Lyndsay Monsen
Master of Divinity
What is your favorite memory of your time at LSTC?
There are so many small moments from living in the LSTC student community that I will cherish: dinners together, study sessions in someone’s apartment, game nights, hearing laughter fill the Life Together apartment down the hallway, bonfires in the courtyards. It breaks my heart to know future generations of LSTC students will never have that experience again.
If I had to pick just one, though, it would probably be the day Pope Leo XIV was elected. I had just finished my last class of my final semester (History and Theology II with Dr. Peter Vethanayagamony), and we were having a potluck lunch to celebrate the end of our time together. We had heard in the middle of class that a pope was elected, so during lunch we watched the livestream of the announcement. I will never forget the cheers I heard from the CTU floor below us as they learned their alum was now the head of the Catholic Church. It’s a snapshot that captures so much of what I’ve loved about these last four years: ecumenical joy, community, pride for the city of Chicago, and so much more.
What was the most meaningful class you took?
Liturgy and the Cycles of Creation at Holden Village with Dr. Stewart J-term 2024 was an unforgettable experience. I think anyone’s first time to Holden is unforgettable, but beyond that one of the things I remember most from our time there was how much we sang together and how deeply healing that was. And connecting two things I love—liturgy and the outdoors—was a sort of marrying two versions of myself that was necessary for me to feel like a complete, whole ministerial leader.
I am indebted to many other classes at LSTC, but Dr. Wickware’s classes specifically will stay with me for a long time. His theology has had a profound impact on my preaching, and I am grateful to have had the chance to learn from him.
How did you feel supported during your seminary journey? Were you the recipient of any major scholarships? What communities or people uplifted you during your studies?
I am most grateful for the LSTC student community. I am not sure how I would have made it through this program without the support of my classmates-turned-friends. At a time when the seminary was going through what felt like constant transition, knowing we were always there for each other made a world of a difference.
I am also grateful for the support of LSTC’s staff and faculty, my contextual education learning sites (Bethelehem Lutheran Church in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago and St. Paul Lutheran Church in Villa Park, IL), and my home congregation (Zion Lutheran Church in Deerfield, IL). Lastly, my seminary education would not have been possible without the generous financial support of the Fund for Leaders scholarship and the Munderloh Foundation.
What are your post-graduation plans?
I will finish my internship at St. Paul this summer, and from there I hope to go on first call in the Metro Chicago Synod of the ELCA.
How did LSTC shape you as a future leader of the public church?
My time at LSTC has brought me many wonderful connections to different organizations and people that have taught me the value of community organizing. The moments throughout seminary when my sense of call (and faith) has been the strongest have been not inside the four walls of a church but when I am bringing church to the world: preaching at the University of Chicago’s encampment for a Free Palestine in the spring of 2024, organizing an interfaith Ramadan iftar for my MIC project, leading the annual Palm Sunday Prayer Walk around Cook County Jail, serving as a poll chaplain on Election Day in 2024, getting arrested while wearing my collar for protesting ICE, and so much more. LSTC has undeniably built me up as a faith leader who knows, as Cornel West puts it, that “justice is what love looks like in public.”
