Illustration Credit: Created during the service and left unsigned by an attendee of LPTS Baccalaureate 2026
“GO WITH” NOTES TO THE LPTS CLASS OF 2026
FORWARD Notes to the Class of 2026 On May 15, 2026, the Louisville Seminary community gathered for its 172nd Baccalaureate service celebrating the Class of 2026. Dr. Marcus Hong preached on 1 Kings 19:1-16, reflecting on God’s meeting the prophet Elijah in the wilderness and encouraging members of the holy community to “Go With” God and each other as we step into our ministerial callings, rather than needlessly trying to go it alone. In response to this word, service attendees were invited to write notes of celebration, encouragement, and blessings to the pending graduates—reminders of the people who love them and the community that surrounds them as they head into their next chapters of ministry. This booklet contains the notes collected within that service, written by a mix of peers, professors, family members, and friends of the Class of 2026.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
BLESSING FOR MY PEERS (GRADUATES) AS THEY PREPARE FOR MINISTRY Chance Mwongomba Beloved colleagues, you who have prayed, studied, counseled, written, doubted, persisted, may this moment rise on you like dawn after a long night. To you bearing the Master of Divinity, the Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy, the Master of Arts in Religious Studies, and the Doctor of Ministry may your learning become lanterns for the paths ahead and healing for the people entrusted to you. You have known nights of weeping, but joy comes in the morning, and may this graduation be your morning the joy that breaks open after all the hard and determined work. Remember: you carry the whosoever emblem of LPTS. Where you go, you will meet the whosoever in real time, no longer in theory. May you be of service, a voice for the whosoever community the immigrants, the vulnerable, the overlooked and when possible, may your presence help remove their backs from the wall. May God return to you multiplied, pressed together, shaken, and overflowing blessings, not as a reward Go with hearts widened, imaginations stirred, and spirits attuned to the God who goes before you, behind you, within you making you brave, keeping you tender but blessed and calling you toward the work that is yours to do. Therefore, Go brave. Go tender. Go blessed. In Jesus name Amen.
73