A Pastor Embraces the Calling to Serve

Menzi Nkambule (Eswatini, Waterford Kamhlaba UWC, Luther ’18) is now Pastor Menzi He graduated from Luther Seminary in spring 2022, and that August he answered a call to lead St Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Jersey City, New Jersey.

“As a solo pastor in a small urban church with no office employees, I am a jack of all trades,” he writes. “I am my own secretary, stewardship coordinator, public relations officer, community outreach coordinator, and spiritual leader. Depending on the day, I fundraise for the church’s food pantry, walk with people experiencing hard times, celebrate life’s rites of passage, preach the Good News, etc.

“All this can be a lot of work. However, it is all geared toward cultivating a community of generosity, empathy, and wellness for the good of our neighbor.”

It was at a Campus Ministries event on his first day at Luther that Menzi discovered the community-service orientation of the faith he would come to embrace. “I connected with that immediately,” he told the college’s alumni magazine. By senior year, he knew he wanted to go to seminary, and was baptized into the Lutheran faith.

“More than religious work, it is a way of being that gives me great joy,” he says of the ministry — “one that I might not have embraced if it were not for my UWC experience.

“My journey as a Davis UWC Scholar has also been good for my personal life I found love.” On January 6 of this year, Pastor Menzi married fellow Davis UWC Scholars Program alum Sitsandziwe Simelane (Eswatini, Waterford Kamhlaba UWC, Luther ‘22).

This profile is part of the “Graduates in Action” series from the 2024 Annual Report.