{"id":13199,"date":"2024-09-19T17:25:59","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T17:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/?p=13199"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:49:22","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T14:49:22","slug":"compelled-equipped-and-empowered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/now\/2024\/09\/19\/compelled-equipped-and-empowered\/","title":{"rendered":"Compelled, equipped, and empowered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeanette Clark McCormick \u201907<\/strong> embraces the idea that vocation is when one\u2019s calling from God meets the world’s needs. It\u2019s not a theory, but a practice of listening to and showing up for neighbors, which she does as a pastor at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Worthington, Minnesota, and in her roles as a wife, mother, sister, and friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach person is directed to learn, work, and serve with faith-filled purpose,\u201d said McCormick. \u201cAt the same time, vocations are not singular or set in stone. They don\u2019t always come with a paycheck. And they may feel ordinary.<\/p>\n

\"Two
Jeanette Clark McCormick \u201907<\/strong> joins the Ethiopian Orthodox congregation in celebration of their new building (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSometimes the things we are most called to do in life are the most difficult or mundane, but over time, we often find many moments of joy and love, even in those difficult or routine parts of our callings,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

McCormick didn\u2019t have an \u201caha\u201d moment on a hilltop. Discerning her vocation was a slow process that came into focus at Augsburg University, which invited McCormick to intentionally and systematically consider her life\u2019s purpose. Classes, extracurricular activities, and volunteer roles blended faith, learning, and service as a way of life\u2014and it stuck.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love Augsburg\u2019s focus on holistic, hands-on learning,\u201d said McCormick. \u201cMy urban studies and youth and family ministry classes helped me grow in my understanding of faith, religion, community organizing, and more. My participation with Campus Kitchen, campus ministry, and residence life gave me practice planning, leading, and coordinating events. I developed language skills through my Spanish minor and enhanced my capacity to work cross-culturally through my study and internship abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

An unwavering commitment<\/h2>\n

Augsburg President Paul Pribbenow<\/strong> loves hearing alumni share stories about their vocational discernment, which is \u201cat the heart of the Augsburg experience.\u201d Other universities may integrate the spirit of vocation into their missions, he said, but Augsburg is distinct in its unwavering commitment to help students discover and live out their mission to serve others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call it a three-dimensional education: educating students to make a living, make a life, and build community,\u201d he said. \u201cThis combination of experiences means that students gain the education and skills they need to get a job or pursue a profession, and they also learn how to discern the other roles they will play in their lives, all the while learning that everything they do must be done alongside others in community.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her freshman year at Augsburg, that emphasis on collaborative, community-focused work inspired McCormick to help establish Campus Kitchen, which is a hunger relief organization that serves Minneapolis and is part of the national Campus Kitchens Project. These and other opportunities to \u201cbe the change\u201d helped her realize she could make a difference. McCormick translated skills she gained in event planning and promotion, relationship building, grant writing, and more to other roles on campus and to her work and life after graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy college experience has so many profound and meaningful memories, and many of them center around people believing I could achieve good things and supporting me through the process,\u201d said McCormick, who was named a \u201cNeighborhood Hero\u201d by the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency in 2005 and won the first annual Sodexo Stop Hunger Award in 2007.<\/p>\n

Pribbenow said Augsburg\u2019s focus on vocation encourages students to see themselves in the possibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a world marked by scarcity, transactional relationships, and loneliness. Our understanding of vocation runs counter to each of these challenges,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage students to see the world through a lens of abundance, to see relationships as meaningful and mutual, and to seek to build community wherever they go. That is the sort of world we want for our students, and we believe vocational discernment is the means that will help them build it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mentors matter<\/h2>\n

As the Bernhard M. Christensen Professor of Religion and Vocation, Jeremy Myers<\/strong> is among those guiding the university\u2019s vocational mission to \u201cserve our neighbor.\u201d Myers also serves as the executive director of Augsburg\u2019s Christensen Center for Vocation, which works with partners across and beyond the university to create innovative ways for individuals and communities to discern vocation in a range of contexts.<\/p>\n

