Augsburg Faculty and Staff, the Division of Mission invites you to attend the fall vocation lunch:
Who Gives You Light?
with Katie Clark, Assistant Professor and Director of Augsburg Central Health Commons
Friday, November 22, 2019 11:15 a.m, – 12:25 p.m. East Commons, Christensen Center
Kathleen ‘Katie’ Clark has been teaching in the Department of Nursing since 2009 and serves as the Director of the Augsburg Central Health Commons (ACHC). Her teaching focuses on issues of social justice, health inequities, and civic engagement. During her time in the department, Katie has designed various courses in an immersion format that allows students to gain insight first-hand from people living in the margins while learning skills of transcultural nursing as well as teaching in more traditional formats. In 2011, in partnership with two other local non-profits, Katie launched the Health Commons in Cedar-Riverside. Before coming to Augsburg, Katie worked for eight years as a nurse at University of Minnesota Medical Center – East Bank in both oncology hematology and the medical intensive care unit. She has traveled to 20 different countries and participated in many local volunteer programs, such as the Bridge for Youth and Higher Ground. Currently, Katie lives with her husband and three children in the town of Stillwater.
EDUCATION
D.N.P. in Transcultural Leadership: Augsburg University (2014)
M.A.N. with a Transcultural Nursing Emphasis: Augsburg University (2010)
B.S.N: University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire (2002)
Please note: Guests are also invited (but not required) to bring a donation of socks or other items to the Health Commons as part of this event. Learn more about items needed (or consider making an online donation) athttps://staging-augsburgwww.kinsta.cloud/healthcommons/
The Mission and Identity Vocation Lunch is an event that strengthens the concept of vocation at Augsburg for faculty and staff by providing role models from within the community to share a presentation on their sense of call and life journey.
Marty Wyatt has been the Program Assistant for the Augsburg Youth Theology Institute since 2016. Prior to this, Marty worked as a coffee shop manager at the MSP airport. He completed a BA in Women’s Studies at Augsburg in 2012, and is currently in the Master of Divinity program at Luther Seminary. While a student at Augsburg, Marty was a Youth Theology Institute mentor and even attended the Institute as a high school student way back in its beginning years. Marty loves being a part of this program that encourages youth to embrace deep theological questions and explore where their passions meet the needs of the world and where God is calling them.
When he’s not at Augsburg, Marty enjoys reading, sewing quilts, and cross-stitching. He’s been a Minnesotan his whole life, and grew up on a family farm just north of the Twin Cities. He now lives in North Minneapolis with his husband and fur babies (2 cats, 1 dog). His one year old boxer mix keeps him especially busy and reminds him daily of the importance of play.
Marty feels incredibly blessed to be a part of the Augsburg University community again as a staff person and is proud of the work that Augsburg, the Christensen Center for Vocation, and the Augsburg Youth Theology Institute do for and with young people, our communities, and the wider church.
Adrienne joined the CCV staff in Fall 2019 as the Theology and Public Leadership Program Associate. She wears three very important hats at Augsburg: coordinating the TPL undergraduate degree, directing the summer Augsburg Youth Theology Institute, and managing the Public Church Scholars pathway degree.
The Public Church Scholars five year degree pathway allows students who are called to public church ministry an opportunity to complete a BA in Theology and Public Leadership and a Master of Divinity (MDiv) in five years. In this program students will take a deep dive into theological education, leadership formation, engage in what is means to live and work in community through experiential learning, and prepare to be public leaders in the church. This ministry leadership pathway has been generously funded by the Kern Foundation.
Adrienne has served in many ministry and youth leadership capacities since graduating from Augsburg in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in Youth and Family Ministry and a minor in Sociology. Before coming to this position, she served as youth ministry program staff for an urban ministry collaborative in St. Paul, booking agent for a local hip hop artist, assistant camp director for an island camp and retreat center, and served two local charter high schools in administrative leadership and advising capacities primarily supporting students in college and career exploration. In December 2018, she received her MA in Organizational Leadership with a concentration in ethics and leadership from St. Catherine University. In Fall 2019, she also began the exciting journey of teaching undergraduate students at the University of Minnesota in the Leadership Minor program.
