A concert pianist discovers a new church family and grows in her faith through a congregational campus ministry program.

It all started with a Facebook post. A WELS student was expressing her excitement about going to the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance to pursue her doctor of musical arts degree. Angie Zhang was going to be attending the University of Michigan at the same time. The two women hadn’t crossed paths before, and Angie still doesn’t know how that post ended up in her feed. “When I saw it, I wanted to say, ‘Congratulations! I’m also going there,’ ” she says. Angie reached out and ended up gaining a new friend—and a new church home.

Music and faith

Angie is an accomplished concert pianist, performing at concert halls around the world. She has worked with famous conductors and played with orchestras in the United States and abroad. She attended the prestigious Juilliard School in New York and has won countless awards and international competitions. She is also a teacher, lecturer, and ambassador for the arts.

So how did she get to this point? Angie says it all began with exposure to music at a young age. “While in the womb, I listened to my mom and grandma play piano. A lot of Chopin reached my ears!” she says. “When I was two, I was stomping my foot whenever my mom’s piano students played a wrong note at their lesson.” She began tinkering at the piano and by age 4 was taking formal lessons.

Angie was an extraordinarily talented child. When she was eight, she gave her first two-hour solo recital to a sold-out audience, and at age 10 she made her orchestral debut in Portland’s largest concert hall for nearly three thousand people. “I feel like music was my first language,” Angie says.

But Angie didn’t spend all of her time at the piano; she often had to share the piano with other children who were taking piano lessons from her mother. “Every day after school, she would be giving lessons,” says Angie. “I was in elementary school and when I couldn’t be at the piano, I’d crack open our kids’ Bible that I kept in my bedroom and read.” She says the Bible stories she read—and the stories her parents told her about the mission trips they went on before she was born—made a big impression on her. “That exposure was so important,” she says.

At just ten years old, Angie was accepted into Juilliard’s pre-college program. She was playing concertos with professional orchestras and performing more than 20 solo recitals a year. “I was getting more and more opportunities to perform, and I had to juggle intense schoolwork with piano studies,” she says. “Many of my friends started to be homeschooled so they could practice piano more, but my parents wanted me to stay in public school and be around people with different passions.”

Because of those experiences, Angie says she learned how to be an ambassador for what she believed in. “My music and my faith, they just kind of grew together.”

Meaningful connections

Throughout the years, Angie met many people who helped shape her music and her faith. “There are so many inspiring and incredible people in this world, and I have found friendships in very serendipitous ways,” she says.

One of those friends was the same one whose Facebook post ended up in Angie’s feed. After Angie reached out, they started chatting and looking for opportunities to connect in person since they were both attending college in Ann Arbor. “She knew I was looking for a church, so she messaged me and asked me if I wanted to go with her,” remembers Angie. They went to Redeemer, a WELS church in Ann Arbor, and Angie says it felt very welcoming. “Redeemer has a pretty robust student ministry, and it was wonderful to get to meet more people who went to the University of Michigan and surrounding colleges.”

Being able to connect with other people on a more personal level is something that really resonated with Angie. “I’ve been to big churches my whole life, so having a smaller community and having that one-on-one time with my pastor and other students was important to me.” She says the group would have dinner every Wednesday during the school year with Pastor Haag at one of the restaurants in downtown Ann Arbor. “It became a safe place for us to ask him any questions we had,” she says.

By this time, Angie had traveled around the world, met interesting people from all walks of life, and witnessed the complexities of society. She says she sought a mentor like Pastor Haag—someone with whom she could have intellectual conversations. “People are complicated and the world is complicated, but during those sessions with Pastor Haag, there were no ums or ifs. He would give us the answer, based on the Bible and what it says—and he put it into a real-life context,” she says. “I got a lot of my big questions answered over the past four years.”

During this time, Angie became a member at Redeemer and got involved in the congregation’s campus ministry, helping plan activities and playing for church services each month. “I wanted to give my talent back to the community and give back to the church in that way,” she says.

Sharing with others

Angie says her life experiences have also provided her with opportunities to share her faith. “My Juilliard roommate was not exposed to religion growing up,” Angie remembers. “We were roommates for two years, and by the end of our time together, she got baptized. She really believed. I have had quite a number of experiences like that in my life, where people would ask me why I believe so strongly and I would tell them.”

She continues, “[Witnessing] requires building a friendship and letting people actually see why you believe in something so strongly that you can’t see, touch, or feel. They also look at you, your actions, and how you speak to others. If you treat everyone as your equal, people will really internalize that.”

Angie says she’s looking forward to meeting more people and hearing their stories when she travels to perform and teach. “From the moment I meet new people, I want to be there and hear their story and make a positive impact on their lives,” she says.

Angie appreciates that she can freely witness, learn God’s Word, and worship—things she might not be able to do if she lived in other countries. “I’m so grateful and blessed to have the experiences that I’ve had,” she says. “I definitely don’t take anything for granted, like having the freedom and opportunities in this country to really follow your dreams and live out your faith.”

Creating connections on campus

Redeemer, Ann Arbor, Mich., has been serving local college students for many years through its robust campus ministry. Students are invited to attend Bible studies and events throughout the year, including Redeemer’s annual Welcome Weekend and end-of-semester outings.

Through these events, Jacob Haag, pastor at Redeemer, creates opportunities for the students to connect and learn. “Each semester, a member of Redeemer presents a talk at my house,” he says. “I also organize coffee outings near campus and a six-week Bible study at eateries around campus—usually a book discussion that has something to do with apologetics.”

Haag says those deep discussions really resonate with students. “They have appreciated the more academic and philosophical conversations we have, including how we discuss controversial social issues with tact and depth,” he says. “It is often easy for us to dismiss ministry at major secular universities as too intimidating or too difficult, or perhaps even pointless. But I’m convinced it’s vital for our synod to have a presence in the highest levels of academia and the arts.”

Thanks to Redeemer’s campus ministry, some students—like Angie Zhang—have also found a new church home. “Last summer, I preached at the wedding of two former University of Michigan students. The groom came into our synod through his wife, who was an active part of our campus ministry. That was a special day,” says Haag. “My experience with campus ministry has shown that God can do great things in the lives of these students.”

Author: Alicia Neumann
Volume 111, Number 12
Issue: December 2024