Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation
Memorial Hall 233612-330-1202ccv@augsburg.edu
This video is the second of two introducing you to the work of the Riverside Innovation Hub which is an initiative of Augsburg University’s Christensen Center for Vocation. You can see the first video and blog post here.
At Augsburg University, we are convening learning communities of congregations and ministry leaders to explore new ways of being engaged in their contexts that create opportunities for the mutual sharing of good news with our neighbors.
Hi! My name is Renee Christensen, and I am from Shafer, MN. My pronouns are she/her/hers. I am a second year double majoring in Clinical Psychology and Theology and Public Leadership. I was an AYTI participant in 2018 and fell in love with Augsburg! Outside of my work with AYTI, I work closely with the Campus Ministry staff and serve as the Augsburg University Student Ministries Secretary. When I’m home, you’ll usually find me curled up with a good book, being outdoors, or snuggling with my cats.
I am Grace Porter, she/her/hers, from Eden Prairie. I will be graduating in Fall 2021 with a Theology and Public Leadership major, concentration in youth studies, and Music minor. As someone who wants to work in the church, and change what that looks like (especially for youth), Augsburg was the no-brainer school to go to. I knew I could get an education that emphasized God’s love for everyone and God’s wish for God’s people to work for justice in the world! And now, as I am entering my fourth year, I know that is exactly what I have gotten. Through Christensen Scholars, the Augsburg Youth Theology Institute, Campus Ministries, and so much more, Augsburg has been a wonderful home and learning community for me.
Habari! (Hello!). My name is Erica Nondi and I am in my senior year of my Business Management degree, and I have worked as the CCV student worker for 2 years. I was born and raised in Mombasa, Kenya, and I started my undergrad at a small music school in St Paul, but eventually found my passion for business studies at Augsburg University. I have gained communication and organizational skills while working on administrative tasks to help the CCV team with various projects, and it has been a wonderful experience. My hobbies include singing, cooking traditional Kenyan food, swimming and snowmobiling.
The Minneapolis Area Synod (MAS) and Augsburg University’s Riverside Innovation Hub are both launching opportunities for congregations to be a part of a two-year learning community. These opportunities are both funded by the Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations grant.
The two initiatives will work in parallel for the five years of the grant. The hope is to learn with, beside, and from each other during the two, two-year cycles with distinct cohorts of congregational leaders. Both opportunities are for congregations interested in pursuing or deepening an orientation in their particular place, in relationship with the neighbor and neighborhood, leaning into God’s promises and challenges and that meet us there. The promotion and application processes are collaborative, through co-hosting information sessions and a shared application for congregations. More details on information sessions and the application will be released soon.
Each learning community will have two, two-year cycles of learning cohorts, composed of multiple congregations. The cohorts will be coached or facilitated by a staff member at each respective organization. Both learning communities will learn from and with each other, with shared learning Summits in the second year of each cycle of learning cohorts.
The Riverside Innovation Hub, stewarded by the Christensen Center for Vocation at Augsburg University, will learn and experiment with the Public Church Framework as a method for place based vocational discernment in the public square for the common good. This new opportunity is an invitation to congregations interested in pursuing or deepening this same orientation in their particular place, in relationship with the neighbor and neighborhood, leaning into God’s promises and challenges that meet us there. The first learning community runs July 2021 – July 2023 and the second learning community runs September 2023 – September 2025.
This project is open to all Christian denominations within an hour of the Twin Cities Metro Area. Congregations outside this geographic area may apply but should know their experience in the project may differ slightly. Participation in the learning community will include bringing teams to Augsburg’s campus 3-4 times a year (as COVID-19 allows.)
Neighboring Practices and Faith Practices, stewarded by the Minneapolis Area Synod, will focus on faith practices and neighboring practices, because congregations connect best with their neighborhood when they practice their faith and they see with new eyes that God is already at work in their neighborhood. The first learning community runs September 2021 – 2023 and the second learning community runs September 2023 – September 2025.
The MAS project is open to all Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) within the geographic boundaries of the Minneapolis Area Synod and African Methodist Episcopal (AME) congregations within Minnesota.