Adrienne’s call has always been tied to connecting people and strengthening relationships. As a leader for young people, her work focuses on listening, guiding, and supporting youth in discerning their purpose during transition times in their lives. She has worked with high school students in developing leadership skills, searching for college and career options that fit their purpose, and making connections for putting their purpose into action. She is excited to join CCV and work with undergraduate students as they discern their call to ministry, by growing and developing as strong leaders for the future of the church in our communities.
When she isn’t working, Adrienne loves walking or hiking in parks and woods around the Twin Cities with her family and energetic dog Calvin. Her husband is a middle school music teacher and her kiddo is thoughtful and creative and always has his nose in a book. As a family they enjoy camping, following the latest Star Wars or Avengers stories and media, and making and sharing homemade meals.
This week we hear from Ellie Roscher, a congregational learning partner at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Ellie shares a story about the mutual transformation that comes from listening to and empowering young adult leaders.
The Garden at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.
Siri, a talented and emerging folk singer, spends significant time on the road playing music. In between tours, she works at the front desk at Bethlehem even though she is skeptical of institutional religion and questions the existence of God.
About a year ago, Siri found herself in a cycle of despair. She was feeling adrift and unsure of where her community was. And she was feeling cynical, angry and overwhelmed about climate change. She could hear the earth moaning and see it crying out. One night, in response to her lament a friend kindly offered, “Would it help to do something about it?”
Siri took the challenge to heart. She floated her idea of starting a community garden to me and some other folks at Bethlehem. Yes, yes, yes. We helped her flush out her vision and celebrated with her when she received a generous Foundation Grant. Then it was time to begin.
At the Riverside Innovation Hub, our guiding text is from Ezekiel 47. In it, we are led away from the temple to deeper water. Along the riverbank there are lush trees with fruit for food and leaves for healing. Siri had a prophetic vision to grow a garden outside the walls of Bethlehem. Bethlehem, a large and resourced church, had not yet leveraged its voice and power to address climate change in real and meaningful ways. We recognized Siri’s passion and vision as beautiful, and we met her there, downriver, to put her plan to action.
Planting a seed requires the audacity of hope. Tilling the soil quiets the mind, brings peace to the heart, and slows time just a bit. Weeding is a spiritual practice. Watching seed transform is a living metaphor. Fresh air shakes the dust from our souls. Billowing clouds invite us to look all the way up and remember that we are small.
The late-fall blooms of the garden.
Siri was ready to move from despair. Her leadership invited others to do the same. She built beds, planted seeds, watered them and tended to them. She showed up week in and week out and created a space outside the walls of Bethlehem for folks to gather. Sunday school kids came out into the sunshine to guess what sprouts would become. A neighborhood kid asked if he could help water the beds, another asked if he could have a cucumber. More neighbors, who previously did not engage started congregating when Siri and volunteers showed up to work. More congregation members lingered outside the church.
Now, at the end of the summer, the garden has exceeded all of our expectations. It is bursting with life. The sun flowers tower over us. The pollinators bring life and vibrancy and splashes of color. We tended to the earth and it is showering us with bounty. The neighbor who was the most skeptical has thanked Siri for creating a space for folks to gather. Congregation members have thanked her for inviting them out of the sanctuary to God’s nature.
Siri, too, has been amazed at the transformation inside of herself. She is a pastor’s kid, and she has a lot of hurt toward the Christian institution. She sees the harm the church has caused in the world. “It has felt like
gigantic tectonic plates shifting in my being,” she said. “It has been truly transformational to go from overwhelmed to empowered. And to grow a garden on the grounds of a church has been important for me. I’m not ready to worship yet, but growing flowers and vegetables here and having the community rally around me has ushered in healing.”
Bethlehem’s innovation team recognized Siri’s vision and leadership. We built our vision around the growing garden and our growing partnership with folks doing conservation and reforestation in the cloud forest of Guatemala. Siri will be one of the young adults traveling to Guatemala come January, after our garden is harvested. She kept asking me if I should send someone else instead, someone who has more clarity about God and church. I think of Ezekiel and smile. “No, you are perfect.”
