Gretchen Roeck is passionate about inviting youth to engage, critically examine and discern their gifts and call in the world. She loves empowering youth and young adults to be leaders in their own lives and communities. She dreams of building communities of people who are fully alive, connected and invested in one another’s flourishing. 

Gretchen joined the Christensen Center for Vocation team in January 2024 as the Program Director for The Confluence. The Confluence is CCV’s summer institute for high school students, offering youth an opportunity to engage in vocational discernment by exploring the ways their own story merges with God’s story and the world’s story. Gretchen is excited to be a part of the CCV team and their work to inspire and equip people of faith to creatively orient their lives and work around Jesus’ call to be neighbor. 

In addition to her work with The Confluence, Gretchen is a Priest in the Episcopal Church in Minnesota. She leads Children’s Ministry at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul, and is the chaplain at Circle of the Beloved, an intentional living community for young adults in North Minneapolis. Gretchen spent the last five years serving as the Priest and Internship Director at the University Episcopal Community, a campus ministry for young adults across the Twin Cities. Her ministry has been focused on children, youth and young adults –inviting them into a relationship with God, fostering their personal growth, walking alongside them and guiding young people in their spiritual and vocational journeys. She is committed to building and sustaining safe, inclusive and welcoming communities that lead towards health and wholeness for individuals and their broader communities. 

Creating safe, supportive and loving spaces extends into Gretchen’s personal life. She is the mother of two fun and creative boys, Elliott and Abraham, ages 10 and 6. Together they share a home in Minneapolis with Brigid the dog, and George and Molly, the cats.

The post Introducing our new Program Director for The Confluence: Gretchen Roeck! appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

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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