Disciple: A Good Story
Sharing stories becomes a connection point for young adults
By the Rev. Rick Sigler
We all love a good story.
It’s hard-wired in our psyche. Since the earliest humans walked God’s creation, we have listened to and told the stories that created our shared human experience. Stories explained the unexplainable, the news, the celebrations, the tragedies and the mundane. Stories are what we use to understand. Stories can also be an escape from the stress of life. They may take the form of a movie or play, the focus of a work of art, or the lyrics of our favorite song. Stories are our oldest art form.
[Image: Multiple students groups gather twice per month with their dice bags, resource books and maps to play Dungeons & Dragons. Photos throughout by the Rev. Rick Sigler]
One might say that stories are integral to understanding God. We have a thousand to choose from in Scripture. One of Jesus’ primary ways to explain God’s love was through the parable, and it’s our personal stories that create our shared connection with each other in fellowship.
So when we began a Dungeons & Dragons night twice a month, it made total sense that it would become the most popular event with our collegiate and young adult communities at St. Mary’s House.
A COMMUNAL ADVENTURE
Before I go any further, it may be useful to explain two things, just in case you’re not already familiar with them.
St. Mary’s House is a campus and young adult ministry and part of the Episcopal campus ministries of the Diocese of North Carolina. Located at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), St. Mary’s House is a welcoming and affirming community that offers a wide variety of worship, fellowship and service opportunities, all rooted in the guiding principles of “love God” and “love your neighbor.”
Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is the oldest commercial role-playing game in existence. Started in the 1970s, D&D is a cooperative game in which three or more people tell a story, usually in a fantasy setting, and each person plays a character they created. They may be an armored human knight, a magical elven wizard, or a dwarf with a big ego and an even bigger axe. Another player, known as the Dungeon Master (DM), describes the setting, fills the roles of non-player characters and helps the adventurers save the day. Monsters must be vanquished, puzzles solved and the village saved from the scourge threatening it. Only the imagination of the players limits what can occur.
[Image: Another D&D game.]
It is at these biweekly game nights that our students get together to enjoy fellowship and fun. Each group includes several young people who otherwise might never have considered visiting St. Mary’s House, entering into a relationship with a faith community, or even feeling comfortable in a place where “church” happens. But because of this opportunity, many of our students feel welcome and safe.
What we have come to realize at St. Mary’s House is that church cannot thrive under the guise of a traditional parish. Not only do we have an extremely transient community (students will be with us for about two to four years), but it is important to remember that the vast majority of those at our colleges have had little to no faith tradition in their lives. And while only a few Episcopalians attend college in Greensboro at any given time, that does not guarantee they want to visit our community or worship on Sunday morning. The labels we sometimes proudly wear as adult members of our faith hold little or no meaning to the vast majority of those who we, as campus ministers, might serve.
It is with new ideas, new programs and new connections that we are able to serve and see God’s work happening in our community. Besides D&D nights, we also host “Queeraoke” with the United Methodist/Lutheran ministry at UNCG, where our LGBTQ+ students and their allies can get together and sing, laugh and enjoy themselves in a safe, caring environment. We host a regular dinner with an optional Bible study, tend a garden that grows vegetables for the Spartan Open Pantry, gather for movie nights…the list goes on and on.
[Image: St. Mary’s House is a welcoming and affirming community, and students represented the group during the Greensboro Pride Festival.]
THE COMMON THREAD
The common thread, however, is that stories are being created and shared. Whether it is through the characters played on D&D night, over a meal or in the garden, our students become better connected as they build strong relationships. It is their stories that have created our community. The stories are also what, we believe, is bringing our community closer to a better understanding of God. It is an understanding of each other through tolerance, imagination and love. It is in that understanding that St. Mary’s House is finding growth in a place where traditional church paradigms simply would not, and do not, find success.
It is through these new paradigms that our students can ask questions about God, their faith and what it means to be a Christian. We work diligently to create an atmosphere that allows any visitor to come in and feel free to ask questions and share what is on their heart. We gladly welcome any student, no matter where they are in their relationship with God. And with that conversation, we are able to create a new chapter of love and acceptance with a person who may not have had such an opportunity before they felt welcomed enough to visit St. Mary’s House.
In addition to our student community, we are blessed to have a small but dedicated Sunday morning worship group, mostly made up of UNCG graduates and their families. Their support has helped us explore the new avenues that allow us to dream of new ways to love one another at St. Mary’s House. Without their support, many of our stories would never have been heard.
It is with these different groups that we have seen St. Mary’s House thrive. It might be in simple ways, like when our parishioners tend the community garden while the students are away from school or support the financial needs of various student groups. Or it might be more complex, such as the student one of the parishioners sponsors. He is a refugee from his home country because he is LGBTQ+. The parishioner works to make sure someone is always there to support and advocate for him, especially when the red tape is thicker than it might need to be.
[Image: Students plant tomatoes in Charlie’s Garden, which supplies food to the Spartan Open Pantry.]
We are intentional in reaching out to our college populations, our young adults and our families in ways that change as often as the academic years do. And as our connections with each of our communities grow, we look forward to hearing the next story. Whether it be through a grand adventure on D&D night, belting out a classic at Queeraoke or picking our bumper crop of tomatoes, we are excited to turn the page and begin a new chapter.
The Rev. Rick Sigler is a young adult missioner at St. Mary’s House, Greensboro.
