Recently, hundreds of undergraduate students gathered at Centre College’s annual Expo, an event that connects anxious first-year college students with eager club presidents, local vendors, nonprofits and campus offices. Expo serves to orient students on the 1,400-person campus and those living in Danville, the small, Central Kentucky community where Centre calls home.
Centre prides itself on being a residential campus with 98% of students living on campus. So the college spares no expense with its back-to-school extravaganza. Folding tables and club banners lined both sides of West Walnut Street, enticing students with free candy, raffles, stickers and bottles of Ale-8, a Kentucky staple.
Each year, local churches are among the most well-represented organizations at the Expo. While they have varying involvement with student groups throughout the year (with the local nondenominational church, Southland, sponsoring the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, for instance), all eight churches presented themselves excitedly and invited students to join them for worship or fellowship meals.
As president of the Centre Union for Affirming Christians (CUFAC), my time to explore Expo was limited. However, Max, an Open Table Christian Church member, didn’t let me miss out on Expo mingling, bringing his church to me.
I had anticipated spending my evening trying to convince students to come to our organization’s upcoming ice cream social, but was met with Max saying, “CUFAC, huh? Alright. Affirm me.”
After stumbling over my words, I managed “God loves you and so do we!” and Max remarked we were off to a good start.
Max outlined his struggles with becoming affirming to LGBTQ+ identities while attending and even pastoring less affirming congregations. He now attends two churches every Sunday: the thriving and more conservative Lexington Avenue Baptist Church in the morning and the smaller, progressive Open Table Christian Church that meets in the town theatre in the afternoon.
It was important to Max to find a congregation that openly celebrated LGBTQ+ people. Open Table has no paid staff and is “moonlit” pastored by a volunteer who works full-time as a food service representative for Centre’s dining service.
However, their limited resources and small size do not deter them from making a significant impact on the lives of their Danville community. Half a dozen congregants clad in matching rainbow Open Table shirts showed up to introduce themselves and their appropriately named ministry to Centre students.
Max was a joyful member of this group, even abandoning Open Table’s well-staffed booth to converse with students confined to their own tables like me. However, despite his enthusiasm, Max expressed disappointment in not being able to have the same experience with Lexington Avenue Baptist, where he has been involved for years.
Many of us identify with the churches we belong to. Catholic by birth, Baptist by trade, Methodist by college small group, and Lutheran by summer camp, I am no stranger to church-hopping or struggling to answer the question, “What denomination are you?”
I once feared losing my Catholic identity and the communities in which I grew up. As I slowly opened myself up to new experiences and denominations, I began to understand that, as Max’s story reminded me, we are called to find God where God truly is: everywhere.
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Luke Emerson is a junior at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky studying business and education. He is excited to serve as Good Faith Media’s fall 2025 intern.