Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Hallie Parkins name and correct information about her religious background, and incorrect information about her family background has been removed. The Barometer regrets the error.
Dinner is the final moment of the day, a space to exhale the day’s stress and inhale the smell of a hot, home-cooked meal.
Eating together breaks down walls, and Luther House’s focus starts and ends at the dinner table.
Luther House is a Lutheran-rooted spiritual group on campus at Oregon State University, focused on community and giving students a safe place to ask tough questions.
After years of being dormant, Luther House is reopening its doors.
Nathaniel Olsen, the president of Luther House, was raised Lutheran and is very passionate about this faith organization and its goal of listening, discussing and teaching. Olsen said he is driven by how much people can learn when they come together to eat and talk as a community, and that he believes the true mission for people of faith is to feed and teach.
“This isn’t a project to prescribe Christianity to anybody. This is a space for us to grow in our faith as Lutherans,” Olsen said.
Olsen said the first goal of the ministers at Luther House is to feed. They continue to try to accomplish this through their weekly Sunday dinners; everyone is welcome to join them, ask questions, discuss, maybe rant about the stresses of being a student and eat in the community with others.
Olsen believes a lot of churches are falling victim to Christian nationalism and ultimately end up twisting the teachings of Jesus, causing many Christians to fall into a mindset focused on shaming themselves and others.
“Shame is only going to beget more shame, and love is only going to beget more love,” Olsen said.
Hallie Parkins, the current pastor for Luther House, believes that the root of shame in some churches nowadays leads to so much reasonably placed distrust towards any faith organization. Parkins said Luther House is working against that in hopes of being known on campus as a safe place to ask those difficult questions someone may have.
Parkins, who grew up religious, says there are two parts to being a pastor: the job part, running events and being at the front of the organization; and being with people, teaching them and watching them grow in their faith.
Parkins said she has found that working with students is quite empowering, and said she loves watching them become their own person.
The dinners are in Luther House, on 23rd Street, every Sunday at 6 p.m. The dinner food is free and made by the students involved with Luther House, Parkins or a mix of staff and students cooking together.
“Regardless if people have these strong beliefs, whether or not I think they are negative in some way, it’s not me who should judge that,” Olsen said. “There is a spot for you at our table to ask those questions, and you might not like my answer, but that is the learning piece … Intentional or not, everyone leaves the table having learned something.”
Two words are echoed throughout the organization’s leadership: social justice. Parkins believes that the gift of life includes everything: personality, gender and sexuality, and that people are born with it, and nothing can change them.
Parkins said she strives to continue to foster a community rooted in compassion and inclusivity. The students who are a part of Luther House are encouraged to take the lead on where the activism goes, which leads to their support in regards to queer justice.
Olsen said that Luther House’s community is not only open for LGBTQ+ persons but is a celebration of all and a continued effort to break down walls set in place by Christian nationalism by asking, “how many more seats can we fit at the table?”
According to Olsen, Luther House expresses its desire for housing justice by giving students a place to stay in their building. Two students occupy the room currently; paying $500 a month plus utilities.
Parkins has worked hard to make the building itself safer; she does this along with Melissa Clark, the office coordinator for Luther House. Clark said she is modernizing the systems behind the scenes and taking care of the large courtyard garden filled with plants of every season, so no matter the time of year, Luther House’s courtyard will never die.
According to Clark, when Parkins took the lead as the pastor last October, she fixed the library for students to study or read, and students are welcome to explore Luther House’s banned book section.
Olsen said Luther House has adopted the motto ‘‘broken but beautiful’’ and strives to create a community of people who can love themselves and, therefore, love others.
“Luther House is a space dedicated to rest and justice one Sunday dinner at a time,” Olsen said.
