Rachel Larson
Richfield Area Lutheran Youth (RALY) Director
I grew up in Eagan and attended Augustana Lutheran Church in West St. Paul. I sang in choir, played handbells, and helped with Sunday School which all filled my heart. I went to Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter and studied Communication Studies, Music, and Religion while serving in chapel ministry, choir, and The Gustavus Academy for Faith, Science, and Ethics. The Academy still inspires my love for youth ministry and how we explore and explain our faith in dialogue with the world.
I spent a year in Baltimore, Maryland, working at Healthcare for the Homeless through the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, where I discerned the call to go to seminary. I returned home and got my Master of Arts from Luther Seminary with a concentration in justice and reconciliation. My thesis was a case study of The Last of Us Part II and how it represents organized religion's reactions to crises, especially LGBTQ+ people's faith adaptation with and without discrimination. I spent a year with National Lutheran Communities and Services, where I learned about grant writing and fundraising, before being drawn back to the church and finding Woodlake and House of Prayer.
In my free time, I will probably be playing cribbage with my family, crocheting, or camping.