Introducing Autumn Byars: GCS Hunger Advocacy Fellow for 2023-24
My name is Autumn Byars, and I am a lifelong resident of the Southwest. My father’s pastoral ministry with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod took our family from Prescott, Arizona, to churches in New Mexico and Texas and eventually landed us in Peoria, Arizona. I was confirmed at Apostles Lutheran Church and graduated from Ironwood High School in 2019. After high school, I enrolled at Arizona State University and earned my Bachelors of Fine Arts with a concentration in painting. While at ASU, I joined the Lutheran Campus Ministry based out of University Lutheran Church in Tempe. The community I found there under the leadership of Pastor Gary McCluskey opened up a whole new realm of opportunities for my faith to be realized and put into action.
I come from a household of strong faith, and have spent my life in pursuit of Jesus’s call to follow him. As I grew up, I became more and more preoccupied with the intersection between Christ’s commands to love my neighbor and the effects of modern democratic policy. Living in a democratic society offers us the ability to advocate for the oppressed and downtrodden directly to and through our government, which is not a tool that existed at the time of the gospels. I have long believed that advocacy and policy engagement are important pathways to living the gospel in our modern world and direct ways to love our neighbors.
As I finished my undergraduate career, I was looking for a path that would allow me to help others. I knew I wanted a job that would allow me to put good into the world, and I looked into several different church jobs. While looking for ELCA jobs in Arizona, I came across the posting
for the LAMA Hunger Fellow. The fellowship position is absolutely ideal for me; not only does this job empower me to continue working for Christ’s justice and mercy, it supports me while I do so! I can funnel both my passion for economic justice and hunger relief and the energy I would spend in a workplace into my community. I am excited to learn and grow over this upcoming year, discovering more about how my passions and callings fit together. I am especially looking forward to the new resources, opportunities, and connections that LAMA has given me access to, as they will allow me to accomplish more and will shape my life of advocacy to come.
