Ellen Clough, a candidate for rostered leadership from the Virginia Synod, will be honored and recognized at an ELCA banquet in Chicago on Friday Oct. 3 along with 15 other ELCA Fund for Leaders Scholars.
When Clough first attended a scholarship weekend at Southern Seminary, she didn’t fully realize the prestige of the event or how life changing it would be.
“I was talking to one of my friends that day and she told me that this wasn’t just any scholarship weekend, it was the Fund for Leaders weekend,” she said.
In May, Clough was notified that she was one of the 16 full-tuition recipients in the nation which meant she would forever be labeled as an ELCA Fund for Leaders Scholar.
Ellen Clough will be recognized in Chicago on Oct. 3 as an ELCA Fund for Leaders Scholar
The ELCA Fund for Leaders program is a merit-based scholarship program that has supported hundreds of qualified candidates, like Clough, with more than $8.25 million in scholarship support.
This scholarship is helping Clough, a member of Muhlenberg Lutheran Church in Harrisonburg, Va., answer a call to ministry that she said she first felt at the age 12 during one of the Virginia Synod youth events.
“During my first youth assembly, my eyes were open to the brokenness of the world,” she said. “We had speakers come talk to us about places where people were hungry and sick and the opportunities that we had to walk with those people.”
The youth were so impacted that they even spent their free time during that weekend calling the White House to tell political leaders that young Christians in America cared about the genocide in Darfur.
“When I went home, I told my mom that I was not going to go to college, I was going to be a missionary,” Clough said with a smile on her face.
“By my junior year of high school, my understanding was that there were all sorts of bad things happening out in the world but I also learned that there were bad things happening right here.”
With her passion for the Gospel, her dedicated service to her congregation, and experience writing for her high school newspaper, she began to think about the possibility of becoming a pastor. Muhlenberg Lutheran even gave her the opportunity to preach to the congregation during their youth Sundays.
“I found that I really enjoyed studying the text and prayerfully being a vessel for sharing the Gospel with people who loved me and people I didn’t know,” Clough said.
Upon graduation from high school, she became a student at Lenoire-Ryne University where she began studying religion and never considered changing her major.
Even though she was confident about her decision to go into full-time ministry, Clough decided to take a year out of school before she entered into seminary so that should could get “boots on the ground experience in a congregation.”
She took her advisor’s suggestion and applied to be an intern at Unity Lutheran Church in Milwaukee.
“The congregation was going through a transition so it was good walking alongside people as they adjusted to how God was calling them to be as a community,” Clough said.
During this past year, she didn’t just stay in the church building. She was also on staff of a winter homeless shelter where she stayed overnight once a week.
Her second internship with Dave Delaney, the director of youth ministry for the Virginia Synod, came as a surprise. Delaney had already picked another intern for the summer but at the last minute she had to decline the position. Then Clough contacted Delaney out of the blue.
Ellen Clough spent time with middle school students at the Junior High Servant Event during her summer internship with Dave Delaney,the director of youth ministry for the Virginia Synod.
“I have known Ellen since she first started in youth events, she has always been incredibly gifted,” Delaney said. “It was an easy decision to bring her on. She came in was able to do difficult things and do everything very well.”
During the summer she followed in Delaney’s footsteps as he orchestrated several statewide youth events. As time progressed, she took on more responsibility including writing the reflection booklet for Kairos, a resource for high school students to use during their personal evening reflections.
James F. Mauney, bishop of the Virginia Synod, was able to get to know the young seminarian while she worked in the Synod office.
“Ellen was a most gifted youth intern this summer showing a passion for faith and talents for leadership I am excited and appreciative that she was granted this scholarship,” Bishop Mauney said.
Clough shares this appreciation with Bishop Mauney.
“This scholarship means that I have a church body that supports me and cares for me and more importantly care about what Jesus can do through my ministry,” She said. “It is something I am really grateful for.”
Clough is now enjoying her first year in Seminary at Southern where she gets to learn more about the things that she is passionate about: prayer, celebrating sacraments, baptism, affirmations of faith, and a host of other things. She is always quick to express her love of the gathered body of Christ, and her face brightens when she talks about sharing her faith.
“I am passionate about figuring out new ways to share the gospel that engage people of all different experiences,” she said. “I really care about building genuinely welcoming atmospheres for people that are brave enough to walk in off the street.”
As for the immediate future, Clough is filled with excitement about her trip to Chicago.
“I feel blessed to have the opportunity to meet with other church leaders, seminarians, and bishops and I’m excited to visit the Churchwide offices for the first time,” Clough said. “I can’t wait to see the fruit that come from all the other scholarship recipients and all the people that are entering into seminary.”
