Lutheran Campus Ministry in Greater Milwaukee is pleased to welcome Pastor Elias (“Eli”) Henry to The Corner House and the campus ministry program. 

Hello, everyone! My name is Eli Henry, and I’m excited to be serving as the new pastor of The Corner House, our Lutheran Campus Ministry in Greater Milwaukee.

Collegiate ministry has been an integral part of my life with God. Having been raised outside of the faith, I joined a Presbyterian and United Church of Christ congregation in my senior year of high school. When I went off to college at the University of Rochester (New York, not Minnesota!), it was an ecumenical Protestant campus ministry that became my “home away from home” and ignited my passion for ministry. It was my own college chaplain who first told me I should consider becoming a pastor - and it was that same chaplain who preached at my ordination six years later! Ministry with college and university students is such a unique opportunity, and it is a privilege to walk alongside them as they grow into their roles as empowered adult church members and followers of Jesus.

I pursued my call to ministry by attending Princeton Theological Seminary. There, I focused much of my time on training in pastoral care, spiritual formation, liturgy and preaching, and public theology. Fundamentally, I wanted to know what it meant to be a minister in the Church, caring for God’s people and witnessing to God’s will for humanity as we struggle together for justice and peace. After graduating with a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts in Christian Education and Formation, I was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) in the summer of 2024.

My soon-to-be husband Micah and I met in Princeton during our seminary days. We were both raised in small, working-class communities in rural Western New York. Micah is now a priest in the Episcopal Church, and has written for theological outlets such as God Here & Now from the Center for Barth Studies, and Earth & Altar. We are excited to begin this new chapter of our lives together in Milwaukee, a city which has quickly captured our hearts. We are also runners (Micah much more than me), avid Drag Bingo attendees, and the proud dads of many houseplants. 

I look forward to getting to know many of you in the coming months as I begin my time at Corner House. In the ordination liturgy of the Presbyterian Church, new pastors vow to serve the people “with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love”. I pray that we will continue to serve students across Milwaukee with an abundance of these gifts. 

We are at a pivotal moment in history - for higher education, for the institutional church, and for our Christian witness. We must ask ourselves: who are we called to be? As St. Teresa of Ávila writes in her poem "Christ Has No Body":

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

We are called to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world, and this world is hungry for hope and the truth of God’s Good News for all people. So let’s get to work!

Peace and blessings, 

Pastor Eli