6 | January 2025
Spreading Salt and Light at The Ohio State University
By Stephanie Heading, managing editor
Since moving to Ohio from Iowa, Harrison Guetzko has discovered two things. He loves sharing the gospel with students at The Ohio State University (OSU) and he loves being a Buckeye. Guetzko is the director of The Salt Company, the col- lege ministry of The Capital Church, Columbus. The Salt Network, which is based in Iowa and partners with Send Network, planted the church in 2021 near the OSU campus. According to its website, “The Salt Network is a fami- ly of churches committed to reaching college students and planting churches in university centers across the country.” Currently, there are 30 Salt Network church plants in 15 states with 1476 student leaders, and over 8,000 col - lege students participating in the ministry. In Guetzko’s ministry at OSU, he is sharing the gospel with students in much the same way he heard it when he was in college. “As a student at Iowa State, I got saved when I was 20,” he said. A realization that he didn’t have his life together motivated Guetzko’s search for meaning. “God decided to use circumstances in my life to allow me to see my need for Jesus,” he said. “I got saved in October 2016.” After graduation from Iowa State in 2019, Guetzko en- tered a Salt Network program to become a Salt Director. “It’s a two-year residency where you have the ability to assess the call of ministry in your life and what God’s doing with it,” he said. It didn’t take long for him to know he was heading in the right direction. “Right away I just saw so much value in being invit- ed into the movement of God on the university campus and inside of the local church.” In 2021 Guetzko accepted the opportunity to help plant The Salt Company and The Capital Church near the OSU campus. “It feels like an opportunity to do something that out- lives me. I really wanted to be a part of that,” he said. Three years later, Guetzko and his wife, Lydia, have set- tled into life in Columbus and are enjoying their ministry in the Buckeye State. “It’s The Ohio State University! What other school would I want to be a part of?” he exclaimed. “Jumping on the bandwagon was easy. When your football team wins 11
times a year and that’s a letdown, it’s pretty fun to be a part of that.” Since its inception, The Salt Company ministry has grown from 20-25 students to over 260 students at - tending its Thursday night gathering, and The Capital Church is running 275-325 people in service on Sunday morning. “We are seeing God’s faithfulness in how he is grow- ing our congregation,” he said. “It feels like really deep roots and big decisions to follow Jesus are being made both on the college side and the community side.” Guetzko is grateful to have a front row seat to the Lord’s work at OSU. He saw God’s work this past October with The Salt Company Fall Conference. “We annually do this Fall Conference because we think it’s an opportunity for students to encounter Jesus and develop a deep rela- tionship with him and with other people,” he said. However, Hurricane Helene roared through the south- eastern United States and remnants of the storm crossed into Ohio making travel to the conference loca- tion on Kelly’s Island impossible. The event was post- poned for three weeks. Harrison Guetzko, director, The Salt Company of The Capital Church, Columbus
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