He is among the faculty who teach required classes that challenge students to explore vocation, diversity, and the role of religion in society.<\/p>\n

\"Indoor
Meyers speaking at the Christensen Symposium, 2022 (Photo by Courtney Perry)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAt Augsburg, we talk about vocation as the unique ways each person, institution, or community is compelled, equipped, and empowered to make the world more just and sustainable through all the various roles they play,\u201d explained Myers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is incredibly important right now because students are looking for a sense of belonging and meaning in their lives while also pursuing a degree they hope will guarantee a good career. We want them to know that meaning, purpose, belonging, and vocation aren\u2019t elusive ideas hiding in their future, but are available to them right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

James \u201cBear\u201d Mahowald \u201913<\/strong> said he would not have discovered his vocation had it not been for Augsburg faculty mentors\u2014including Myers, Matt Maruggi<\/strong>, and James Vela-McConnell<\/strong>\u2014who modeled what it is to live your truth and vocation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came to Augsburg, I was less than a year out of rehab and incredibly guarded. But these and other leaders at Augsburg took me as I was and nurtured and guided the good in me,\u201d he said. \u201cThey held me accountable in both my schoolwork and in being a human in a complicated world, which allowed me to get to where I am today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure there is a place outside of Augsburg where my experience was possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahowald was part of StepUP\u00ae at Augsburg University, a nationally recognized residential collegiate recovery program. The Minnesota native pursued a dual major in sociology and religion while attending mandatory meetings in a sober living community.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say my time at Augsburg was life-changing would be an understatement. There is rarely a day that passes where something or someone from my time at Augsburg doesn\u2019t show up in my life. It was my time at Augsburg that taught me that my vocation was more than just a job I might get one day, but a way in which I live my life. It\u2019s about how I show up for others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Mahowald shows up for others as a husband and uncle; as a manager with City Year, a national service program; and as a doctoral student in educational policy at Wayne State University in Detroit. He works with students who are \u201cvictims of the school-prison nexus,\u201d and he uses his life experiences and lessons to guide them and policymakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy vocation is a combination of living as my true authentic self and using my experiences and the lessons I have learned from mentors to help guide young people,\u201d he said. \u201cI am not sure you find your vocation so much as it is revealed to you through following your heart, your soul, and exposing yourself to a variety of experiences and reflecting on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Everyone deserves the opportunity to consider their why\u2019<\/h2>\n
\"Man
Chris Stedman \u201908<\/strong> (Photo by Eric Best)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Writer and activist Chris Stedman \u201908<\/strong> is among those who teach core courses that challenge students to reflect and explore life\u2019s meaning and purpose. Since 2020, he has taught Religion 200: Religion, Vocation, and the Search for Meaning II, which builds on an introductory course of the same name that explores vocation, pluralism, and diversity.<\/p>\n

Stedman said he challenges students to consider how they can find vocation, self, and purpose through the stories they tell themselves. The final project is an expression of how each student\u2019s gifts intersect with the needs of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach final project is unique, with students sharing how they’ve come to understand what matters most to them and why, as well as their aspirations for how they want to show up in the world and relate to others, considered through the lens of what their communities need,\u201d said Stedman, the author of two books that explore these themes: \u201cFaitheist\u201d (2012) and \u201cIRL: Finding Realness, Meaning, and Belonging in Our Digital Lives\u201d (2020).<\/p>\n

