Theologian and speaker Dr. Wylin Wilson encouraged Concordia College students and community members to take up the mantle of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and dream on Jan. 19, as people gathered to commemorate the Civil Rights-focused holiday named for him.
“What are you dreaming? Are you dreaming a dream that’s bigger than yourself, bigger than us?” Wilson asked the crowd in the Knutson Campus Center. “I want you to dream dreams that will shake your own courage.”
Currently associate professor of theological ethics at Duke Divinity School, Wilson teaches within the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative, doing research at the intersection of bioethics, gender, and theology.
Her question to the assembly both echoed the theme of Concordia’s 2026 Martin Luther King Jr. Day event, “A dream bigger than him, bigger than us,” and served as a call to action for those present.
I want you to dream dreams that take faith and strength and fearlessness that you don’t even believe that you have, please.
I need you to dream, and then as you dream, I need you to get up every single day and take one step and make one small change each day that will align you with that dream, because Dr. King provided us his dream, provided us a vision for our future together, but his dream was incomplete.
Each of you in this room today have the missing pieces of a dream that is bigger than him and that is truly bigger than us, so please dream today and dream prophetically. Thank you.
The commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day began with a chapel service, hosted by Concordia Campus Ministry, and featuring the Concordia College Gospel Ensemble.
The Rev. Lamont Anthony Wells, executive director of the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities, was delayed by inclement weather, so Dr. Kelly LaFramboise, director for inclusion at Concordia, gave the message instead.
Attendees also got to attend two focus sessions engaging with the work of King and the Civil Rights Movement, choosing from topics such as “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” pan-Africanism, connection through storytelling, community gardens, and Mahatma Gandhi’s influence on King.
