When Rev. Wes Cain was a student, he saw firsthand the importance of community. Not only did he meet his wife, Rev. Jessica Cain ’09, at TLU, but he developed lasting bonds with a group of friends he gathers with on a yearly basis. In his second year as campus pastor, Rev. Cain has returned to lead a community of faith informed by openness and acceptance.
“When we were students, we learned the importance of doing life together before we were launched into a place where we had to figure out how to do life separately,” he said. “I want to create spaces like that for our current students, regardless of whether or not they’re involved in Campus Ministry.”
After graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary, he pastored in local churches for 10 years, leading various congregations. Throughout his career, Rev. Cain has been dedicated to inclusiveness and speaking out about the harmfulness of exclusion.
“The group that is least ministered to in our country is 18- to 25-year-olds,” he said. “They’re too old for youth ministry and too young to have families for involvement. Because they don’t seek church, the church doesn’t seek them. I want the local and larger churches to recognize this and instill in young adults that there is a place for them in church.”
His most urgent task as a Methodist pastor is making sure the church models love toward all people.
“The United Methodist Church hasn’t done a very good job of modeling love for the LGBTQIA+ community, and I want to be a part of changing this,” he said. “God’s love is expansive enough to engage everyone, and the boundaries we set are set by people and not by God. The church should be a safe place to be yourself.”
Rev. Cain admires individuals who can move people toward positive change for themselves and the world around them.
“I try to model this with our Campus Ministry students,” he said. “If I could be anyone in the world, I would be Ted Lasso. I want to model that extreme positivity geared toward building others up. Letting students see me as a real person and anything that can bring realness to this position is what I want. I worry that too much about how we define leadership is too polished. I think we need more authenticity. I want campus ministry to be an initiative and not a product. My goal is to raise leaders up within the church, within the world, and at TLU.”
“When we were students, we learned the importance of doing life together before we were launched into a place where we had out figure out how to do life separately," he said. "I want to create spaces like that for our current students, regardless of whether or not they’re involved in Campus Ministry.”