Apply Now! Invite your youth to join us at The Confluence, June 23rd-28th, 2024

Written by Gretchen Roeck

Do you know a high school student who is trying to figure out who they are and what kind of life they want to live? Invite them to attend The Confluence!��

The Confluence at Augsburg University is a week where high schoolers are invited to explore their vocation — that space where their personal story, God’s story and the world’s story converge.��

Invite the youth you know to our weeklong, on-campus, summer program for high school students who have completed 9th-12th grades.��

Students will learn through:

– vocational discernment

– meaningful peer relationships����

– experiential learning with local leaders and organizations in the TwinCities

– personal reflection and discernment

– small group conversation led by current Augsburg student mentors

– spiritual practices and daily worship

– theological inquiry and study with Augsburg professor, Dr. Jeremy Myers.��

We hope to reach curious youth who want to live purposefully in relationship with their neighbors, orientated to God’s vision of a just and sustainable world for all. Questions and doubts are welcome.��

Cost: $400/participant. Participants are responsible for transportation to and from Augsburg University.��

Apply now at: /confluence/join-us-this-summer/

Application Deadline: May 15th

Augsburg Scholarship Opportunity:�� Students who attend The Confluence and decide to attend Augsburg University as a full-time student will receive a minimum of $20,000 applied to their financial aid package for up to four years.

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Please contact Gretchen Roeck, Program Director

roeck@augsburg.edu

612-330-1412

augsburg.edu/confluence

The post Apply Now! Invite Your Youth to Join Us at The Confluence, June 23rd-28th, 2024 appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

On September 12, 2023 Dr. Jennifer Bankers-Fulbright from Augsburg’s biology department shared her story, “Vocation Favors the Prepared Mind (or ‘How I Got to Augsburg’)”. Enjoy a video of her talk and the transcript below.

Vocation Favors the Prepared Mind (or “How I Got to Augsburg”)

by Dr. Jennifer Bankers-Fulbright, Biology

If you ask any scientist how they became a scientist or any university professor how they became a university professor, the vast majority will say they don’t remember ever wanting to do anything else. That is not my origin story. �� When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up when I was little, I gave them a whole list: singer, dancer, actress, mother, (and when my mom told me I could check boy careers too) fireman, doctor, police man – I checked all the boxes Except scientist. Or teacher.��

And this continued, though not with much thought, throughout my childhood until …at the end of 9th grade, I knew exactly what my ultimate goal was – my vocation.�� It was time to register for HS classes, and my future was spelled out in all the electives that were now available to me, a high schooler!! Finally!! The next 3 years were going to be amazing, because I was going to register for every elective that would prepare me for my chosen career: THEATER!

I giddily gave my 10th grade registration form to my parents to sign, and family lore recreates this moment like this:��

Me: “Here’s what I’m taking in high school next year! Isn’t it great?!”

Parents:�� “Hahaha! No.”

Apparently,. I would be taking math and science all 3 years of high school to ensure “I don’t close any doors” with regards to where I went to college and what I wanted to do with my life.�� My parents said “You need to be prepared for any choice you ultimately want to make”�� There were tears, there was pouting, and there was acceptance…because I was 14.

The next year, in the 10th grade biology class that my parents made me take, my teacher Mr. Mitsch changed my life. He told my class a story about genetic diseases and genetic counseling and ethical conundrums and caring for people and I was transformed. I still love the theater, but my dream now was GENETIC COUNSELOR. I would help people understand the biology behind their genetic disease and help them with perhaps the most difficult decisions in their lives. 10th grade; life figured out.

From that moment on, I’ve been fascinated with biology — especially biology related to human health. Long story short: I went to college to get a biology degree on my way to being a genetic counselor. I chose a liberal arts school (College Saint Benedict – I’m not completely giving up theater!) and, during my time there, I did a summer internship — what we would call an Augsburg Experience — and discovered I loved doing research. I switched my long-term focus from counseling patients to eradicating disease via biomedical research and switched my focus from genetics to immunology, largely because of the HIV pandemic that was in full swing at that time.

To be a researcher, I needed a Ph.D.�� I ended up having to decide between: the University of Chicago and Mayo Graduate School at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. They were both great programs, and I loved Chicago, but Chicago required me to teach undergraduates to earn some of my stipend/payment.�� Mayo did not.�� I had no, absolutely no, positively no interest in teaching in any form. I chose Mayo.

