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Christensen Center for Vocation
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The Christensen Center for Vocation at Augsburg University equips and accompanies students, staff, faculty, and ministry leaders as they discover together how we are called to show up as neighbor in the world. These learning partnerships happen through a variety of initiatives that foster learning experiences and creative collaborations for all.

The Christensen Scholars Program is a community of ten upper-level Augsburg University 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 social realities of the world they live in.

The Riverside Innovation Hub is an incubator for people and communities exploring the public church in the neighborhood. In addition to the learning communities, the Hub is launching two additional projects: a book amplifying young adult voices to the church, and an online network where people can learn from and support one another in their work to become public church.

The Confluence is an annual weeklong on-campus experience in the summer each year for high school students to gain deeper insight into who they are and the life they want to live as children of God. The Confluence is an experience that empowers young people to be curious about how their personal story, the world’s story, and God’s story flow together to create a loving and just world.

We are a learning community that lives online and in person. Our aim is to equip churches and leaders to connect with their local communities and to know their neighbors because God calls us to love generously. If you care about being a vital neighbor in the neighborhood, join the Riverside Collaborative for free to meet others who deeply care too!

What’s Vocation?

People walking Augsburg in the background

Vocation is a word from within the Lutheran Christian tradition that has been used to describe the phenomenon of being set free by the love of Jesus to love and serve our neighbor through the various roles we play and how we show up in mundane ways in our daily lives. But vocation isn’t the only way to talk about this, and Lutherans and Christians aren’t the only ones who love and serve our neighbors. At Augsburg, vocation is used to describe the way we are each called, compelled, challenged, equipped, and empowered to do what we can do to make this world a more trustworthy place for our neighbors—all of them, but especially those most marginalized and at risk.

Christensen Symposium on Vocation

Place-Based Vocational Discernment in the Public Square for the Common Good

Vocation is not an ideal, it is a reality. It is not a theory, it is a practice. Therefore, vocation happens in real life, within real relationships. Because it is real and relational, it is also place-based. Vocation happens in certain places where we live our lives and encounter our neighbors.

This work is rooted in the love and call of Jesus, but not exclusive to only those who share a belief in the Christian story. These efforts strengthen faith communities and enhance learning opportunities beyond the classroom for Augsburg faculty and students. And ultimately, the fruit of this work becomes the liberating good news of Jesus being experienced in new and urgent ways.

Place-Based in that vocational discernment is always located in a particular place and the discernment process must take place in, with, and for that location. The particular matters.

Vocational Discernment as a way of moving through the world simultaneously listening to God’s promises, our neighbors’ stories, and how we are being called to respond.

Public Square because vocational discernment happens out in the open beyond our comfort zones in conversation with our neighbors, seeking to bring all perspectives to the table.

Common Good as an orientation towards the collective well-being of our neighbors and our neighborhoods.

Recent Posts

A collage of photos from the learning event. Kristina speaking to the group at the podium, Pastor Marty smiling at the camera, post-it work from a team, and the Roseville team gathered at their table.

“You are Invited”

Facilitator Reflection Written by Brenna Zeimet As I reflect on this event, I am awash with a sense of expectant …

A Devotion and Invitation to Reflect on Interpretation

Written by Geoffrey Gill Greetings, In the flow of our everyday lives, finding moments of peace to hear the quiet, …

Candle on a table in the sun with a group of people and a small table blurred out in the background.

Identifying Your Key Theological Claims

Written by Jeremy Myers When teaching college students how to think theologically, I often hear them say, “I don’t know …

A round table of a team during our last learning community looking down at their prayer walk. "I have been trying to figure out this whole time what our project would be at the end of this, but I’m realizing…Relationships are The Project... Alice in our RIH Learning Community"

Faith in Action: Reflecting God’s Relational Essence

In between our learning events, our facilitators Geoffrey and Brenna spend time with the congregations in cohorts. We asked Brenna …

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Photo Gallery

A person receiving a note from a person on stage
Two people conversing and having a good time
People listening to a presenter
People posing for a group photo
A person presenting and people listening
People working on a group project
People presenting
People working in a group setting
People playing in a field