The projects have taken many forms, including a 35-page graphic novel, a 15-minute short film, original music, and poetry. Students decide on the format to best express their vocation and story, with the understanding that it can\u2014and will\u2014likely change throughout their lives. Stedman pushes students to consider the application of vocation across cultures and differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept of vocation is not exclusively Christian, but some students come into my classroom with assumptions about who it’s for. I try to drive home the idea that everyone deserves the chance to consider their \u2018why,\u2019\u201d said Stedman, who also serves as research fellow at Augsburg\u2019s Interfaith Institute. \u201cI am upfront with my students that I’m a queer atheist with a strong sense of vocation and deep, enduring ties with Augsburg. I hope that my perspective helps drive home that all people, whether religious, nonreligious, or unsure, can benefit from having the opportunity and space to consider life’s big questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope is that students finish the semester with a deeper understanding of their values and worldview. These things are of course always evolving, but we can learn a lot about them when we come together across lines of religious difference and explore these questions together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stedman keeps in touch with students who have found their purpose during his class. One student who had intended to \u201cjust go where the money was\u201d shifted her focus after Religion 200.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the end of the class, she realized she wanted, in her words, \u2018more than that,\u2019\u201d Stedman explained. \u201cNow she is a development coordinator for a nonprofit that funds abortion access. Her final project, specifically, shifted the way she understood the world and changed how she saw herself in it. We continue to keep in touch, and it\u2019s awesome to see her living such an inspiring, examined life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The student becomes the teacher<\/h2>\n
\"A
Rosie Benser \u201913<\/strong> (Courtesy photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The required classes about vocation also made a tremendous impact on Rosie Benser \u201913<\/strong>, who appreciated the time and space to reflect on her self-worth and purpose. In high school, Benser was among Minnesota\u2019s estimated 13,000 youth who experience homelessness. She slept on friends\u2019 couches while she attended school\u2014or not.<\/p>\n

She \u201cmanaged to graduate,\u201d and then, \u201con a whim,\u201d applied to Augsburg. Religion, Vocation, and the Search for Meaning was among her first courses at the university, and it \u201cflipped her understanding of purpose.\u201d Her parents hadn\u2019t attended college and thought vocation was a person\u2019s job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized that our purpose in life is to apply our greatest skill to the needs of the world, and that no skill or job is any better than another. I am about to become a mom, and it\u2019s a good reminder that some of our most important work is not tied to a paycheck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benser fell in love with school at Augsburg but was still uncertain about her specific role or career. She applied to a few graduate schools but didn\u2019t receive an adequate financial aid package, so she enrolled in AmeriCorps for a year. She discovered her gifts as a teacher and ultimately enrolled in graduate school to study sociology at Syracuse University. As a doctoral student, Benser researches the intersections of poverty and addiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to think I needed to be boots on the ground [in service work] to make a difference. I see that through my husband, who is a social worker. But I am good at teaching, and teaching is a need in the world. Through my teaching, I hope to educate and create awareness about important issues. That is meaningful to me. That is my vocation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her time at Augsburg, and specifically the religion classes, taught her how to be \u201can adult and community member who thinks more globally\u201d about her impact and how she engages with others.<\/p>\n

Pribbenow is adamant about that broad interpretation of vocation: \u201cIt reflects the multiple ways in which we respond to external forces. It may be a profession, and it also may be roles as parent, sibling, neighbor, citizen, and so forth. In fact, I believe for most people, our vocations reflect multiple intersecting roles that we play in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I am an educator by profession\u2014and I am also a parent and sibling and spouse and citizen. I live out my vocation at the intersections of those various roles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Christensen Center for Vocation: Where theory meets practice<\/h2>\n

The Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation<\/a> helps guide this holistic understanding of vocation and its application through learning partnerships and creative initiatives that address pressing needs.<\/p>\n

The Christensen Scholars Program<\/a> is a community of 10 upper-level Augsburg students who spend a full academic year together in a seminar-style course. Christensen Scholars engage in a deeper interdisciplinary exploration of Christian theological reflection and vocational discernment related to their personal lives and the social realities of the world they live in.<\/p>\n

The Confluence<\/a> is a weeklong, on-campus experience held each summer, during which high school students practice vocational discernment, intentional community, spiritual practices, self-reflection, theological inquiry, and experiential learning.<\/p>\n

The Riverside Innovation Hub<\/a> is an incubator for people and communities to explore the public church in the neighborhood. Along with the learning communities, the Hub is launching two additional projects: a book that amplifies young adult voices to the church, and the Riverside Collaborative<\/a>, an online network where people can learn from and support one another in their work to connect with their local communities, know their neighbors, and become public church.<\/p>\n

\n

Top image:\u00a0Jeremy Meyers <\/strong>speaks at the Christensen Symposium, 2022 (Photo by Courtney Perry)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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