Parents: Are you sure? What if you find out you like it? Like biology in 10th grade? Maybe you’ll find you really enjoy it.

Me: Hahahahahahaha. No.

Narrator: This decision, at 21 years old, marks the beginning of Jennifer’s avoidance of discovering her vocation Yet, as you’ll soon hear, it kept finding her.

During graduate school, I got to be a mentor for the first time – to an immunology professor from St. Olaf, Ted Johnson (spoiler alert – he graduated from Augsburg). This man was beloved by his students – he was living his vocation as a professor. As we worked together and I trained him on the new techniques my lab was doing, he asked whether I had ever considered teaching, because I seemed to have a real knack for it – he thought I would be great in the classroom.��

My response: Hahahahahahaha. No.

I got my Ph.D. and moved to a different lab to do research on asthma and allergies. My new boss, Jerry Gleich, M.D. saw me present scientific articles and results several times and often complimented me on my “gift” for being able to explain complicated ideas very clearly – he asked if I had ever considered teaching since I seemed to have a gift for it.

My response: Hahahahahaha. No.

I began working with SURF students (undergraduates doing summer research) and LOVED it.�� They told me they would love to have a professor like me – did I ever think I would work at a University and mentor students in research there?

My response: Hahahahahahahah. No.

During this time, I also began volunteering with local elementary schools, the Rochester and MN State science fairs for middle and high school students, I was asked to lead a course in the Immunology graduate school program and be part of the teaching group in the immunology course taken by first year medical and grad students. I gave research talks at MN colleges (CSB, St. Olaf) and always connected with students and faculty.�� I was promoted to an Assistant Professor of Medicine because of my work at Mayo, and�� I seemed to really be drawn to (and good at) this whole education thingy-ma-bob. But I still saw that as “giving back” — I was a research scientist who could communicate, hooray!�� People continued to ask me if I’d ever considered teaching, and my response slowly turned from laughter and denial to…maybe? For somebody who said they would never teach I do seem to do a lot of it don’t I? .��

So I started looking at all my “volunteer” activities differently — had I been seeking out TEACHING activities? Why did I love working with my summer research college students so much? Why did I get more “warm fuzzies” from my volunteer activities than my research, which I also loved doing?? Had I been moving toward teaching all along, despite my best efforts to avoid it??!!

My response: Huh….am I supposed to be a…teacher???

Soon after this, I “snuck” into an education workshop for college professors of immunology (I was at the same meeting presenting my research). You know that feeling when you find “your people”? This was that. It was during the flight home from that meeting, when I happened to be sitting next to one of the professors that was in that education group, that – at 35,000 feet, I discovered my true vocation: teaching.

It took me another 5 years to figure out who and where I wanted to teach (undergraduates, at a liberal arts college in a city) and to develop my college teaching skills (and it requires a LOT of skills!). I taught a course at Carleton College, I left Mayo and taught full time at RCTC the community college, and I continued to grow in my abilities and become more and more convinced this is what I was meant to do.�� When permanent positions opened up for a biology professor at a liberal arts college with a commitment to student research in (or very near) a city, I applied. But it wasn’t until I interviewed at Augsburg that things really clicked for me. And it wasn’t the campus or even the city that drew me in: it was the students I met.

They were different from the students I’d talked with during interviews at other campuses. They knew what they needed or wanted from their professors, they challenged me and asked how I would provide that if I were hired. They talked about challenges they faced and what were my thoughts on issues that directly impacted them. I was in love. These were also my people. I left Augsburg that day knowing this was my teaching home and hoping they knew it too. Thankfully they did — and I started teaching biology here in Fall 2008, 13 years after I earned my Ph.D. I was using my Ph.D. for the one thing I was sure I would never use it for: teaching.��

So what’s my advice to help you find your vocation? I’ve stolen it from one of my graduate school professors, Dr. Vanda Lennon. One day she casually asked me what my plans were after I graduated. I said I wasn’t really sure and asked her if she had any advice on choosing. I expected a list of things to do, maybe a reprimand that I didn’t know what to do already, but she didn’t say any of that. She said “Don’t worry. You don’t have to know exactly what you want to do. Just keep moving toward what you love to do, and eventually you’ll find your path.” And�� she was exactly right — I kept moving toward what I loved for those 13 years…and I found my vocation here at Augsburg, waiting for me.

