On-campus student congregation Lord of Life has recently seen a drop in its participation during the start of the spring semester.

Lord of Life is an on-campus group open to students. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America recognizes Lord of Life as a congregational, worship student body. Lord of Life is overseen by California Lutheran University  Pastor Scott Maxwell-Doherty and consists of a main council and a general congregation of student members.

Lord of Life recently lost half of its council members, dropping from 24 to 12 members. However this does not mean the overall congregation only consists of 12 people.

The group is made up of a council and body of student members.

The council acts as the group’s leadership, putting on campus events and overseeing the group’s organization.

The recent decrease in participation is that of the council but congregation membership of students is somewhere around 150, according to Lord of Life president Louis Moehlman.

According to Moehlman, the drop in numbers that was experienced was in the group’s leadership, not its general student participation.

“The number of council members has decreased recently, but the overall congregation numbers and participation has actually increased,” Moehlman said.

Moehlman said busy schedules might have been one of the reasons why some had to leave the club.

“Lord of Life is an event-heavy group. We put on two to three events per month on top of other things,” Moehlman said. “Putting on events is a lot of work because it includes planning and going through the proper channels.”

According to Moehlman, some of the council members that have left had other activities that took time away from their ability to participate on the council.

“As the semester goes on, people get busier and it can be stressful,” councilmember Kimberlee Jensen said.  “I respect those people who said ‘no’, because they’re super busy and can’t give appropriate time.”

The change in rate of participation over time may not be specific only to the Lord of Life council.

“There are cycles of participation amongst every club,” Maxwell-Doherty said. “At the beginning of every semester there’s more excitement and this fluctuates during the semester.”

According to Maxwell-Doherty, fluctuations in numbers are not unusual.

“In 16 years I have seen our number of council range from 24 to 8,” Maxwell-Doherty said.

Samantha Chittenden
Staff Writer
Published February 11, 2015