ANSWERING A CALL TO
CONCORDIA By Amy E. Kelly
Concordia’s new campus ministers, the Rev. David and Kim Adams, started innovating for the college the moment they applied for the position in the Office of Ministry. There was one opening for a campus pastor and the couple applied and were hired together to share the role. “We’re grateful for the trust this place has put in us,” David says. “It was a risk and we’re grateful that people chose to take the risk.” The Adamses were also taking a risk. David was working full time in a pastoral position at First Lutheran Church in Fargo. Kim was working part time leading campus ministry at North Dakota State University. She had also just enrolled in a new accelerated program at Luther Seminary to earn her Master of Divinity degree to become an ordained minister. All that in addition to five active kids, the new venture seemed a little far-fetched. But the tug on their hearts and encouragement of others made them apply. “The number of people who reached out to us as individuals and as a couple to tell us about this position was amazing,” Kim says. Now David and Kim, along with Deacon Jon Leiseth and administrative assistant Angela Boser, make
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up Concordia’s Office of Ministry. While the couple says they have much to learn about Concordia and the students and staff here, they aren’t strangers to young adult ministry or working together. “Campus ministry holds the solidification of both our calls,” Kim says. “To land back there feels really holy.” As a student at the University of North Dakota, campus ministry was important to David. After a short time in graduate school studying vocal performance, he felt called to youth ministry. He took a position at Calvary Lutheran Church in Grand Forks, where he stayed for 16 years before deciding his next path was going to seminary. Kim worked as the director of youth ministry at Sharon Lutheran Church for five and a half years. Sharon and Calvary often collaborated in their youth programs, so the couple informally worked together for a few years before Kim joined the staff of Calvary as the coordinator of Young Adult and Family Ministries. After David finished at Luther Seminary, the Adams family moved to Fargo and the couple hoped someday they would get to work together again. David started his call to First Lutheran Church and Kim headed up Crossroads Lutheran Campus