The post Uncovering Vocation – Vocation Favors the Prepared Mind (or “How I Got to Augsburg”) Dr. Jennifer Bankers-Fulbright appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

I stop by Domino’s on my way to church. It’s Friday night at 9pm. When I get there I meet one of our young adults, and we walk to the corner of Cedar and Riverside. A plastic table is already set up with a kettle of tea and a warming bag to hold the pizzas. Just cheese, no meat, Abdi told us when we offered to bring them. It’s what the guys prefer.

Abdi Mukhtar is the founder of Daryeel Youth. Daryeel means “care” in Somali. Each Friday night, even in the coldest winter, Abdi shares chai tea and pizza with young men in our neighborhood who are most vulnerable to drug use and violence. Weekend nights at the corner of Cedar and Riverside is where Abdi had seen the most harm. So weekend nights at that corner is where he sets up.

Abdi knows everyone that night. Not just by face and name, but by their backs, a full block away. He calls out greetings, offers a slice to a passerby or a whole box for a group of friends. He is here to build trust. With him is a crisis counselor, who talks with the young men who stop at the table. He hands out his contact information along with refills of tea.

I ask Abdi more than once if our presence as guests is going to deter the guys from coming by. And he tells me, more than once, that we are welcome. Neighbors joining Daryeel to hand out pizza is a sign that we stand together, he says. It’s a sign that we care.

Trinity Lutheran Congregation is the only remaining Christian community in the largely Muslim, largely East African Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. By virtue of its surroundings, almost everything Trinity does is interfaith (except on Sunday mornings). We take joy in being part of the neighborhood.

I had met Abdi through various community events and meetings in my first year at Trinity. Pastor Jane knew him well as a leader committed to the neighborhood. But when the Riverside Innovation Hub (RIH) invited Trinity’s young adults to listen again with care, we heard Abdi’s story with new ears.

The public church framework, as shared by RIH, led our young adults through a careful process. We identified listening posts and asked questions in our community and within our congregation (“What are the hopes and joys in this place, what are the sorrows?”). We discerned with the help of our innovation coach and color-coded sticky notes (“What are the overlaps, where are the gaps?”). Data turned into themes, themes turned into stories, and stories turned into partnership (and pizza).

The public church process helped Trinity grow not by offering fixes or changes to our ministry, but by helping us to listen with new ears, and with greater intention, to our neighbors. Getting our heads into public church meant living more fully into the gifts that God has already given us, and into the place where God has planted us.

The post Transformed by the Public Church Framework: Trinity Lutheran Congregation appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

This blog is the second in a series of stories of transformation from our congregational learning partners. We hope these stories illustrate the larger story of our project as we promote another��learning partnership opportunity.��

When we first started conversations with Riverside Innovation Hub, we could hardly have imagined the depth and variety of challenges that would face our congregation and our society in these past few years; but the insights and collaborative support we received through our partnership could not have come at a better time.

In the initial stages of the process, the public church framework offered clarity and a healthy challenge as we discerned where the Spirit was calling us. Their early enthusiasm was additional confirmation that our desire for a regenerative reset of our relationship with the land itself was an idea that could catch imagination and spark passion with many. Church “as we’ve always done it,” we sensed, was increasingly failing to satisfy the hunger of our members and community. With the support of our RIH partners, we began our multi-year permaculture project.

Over the first winter, a group of lay volunteers met on a bimonthly basis to study the foundational principles of permaculture and the history of farming regeneratively as many of our cultures of origin have done for thousands of years, as well as all the un-learning necessary in many “modernized” countries.

After spending some time with accompaniment and interpretation- discovering the how and the why– we crafted a plan for the what, with the help of our friends at Ecological Design, the women-owned/run permaculture design firm behind the Frogtown Farm in St. Paul and the Tiny Diner Farm in Minneapolis, among others. Naming our neighborhood as including our grounds, Silver Lake at the bottom of our hill, and the Rice Creek Watershed (emptying into the much wider Mississippi Watershed) we were convicted to incorporate as many layered features as possible for water retention and erosion/runoff prevention. We also incorporated food and habitat for pollinators and other wildlife, as well as meeting spaces, herb and vegetable gardens, and play areas for our human members.

As we moved deeper into discernment, we began very literally removing things that needed to be sacrificed for new life to thrive- namely, all the conventional sod across our property… with a sod cutter and volunteers from our congregation- and reseeded with a clover/fescue mix that retains significantly more soil and water while also providing for pollinators. It took some courage to invest in trees and other perennials, as well as outdoor construction and 26 raised beds- taking it in faith that our congregation would share our vision and see it through.

