By Mary Henrichs
Cars full of young adults pulled in outside Christ Cabin at Camp Lone Star in La Grange, Texas, at around 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 6. They had come to attend a retreat held annually by University Lutheran Chapel (“the Chapel”), the LCMS U (Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod) chapter based in College Station, Texas, serving young adults near Texas A&M University and the Blinn College Bryan campus.
This year, 37 young adults attended, hollering out “Howdy!” in response to the Rev. John Karle, director of campus mission at the Chapel, to kick off the faith-centered weekend of Bible studies, worship, service, adventure and fellowship.
This year’s group included not only students from College Station, but young adults from across Texas, including a group from Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) in Nacogdoches, Texas. The Rev. Daniel Bueckman, campus pastor at the Chapel in his first year out of seminary, was “stoked” to welcome everyone. Karle agreed, saying, “We don’t draw a boundary unless … [it’s] going to circle somebody in, so they sense belonging.”
That sense of belonging is something that young adults crave when they leave home, and it is exactly what the Chapel’s winter retreat helps to provide.
“I felt so close with people afterwards, because I felt like I knew them better, and they knew me,” said Olivia Hearne, current senior at Texas A&M, about her first retreat experience in 2024. She credits that retreat with her increased involvement at the Chapel: “[Before that] I felt like I was just the face that was there at the back. … Until I went to winter retreat, I didn’t feel like I knew anyone.”
For young Lutherans trying to stay grounded in their baptismal identity, the community at the Chapel is a lifeline. William Klein, a sophomore at Texas A&M, reflected, “Obviously, God calls us to be bold, but it’s also nice to be able to have a group where [others] think the same things you do.”
In College Station, where the student population of Texas A&M alone swells to over 80,000 during the school year, it can be easy to feel lost in the crowd, explained Ph.D. student Matthew Davis: “That’s why I’m really thankful for the Chapel, because … I know everybody.”
‘Where two or more are gathered’
The Chapel community is active, with events almost every day of the week. Men’s and women’s Bible studies meet weekly, and students gather for “Word and Worship” on Wednesday nights. The Chapel has instituted “Fun Fridays,” which can involve movies, games or karaoke at a Mexican restaurant. One of the major staples of Chapel life is “Sunday Night Suppers,” where students gather for Christian table fellowship and a home-cooked meal.
“It just feels like you’re at the dinner table with your family … talking about your week,” said Hearne. “You don’t feel like you have to be anyone besides yourself.”
The Chapel, located only a few blocks from Texas A&M’s campus, rests below six stories of parking garage and 12 stories of student housing. Roughly 20,000 students live within a 15-minute walk of the location.
Beyond attending worship and events, students often use the space to study or heat up their lunches, to grab coffee and snacks, or to take a break with a jam session on one of the pianos. Many of the students spend time at the Chapel four or five times a week.
During the retreat, Bible studies focused on the challenge of living in a world that does not keep Jesus at the center. Across four sessions, the studies invited the young people to recognize that even while they are living in the world, they are in Christ’s kingdom: “You know you’re in it, right?” asked Bueckman. “You know the kingdom of God is right here, right in this room? Jesus says, ‘Where two or more are gathered in My name, there I am also.’”
Walking with young adults as they navigate living in an earthly world with a heavenly citizenship is the vital work of young adult ministry everywhere. “Having a campus ministry provides a safe place for people to ask hard questions when they’re faced with conflicting realities that are being presented to them,” said Bueckman.
Notably, however, the Chapel does not only serve as a space for young Lutherans to retreat, but it also equips them to actively partake in the mission of seeking and saving the lost. At the Chapel, young adults have many opportunities not only to strengthen their faith, but also to be living witnesses for Jesus. Many participate in I-Connect, a ministry to international students that often hosts American cultural events; and Table Talks, where they witness to passersby on the hot streets of Texas, offering water to pedestrians. In the past semester, several of those pedestrians went on to attend Chapel events, and one even attended the winter retreat.
Klein, who is also a member of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets, emphasized how the Chapel has strengthened him as a witness for Christ: “Having this community here [at the Chapel] has encouraged me to be bold in my faith over there [in the Corps], and I’ve been able to bring some friends from the Corps to church and start those conversations.”
As the young adults cleared branches and foliage at Camp Lone Star as part of a service project during the retreat, Jonathan Thomas, a senior at SFA, spoke with Karle about the challenges of campus ministry at a smaller school: “We’re nowhere near A&M big, so it’s kind of a struggle to keep stuff going regularly.”
Even so, he referenced Isaiah 55:11: “The Word of God does not return empty.”
Karle encouraged him, saying that small gatherings are “not wasted effort.” In an earlier conversation, Karle pointed out an encouraging trend for small groups: “In our world that’s so large and so disconnected and so isolated by devices and technology, three is a win. … Five, so to speak, can have a tremendous positive impact on the five who are at the table.”
Hearne attended Louisiana State University her freshman year, and she spoke warmly of the campus ministry there, even though the group was very small: “Just about every Sunday, they would take us out to lunch somewhere new. … And then on Fridays, it’d be me and one other person and our pastor who would do a Bible study, and then we would play a game and have pizza.”
At the retreat at Camp Lone Star, Hearne sat down to eat with almost 40 other young adults. She teared up while talking about how much the Chapel has grown, even just in the last year. At next year’s winter retreat, Karle hopes to fill Christ Cabin to capacity: 80 young adults from across Texas.
Bueckman highlighted the vital role that parents, home congregations and pastors are called to play when sending their students off to college: “We as campus ministries rely on the connection that congregations and pastors will make, reaching out, saying, ‘Hey, one of my sheep is heading your way.’ We rely heavily on those connections so we can welcome them in and say, ‘Hey, we heard from your pastor, and this place is for you too.’”
Young adults “have such a hunger for depth and for realness and for wanting to know more,” says Bueckman.
Klein, one of three winter retreat attendees planning to attend seminary after graduation, agreed, explaining that his generation of Lutherans wants to move away from “the lukewarm.”
Many young people came to the winter retreat for the express purpose of partaking in a good Bible study, such as Jace Muller, who said, “The more you grow in your age and your experience, the Bible studies need to increase with that, not just stay at the same level.”
Around the campfire, among the “howdys,” between Bible studies, at the lunch table and out on the service field, lively conversations bearing witness to the Word and the Lutheran Confessions constantly bubbled up, making evident among these young adults in La Grange the truth made known to all Christians in their Baptism: “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:21).
Mary Henrichs (mary.henrichs@lcms.org) is a staff writer for LCMS Communications.
Posted March 12, 2026
What a great opportunity to grow and learn. Thank you Lord Jesus.