We are so excited to introduce our new CCV staff member with you all, Brenna Zeimet! 

Brenna joined the Riverside Innovation Hub in June of 2023 as a RIH Congregational Facilitator. She will journey with congregations as they discern their vocational path to loving their neighbors as a vital partner in the community where God has called them. She will facilitate cohorts of church leaders, helping them build a network of support amongst each other to empower the work they are doing for the flourishing of humanity and the common good.

Before coming to Augsburg, Brenna spent 20 years in local church ministry where she worked in youth ministry, congregational care, leadership development and change management. She helped steward ministry model change in her congregation; pivoting from a struggling, internally focused church to a public church that engaged the community and the schools, and created vital space for neighbors to meet each other and work together for good in their community. Brenna also oversaw and developed a cohort mentoring program for youth pastors that helped leaders build supportive communities of other pastors that they could learn from and walk with in the sometimes isolating journey of ministry. Brenna has worked as a church consultant, helping leaders build cohesive and healthy teams that explore the needs of their neighbors and what gifts they have in their hands and on their team to meet those needs. Currently, Brenna also works as a clergy coach, helping pastors navigate the challenges of ministry and live into their call in their context.

Brenna is a strategic developer of people, through listening and intuitive questioning Brenna is able to help people find the hidden potential and pitfalls inherent in their story, context and personality, and helps them find the pathway to healing, empowerment and flourishing. She loves navigating group dynamics and connecting people through relationship building and intimacy development born of authentic sharing and vulnerability that allows us to be truly seen, known, and accepted for who we actually are behind our public masks. Brenna believes that the deep relationships that our cohorts will form with each other and their neighbors will create lasting and meaningful change in the world around them and in the congregations and leaders who embark on this journey together.

When Brenna isn’t facilitating cohorts, she is busy with her husband, four children and two dogs. They enjoy the dog park, softball, traveling as a family, and snuggling up together to watch everything that Marvel puts out. She is also passionate about local politics and community engagement. She has served on her local school board, run local campaigns, and is currently working on getting a levy passed for her local schools. She loves to volunteer and build community with her neighbors in her city. Her neighbors have become like family – her village – that love her kids as their own and show up no matter how big the ask.

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Kristina Frugé has worked in community and congregational contexts for over 20 years. She spent 12 years as a ministry leader in St. Louis Park, MN working as a CYF Ministry Director and Faith Community Partnership Organizer. For the past 6 years, she has worked with learning communities of local congregations as the Program Manager of the Riverside Innovation Hub at Augsburg University. She also  supports other ministry related initiatives at Augsburg in her other role as Managing Director of the Christensen Center for Vocation. She has served as a trainer with Church Innovations supporting the missional imagination of congregations. 

In all of these roles Kristina is a relationship-centered leader, utilizing skills of theological imagination, congregational and community facilitation, creative problem solving, and deep listening for the collective wisdom present in community. She has her MA from Luther Seminary in Congregational Mission and Leadership and graduated from Concordia College, Moorhead with a double major in Religion and Social Work. Her early introduction to ministry goes all the way back to being a high school confirmation guide at her home church in East Bethel, MN and four memorable summers working at Wapogasset Lutheran Bible Camp!

She believes deeply in the transformative power of the Holy Spirit that thrives when we invest in meaningful, mutual relationships. She is certain God gets really excited when these relationships get organized as a community with a shared-heart for the mutual flourishing of the neighborhood because when this happens, anything is possible.  Her oldest of three kids, coined her vocational calling when he was a 5-year old telling her, “Mom, you work for love.” This orientation has continued to shape all she commits her time, energy and imagination to. 

Working for love continues to be central in Kristina’s other vocational callings with her family, friends and neighbors. She and her husband Nick have three kids, ages 16, 12, and 8 and a crazy but cuddly Vizsla named Smidge, who they love to go on adventures with – big and small, indoors and out, local and far away (when they can!) They treasure their many relationships in their Longfellow community of South Minneapolis where they have lived for over 20 years.  They make a good effort to spend time with friends and neighbors walking, eating good food, playing and experiencing the connection they share to their place.  

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