Those early risks have provided for a very abundant harvest, both figuratively and literally. We’ve launched an herbalism business based on the botanicals grown on-site, and been able to provide medicinal teas to our community which have been especially helpful during this time of pandemic. Assembling and installing 26 raised beds this spring required an additional investment of volunteer labor; instead of being a bothersome chore, our people were delighted to have a safe way to fellowship and work together (outdoors, with masks and social distance).

This energy continued throughout the season as we grew, weeded, watered, and harvested together from the gardens. We also began an outdoor nature-based learning program for our children this fall, made possible by all our previous work. During this unprecedented time when indoor worship as an entire congregation has not been possible for nearly a year, we are grateful that we can continue to proclaim the good news as we live it each day, both among our members and to the wider community. Despite receiving some initial resistance (the beginning stages were not aesthetically pleasing), many neighbors have expressed gratitude for our project, some even sharing that, in this time of pandemic and growing fascist threat, walking to our grounds and witnessing all the life unfolding throughout the season has been a balm to their spirit.

We are extremely grateful to Riverside Innovation Hub for their visionary leadership and transformative partnership, spurring us on towards deeper love and transformative good deeds for the sake of the gospel in our community and beyond.

The post Transformed by the Public Church Framework: Church of All Nations appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

I’ve been asked to respond to the question,��How has your��faith��community experienced transformation as a partner in the Riverside Innovation Hub?��I feel that any response to this question requires a two-part answer. Prior to the COVID pandemic, the work at St Luke’s was building momentum. We had a clear plan and goals for how we were continuing and expanding our work and partnership with RIH. PeaceCraft, the initiative that evolved from this, was very integrated into our faith community. The public church framework was becoming our��lingua franca,��or common language.��Then COVID hit and it felt like everything came to a screeching halt.

At first, there was a felt sense of grief and lament. We’d lost so much and initially struggled to find our way to next-steps. However, the public church framework of listening, discerning, and applying what we had learned helped us rise up from the ashes.

Despite not being able to enter a physical building during the time of COVID, it feels we have been spiritually resourced by RIH to find ways to connect with God and others outside of it. In fact, it has become very natural to turn our attention out and towards others. For example, when a homeless encampment appeared around Lake Nokomis in summer 2020, some members of our community supported and worked with local groups who were providing food and resources for families. They felt that this work and our mission values inter-connected. I immediately recognized the public church framework playing out. This work was also immediately validated by our church as an expression of authentic Christian faith.

Finally, and as we look to COVID restrictions being lifted, we feel our new community is once again being drawn into the work of accompaniment, interpretation, and discernment. We’ve become curious. We are wrestling with the tension of programming vs innovation. Where it seems we have become too focused on programming, there is a restlessness and desire to turn our attention outside. We are finding ourselves existing in the thin-space between balancing the needs of the faith community and those of the neighborhood. We are also willing to ask why we are doing things. We are not rubber-stamping the old ways. In one sense, our partnership with RIH has led us to the idea that the work we do is never truly done, and also not necessarily measured by definite outcomes. Instead, we celebrate what has gone before and remain open to new movements of the Spirit amongst us.

The post Transformed by the Public Church Framework – St. Luke’s and James appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

We practice and teach this through the Public Church Framework.��Below is a collection of videos and blogs to illustrate the Public Church Framework. Included are stories from congregational members involved in the Riverside Innovation Hub sharing examples of what the good news has looked, felt, and sounded like in their communities.

Introduction to the Public Church Framework:

• Ezekiel and the Public Church: Everything Will Live Where the River Goes��(blog post)
• Foundations of the Public Church Framework��(blog and 61 min video)
• The Art of Public Ministry��(blog and 49 min video)
• Fruit for Food and Leaves for Healing: Centered Life Video Series (4 videos)

Stories from Congregations:

Videos:

Stephen Richards with��St. Luke’s and James

Ryana Holt with Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

Pr. Liesl Spitz with Trinity Congregation and Marie Page with Church of All Nations��

Blogs

• Transformed by Listening to the Land as Neighbor (Church of All Nations) – Story by Marie Page
• Transformed by Tea, Pizza, and Daryeel (Trinity Lutheran Congregation) – Story by Pastor Liesl Spitz
• Transformed by God at Work in the Neighborhood��(St. Lukes + James) – Story by Stephen Richards

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