The garden has been a blessing. A physical reminder of God’s abundance. A place to gather and listen to the soil and and remember whose we are. It brings dignity to get down on our knees and get dirty. Get some earth under our fingernails. Siri said yes to an invitation to grow something new and rich and beautiful. It has given her hope. And community. Fruit for food and leaves for healing. We are all better for it. We are grateful.
Hi! My name is Grace Porter (pronouns She/Her/Hers), and I am a second year studying Theology and Public Leadership with a concentration in Youth Studies and a Minor in Music here at Augsburg University. It sounds like a lot but it really just means that I love working with kids, my faith, and music! Speaking of my faith, I am currently a student deacon working with Student Ministries on campus and using my love of music in choir and in the campus a cappella group, Convocadence! You might recognize me as mentor Gracie from AYTI 2019; fun fact, I was also a participant in AYTI 2017! If you can’t tell, I love this program, and Augsburg University. I also love musical theater and exploring new places, and I am the annoyingly positive person who can get up with the sun 🙂
Thursday, October 3
11 AM – 12 PM
Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center
Speakers:
Hamdy El-Sawaf, founder and psychotherapist at the Family Counseling Center and imam of Masjid Al-Iman in Minneapolis
Munib Younan, retired bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and former president of the Lutheran World Federation
Hamdy El-Sawaf and Munib Younan will share personal experiences and their religious faith perspectives on hope, reconciliation, and resiliency in the midst of suffering and struggles that often are intensified by religious convictions and differences.
About the Christensen Symposium:
Each year, the Christensen Symposium provides the opportunity to explore and apply the lessons rooted in former Augsburg President Bernhard M. Christensen’s legacy:
Christian faith liberates minds and lives.
Diversity strengthens vital communities.
Interfaith friendships enrich learning.
The love of Christ draws us to God.
We are called to service in the world.
The 2019 Christensen Symposium is co-sponsored by the Christensen Center for Vocation and the newly created Interfaith at Augsburg: An Institute to Promote Interreligious Leadership.
Note: This session may be audio recorded. If you would like to be alerted as soon as the audio is available, please email ccv@augsburg.edu
For requests related to accommodations at the Symposium, email events@augsburg.edu or call 612-330-1104.
Phase Two came to an end on June 1, 2019 as our 16 partner congregations presented their project proposals. We transitioned into Phase Three over the summer of 2019. Our partner congregations will now spend two years experimenting with new practices and forms of ministry with young adults. This will be a time of continued learning, trial and error, adapting, trying, retrying, frustration, celebration, and growth.
We have shifted from using our Innovation Coaches to support these congregations to a learning cohort model. Each partner congregation will be in a learning cohort with other congregations attempting similar work. They will gather for regular reflection on what they are learning and what growing edges are emerging for them. The Riverside Innovation Hub will support this work by remaining in close conversation with these learning cohorts and leveraging the resources these cohorts need to move through the growing edges they are encountering.
This work will be less like building a program and more like tending a garden. It will be slow and patient work. Noticing what is taking root. Learning whether the bugs in the garden are harmful or helpful. Wondering if we overwatered or underwatered. Being surprised by the fragrance and shapes of what grows. These things don’t look the way they do in the grocery store! If our congregations will be successful in their movement into the public square with young people, and if we are successful in supporting them in this work it will have only happened out of slow, patient listening and wondering and responding to what God’s spirit is already doing with and without us.
RIH Staff went on retreat to the headwaters of the Mississippi to wrap of Phase Two of the project.
What Happened?
The Riverside Innovation Hub trained 8 young adult Innovation Coaches during August 2018. Each coach was assigned to 2 partner congregations. These coaches spent 20 hours a week working with each of their 2 congregations from August 2018 – May 2019, walking with them through our Public Church Framework towards discerning the future of their ministry with young adults. We also supported 9 other congregations who were interested in this work but did not have a coach working directly with them.
The innovation teams at these congregations were taught the artforms of the Public Church Framework and spent the year putting these artforms into practice in their context. The artforms of the Public Church Framework are intended to help a faith community establish and deepen relationships with their neighbors in their context so they might see and hear how their neighbors are longing for good news. This is the work that leads to innovation. These innovation teams were also asked to invite young adults into this process and to allow these young adults to lead this process.
