We recently sat down with Rev. Elias Johnson-Youngquist, who graduated from our seminary program a couple years back and is now serving a congregation near Hartford, South Dakota.
Elias shares eloquently about his experience with Luther House and how the theology of the cross has grounded him in his ministry, despite constant pressures to bend one way or another, whether to political or denominational differences.
We’re grateful for Pastor Elias’ ministry and his testimonial. Check out our conversation below!
Tell us about yourself and your ministry experience.
My name is Elias Johnson-Youngquist. I’m originally from Lennox, South Dakota, and I am currently a pastor at Zion Lutheran Church outside of Hartford. I’ll have been there for two years in October. Before that, I did an internship at St. John’s American Lutheran in Sioux Falls for a year, and before that I was a youth minister at First Lutheran Church (Sioux Falls) for 5 years.
I’m married to my wife, Abby, and we have two young children, Clara and Calder.
How did you first get connected to Luther House of Study?
At FLC, our youth and family staff decided to take Luther House’s Reformation class together to get a solid base of Lutheran education.
Through the course of that, I realized how much I enjoyed the class and how it fit my theology, and Chris and Sarah were like, “Why are you not in seminary right now?”
I wanted to pay off my undergraduate student loans first, but they pointed out all these funding methods to the point where I was able to go to seminary at pretty much no expense of my own.
Were you always interested in seminary?
During my senior year of high school, Pastor Hugh Brewer (formerly of First English Lutheran in Lennox) pulled me in and asked what I was planning to study in college. I said journalism, and he said, “Great, that’ll work perfect for ministry.”
That kind of dogged me the rest of the way through school. I went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for journalism because I wanted to write and help people, and that seemed to be the easiest route for that. Through the course of that, journalism opportunities and internships kept falling through, and ministry opportunities kept getting placed in my life, to the point where my journalism professors were even saying, “Yeah you’ll be good at that.”
I distinctly remember my radio broadcast professor saying, “Either way, you’re going to be on air somehow. My guess is probably through ministry.”
So, I graduated from college and I sort of had it in my mind that I’d pursue journalism and do some fun and exciting things, but then once I got old and boring, I’d go become a pastor.
Turns out, I got old and boring a lot faster than I anticipated.
How did you end up in your first ministry job?
I was working for KSFY (a local television station) doing the overnight gig, chasing ambulances, doing photography, and then I switched over to working for the Boy Scouts for a while because it was a daytime job. I figured out how to do fundraising in that position, which ended up being helpful, but I wanted to find a different job that was a little bit closer to my interests. I applied for the youth ministry position at First Lutheran, but they hired the other candidate. Fortunately for me, that person only stayed for 10 days, so they called me up, and the rest is history.
How did the structure of Luther House make it possible for you to pursue your degree?
I had looked at seminaries right away after graduating from college, but lots of them would have required me to move, and I didn’t want to do that, and most programs required you to have less than $35k of student debt, which is about the average most people have after undergraduate.
I was working full-time at First Lutheran when I started doing seminary with Luther House, and I was so lucky that First was so supportive. They were very flexible with me leaving a couple times a week to go do classes or being out for intensives.
It was also really fulfilling to be able to use my seminary work on the job. I could bring things I was learning in class to the kids I was working with in youth ministry, and it was such a great experience. I wish all seminaries could work that way.
I appreciated the format of LHOS immensely. It was a way of learning that really worked for me. In fact, I got diagnosed with ADHD in the middle of seminary, which is not necessarily when you want to figure that out, but for me, it ended up accidentally working really well because LHOS supported a different way of doing things, and I really benefited from that style of learning.
What stands out about your educational experience with LHOS?
As an ELCA pastor, I really appreciate that I’ve gotten the chance to meet people from all these other viewpoints.
I don’t know what it looks like today with the more digital model, but during my time, we’d have to do two week-long intensives during the year, where people would come from all different denominations, who were involved in the KAIROS project and we’d tackle various topics with different speakers. Every day, we’d get in a small group of people from different denominations and we’d bring forward a case study — a problem we’d encountered in our own ministry related to one of the topics we had to cover throughout seminary — and we would just hash it out. The rule was, you couldn’t give or ask for advice, you just had to talk it out amongst yourselves.
I had grown up in an ELCA church, but in a very Reformed area of the country, so my youth group was a combo of us ELCA kids and some Reformed/Baptist kids as well. With all these different denominations, I continually found myself as the voice of dissent among all of them.
Once I got to college, I was all over the place as well. I got really involved in a non-denominational campus ministry called The Navigators. I went to a church that was in a bar, I went to a Baptist church, a Presbyterian church, a Missouri Synod Lutheran church, and I found myself constantly being like, “Okay, but what about this?” I resigned myself to just being the person that always said, “I don’t think it’s this cut and dry.”
Finally, when I was sitting through the Reformation class for the first time, I had this realization of, “Oh this is it, I’ve been Lutheran this whole time.”
Every other place that I’d gone, whenever I gave them a hard question, I never got a satisfying answer. They would either give me an answer that wouldn’t fit the bill, or they’d try to gloss over it. The theology of the cross looks at everything and calls it what it is. It’s not trying to paint over it. We admit that there’s hard stuff in life, but God’s in control still, and God’s promises still stand.
How has your LHOS education strengthened your ministry?
It grounds me. If we’re going to speak broadly about Lutheranism, it’s a question of, “What does Luther say?” and “What have we done about what Luther said since then?” It helps you to see the forest through the trees in a way.
I think it’s helped my ministry immensely to know people on all different sides, yet be able to cling to the Gospel in the midst of that. There are questions I hear other pastors dealing with when I’m in various small groups, and I just think, “No, it’s not that hard.”
I think the temptation to get mired in the weeds of politics is a constant among every Lutheran church, and really every church and every inch of our country. Having a strong understanding of that clear Law/Gospel distinction helps you to identify where those places are that you’re tempted to preach Law as Gospel instead of keeping the two separate.
I think that becomes especially important for pastors here in rural South Dakota because you’re going to be facing both political parties and the understanding that Christ’s forgiveness of sins is bigger than both sides is really important. It’s about understanding that despite my own frustrations, when I’m in that pastoral role, I need to plagiarize Christ and not bring in whatever Elias wants to say.
How have you appreciated Luther House’s different resources in your ministry?
I think it’s been so cool that there are resources they have created that I’m able to take and then use for middle and high school students — that it’s that broad in its reach. It’s been so rewarding to see the next generation of kids who come back from college saying things like, “I just couldn’t find a place that delivered the goods.”
They’re actually able to seek and find places to worship because they know what they’re looking for. I had a student who was able to go into an Episcopalian church and realize, “Oh, they’re preaching the Gospel here,” — it’s powerful to have an ear for that.
What would you tell someone who might be interested in seminary?
If you’re feeling a call, answer it. Get your phone off vibrate. Check out some of the stuff that’s available online or audit a class. Talk to pastors. Talk with other people. The best way to solidify the call is to actually hear it from outside of you, so it’s not just your own inkling in that moment, and maybe the next week you want to be a firefighter.
Thank you for reading our conversation with Pastor Elias.
If you’re interested in hearing more from LHOS pastors, check out the following:
- Pastor’s Perspective: Jeff Backer
- Pastor’s Perspective: Andrea Taphorn
- Pastor’s Perspective: Craig Wexler
- Pastor’s Perspective: Lectionary Studies
Additionally, if you’re a LHOS pastor willing to share your story, please reach out to sarah@lhos.org. We are always looking for stories and testimonials of any length.
