call to action that the university prioritize the teaching of established Lutheran values so as to inspire vocational discernment.

“Emma and Monica’s essay challenges us as an institution to commit to the values that stem from our Lutheran identity,” said O’Brochta. “Because we are Lutheran, we serve a diverse group of students with a variety of faith backgrounds. But, Emma and Monica remind us that because we are Lutheran, we are called to focus on vocational discernment, to teach civic engagement, and to intentionally form an engaged community. These values are not optional; they must be integrated into all the work that we do so that our graduates are equipped to serve with gladness where the world needs them.”

“Getting to help write the Intersections article to share my experience was an honor,” said Sitachitta. “What I am hoping people take away from this is to stop just saying they want students getting engaged and start doing it. Talking about it is the easy part but if we want better engagement, we need to start living it out as a university to help push each other to be a better community.” 

Bohmann agrees. “My hope for this article is that more faculty and students can be drawn into the broader conversation on this campus regarding the centrality of Lutheran educational values to a flourishing university environment,” she said. “I think if more of our strong student leaders can make that connection, they might feel more encouraged by our inherited Lutheran values of civic engagement, neighbor justice, and inclusion to make the bold changes that they feel inclined to push for in our community.”

To read the spring issue of Intersections, click here: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1671&context=intersections.