At the end of 10 months of accompaniment, interpretation, and discernment each congregation submitted a grant proposal outlining the ways in which they hope to experiment with being a public church with their young adults over the next two years. These congregations were awarded between $25,000 – $30,000 for this experimentation.
Here is a summary of what we learned about young adults, congregations, innovation, the Public Church Framework, and how to effectively support this work.
What We Have Learned . . .
Young Adults
The most important thing we learned about young adults is that they are not very excited about being “known about”. They would rather you take the time to know them than know about them. They are not a demographic or a target market, they are unique individuals who often resist categorization. They are busy and very committed to their careers and their friends and to holistic living. They are willing to put time into leadership and the local church if they are being asked to invest their time in things that matter and make a difference. Many are not able or willing to move into traditional volunteer roles in the local church (committee member, Sunday school teacher, etc.). So they are looking for new ways to be plugged in. Your local congregation might not get young adults to return to worship. That’s okay. The question and challenge is how will your local congregation find the ways the places where young adults are actively living out their faith and how will you partner with them in those places?
Congregations
Congregations are eager to be in meaningful relationships with young adults. There are some congregations who expect young adults to simply change their ways and become committed to the traditional church and its traditional practices and simply take over the leadership from previous generations while maintaining those traditional practices. But those congregations are few and far between. Most really want to become meaningful communities for young adults and are willing to do the hard work to become that type of community. Those who had the most success were the one who trusted the process of the Public Church Framework and stepped out in faith into the practice of accompaniment – meeting and listening to the neighbor.
There are two necessary hurdles a congregation must overcome before being successful in this work. The first hurdle is their “why”. Why do they want to do this work? Why do they want to become a public church? Why do they want to engage their young adults in new ways? If your “why” is driven by anxiety about the church shrinking or dying, then the work will most likely not be successful. However, if the work is driven by compassion for your neighbor and for young adults, then your work will be fruitful because you will be more committed to developing relationships than simply numbers.
The second hurdle is your congregation’s threshold. Our partner congregations who have benefited the most through this project thus far are the ones who have moved beyond their church building and spent significant time meeting and listening to their neighbors – those who live and work in the neighborhood around the congregation. This work beyond the threshold often led to important relationships, insights, and partnerships that have truly shaped some innovative approaches to ministry. And it all started by walking out the door and being willing to meet the neighbor and hear their story.
Innovation
We are learning that innovation is hard – of course it is! Innovation is especially hard when we think its outcome must be something new, or shiny, or “better” than what we had before. We are learning that innovation is best understood vocationally. This means that innovative ministry grows out of simultaneously deeply listening to the neighbors’ stories and to God’s promises. Those two things inform one another. God’s promises change the way we hear and respond to the neighbors’ stories. And our neighbors’ stories change the way we hear and understand God’s promises. Innovation comes out of a disruption, or what we call a disorienting dilemma. The neighbor is always a disorienting dilemma. God is always a disorienting dilemma. The gospel is always a disorienting dilemma. When we are sorting out the relationship between these things, we are discerning vocation. Our partner congregations who are listening deeply to their neighbors AND simultaneously pondering God’s promises are actively discerning their vocation. This listening and pondering and discerning is what leads to innovation.
Public Church Framework
We are learning that the artforms of the Public Church Framework and their relationship to one another make the most sense when put into practice. This does not mean it is easy to be put into practice. There are many things that impede this public work – tradition, fear, lack of time, not knowing where to start, etc. But what we have learned is that it begins to make complete sense once a community of people begin to put it into practice. Once you begin practicing accompaniment you begin to understand what accompaniment is all about and why it is important. Once you begin practicing interpretation you begin to realize how important those stories you heard in accompaniment are and you begin to learn how to put those stories into conversation with God’s promises. Once you’ve done this interpretive work you begin to find yourself naturally asking questions that lead you into the practice of discernment and out of that discernment work you will a hear a call to proclamation. We are still convinced the Public Church Framework is a viable method for helping congregations faithfully engage a discernment process in relationship with their context.
Supporting This Work
We are learning that we learn better together. No two faith communities are the same but they all desire to be vibrant and effective. The most transformative learning happens when we allow our partner congregations to learn from one another. The Riverside Innovation Hub is committed to facilitating mutual learning relationships rather than functioning as a consultant. The key to supporting our partners has been the establishment and maintenance of trusted relationships, patience, and curiosity. We are also learning to leverage other cross-disciplinary resources at Augsburg University that will serve our faith communities well as they seek to develop the skills needed to engage their neighbors. Honest conversations, curious questions, and deep listening have become our most important tools for supporting congregations in their innovative work.
AYTI Ambassador Ian Heseltine interviewed Marty Wyatt, AYTI Program Assistant, to learn more about the impact of Marty’s participation in Augsburg’s Youth Theology Institute. In 2007, Marty was a youth participant, and he was a mentor in 2008 and 2009. In addition to his role at Augsburg, Marty is pursuing a masters of divinity at Luther Seminary.
Here is Marty’s response:
Honestly, the week [of Youth Theology Institute] made me want to come to Augsburg for my undergrad. Looking back this is the biggest impact because of how going to Augsburg impacted my life. I would have never met the people I did or experienced the city if I didn’t go to Augsburg, and that started with the Theology Institute. The Institute introduced me to Augsburg’s campus, professors, students, and staff. They seemed to genuinely care about people and the community. It made me want to get to know them better and be a part of this community that cared so deeply for each other.
I think during the week my faith was renewed. High school can be a hard and isolating time for some and the Institute reignited my faith in a powerful way. I learned (or re-learned?) to look for God in everything, from the mundane to the exceptional. The Institute opened a way of thinking about faith differently than I had before. I began to think critically about what I believe and why, which over time led to a deepening of my faith that I wouldn’t have if I didn’t critically examine it first. Continue reading “Interview with AYTI Program Assistant Marty Wyatt, former participant and mentor”→
Amanda joined the Riverside Innovation Hub team in August of 2018 as an Innovation Coach where she spent a year learning alongside of two local congregations and seven other young adults. From June 2019 – November 2020, she worked as the Communications Coordinator with the Hub while she finished up her M.A. in Theology with a Concentration in Justice and Reconciliation from Luther Seminary. She now works with the Hub as the Congregational Coordinator and Facilitator, which includes communications, facilitating a learning cohort, event planning, and general coordinating.
Prior to working at Augsburg, she lived, played, and learned in Rwamagana, Rwanda as a volunteer with Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM), studied Biology at Viterbo University in La Crosse, WI and grew up in Minneapolis, MN.
During her time as an Innovation Coach, she learned a lot of things and is most grateful for the opportunity to teach and grow with people as they experimented with the Public Church framework. Her favorite part of the work is Accompaniment and the various ways it takes shape, but her most favorite is meeting with people over coffee, or hanging out at coffee shops, or really anything that has to do with coffee. During her time as communications coordinator, she learned TONS about effectively communicating, managing systems, and investing in learning relationships. She’s excited to continue learning and growing with this next learning community.
When she isn’t working, she is likely playing volleyball, hanging out with family, and friends, exploring the great outdoors, watching Netflix or reading.
Amanda is grateful for the opportunity to work alongside of faith communities as they discern how to live out their values and theological commitments in their geographic neighborhoods. She is hopeful that the work we do together can contribute to healthy, just communities where everyone can thrive.
Bethlehem’s innovation team recognized Siri’s vision and leadership. We built our vision around the growing garden and our growing partnership with folks doing conservation and reforestation in the cloud forest of Guatemala. Siri will be one of the young adults traveling to Guatemala come January, after our garden is harvested. She kept asking me if I should send someone else instead, someone who has more clarity about God and church. I think of Ezekiel and smile. “No, you are perfect.” 
Thursday, October 3
AYTI Ambassador Ian Heseltine interviewed Marty Wyatt, AYTI Program Assistant, to learn more about the impact of Marty’s participation in Augsburg’s Youth Theology Institute. In 2007, Marty was a youth participant, and he was a mentor in 2008 and 2009. In addition to his role at Augsburg, Marty is pursuing a masters of divinity at Luther Seminary.