Thriving Congregations: PDF Handout
Stay tuned for more details on the information session and application process. If you have any additional questions, you can reach out to Amanda Vetsch with RIH (vetsch@augsburg.edu), Kristina Fruge with RIH (frugek@augsburg.edu), or John Hulden with MAS (j.hulden@mpls-synod.org)
By most measures, it was a typical Wednesday morning commute. Coffee in the cupholder, slow traffic, radio tuned to NPR, brain wandering and wondering if it is ready for the day. But this day was not a normal day. Local government officials were beginning to encourage us to practice social distancing, diligent hand-washing, and no face-touching. It was the third Wednesday of Lent and I was rehearsing my sermon for that evening in my head. My colleague and I had been invited to preach a 5-week Lenten sermon series on the Public Church at a local church. I was in the middle of a thought – reminding myself NOT to crack any inappropriate jokes about the pandemic during the sermon – when I noticed a crowd gathered on the overpass.
The Saint Paul Federation of Educators (St. Paul Public School’s teachers’ union) had just begun their strike and they were demonstrating on every overpass that crossed Interstate 35E and Interstate 94 in Saint Paul. I honked to show my support as I drove under the bridge. Then it hit me. These teachers are beginning their necessary strike which will require public demonstrations.
How will they do this while honoring the call to social distancing? We will be preaching tonight, encouraging a congregation to move into their neighborhood as a public church. How will they do this while honoring the call to social distancing? It has been two months since that not-at-all-normal morning commute, and I think I have some things to say about how we live as a Public Church in a pandemic.
Kristina Frugé has worked in community and congregational contexts for over 20 years. She spent 12 years as a ministry leader in St. Louis Park, MN working as a CYF Ministry Director and Faith Community Partnership Organizer. For the past 6 years, she has worked with learning communities of local congregations as the Program Manager of the Riverside Innovation Hub at Augsburg University. She also supports other ministry related initiatives at Augsburg in her other role as Managing Director of the Christensen Center for Vocation. She has served as a trainer with Church Innovations supporting the missional imagination of congregations.
In all of these roles Kristina is a relationship-centered leader, utilizing skills of theological imagination, congregational and community facilitation, creative problem solving, and deep listening for the collective wisdom present in community. She has her MA from Luther Seminary in Congregational Mission and Leadership and graduated from Concordia College, Moorhead with a double major in Religion and Social Work. Her early introduction to ministry goes all the way back to being a high school confirmation guide at her home church in East Bethel, MN and four memorable summers working at Wapogasset Lutheran Bible Camp!
She believes deeply in the transformative power of the Holy Spirit that thrives when we invest in meaningful, mutual relationships. She is certain God gets really excited when these relationships get organized as a community with a shared-heart for the mutual flourishing of the neighborhood because when this happens, anything is possible. Her oldest of three kids, coined her vocational calling when he was a 5-year old telling her, “Mom, you work for love.” This orientation has continued to shape all she commits her time, energy and imagination to.
Working for love continues to be central in Kristina’s other vocational callings with her family, friends and neighbors. She and her husband Nick have three kids, ages 16, 12, and 8 and a crazy but cuddly Vizsla named Smidge, who they love to go on adventures with – big and small, indoors and out, local and far away (when they can!) They treasure their many relationships in their Longfellow community of South Minneapolis where they have lived for over 20 years. They make a good effort to spend time with friends and neighbors walking, eating good food, playing and experiencing the connection they share to their place.
Jeremy has been a member of the Religion department at Augsburg University since 2006 with specific responsibilities for facilitating the University’s Theology and Public Leadership degree program, the Youth Studies minor, and the Augsburg Youth Theology Institute. He is a rostered Deacon in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). You can learn more about his views on ministry with youth and young adults at his blog, or by reading his book Liberating Youth from Adolescence.
Jeremy has served in the field of ministry with youth and young adults professionally since 1997. He loves working with those in this chapter of life and equally loves helping faith communities become more engaged in their lives.
He believes young people today are not longing for anything different than previous generations. But the culture in which they experience these longings has grown increasingly complex and the gap between our young adults and congregations is greater than it has ever been. This gap has appeared as congregations have failed to move into this complex culture with their young people. Jeremy is certain congregations can learn and implement practices that move them into this complex public square where their young adults are seeking to navigate life and faith.
Joseph Kempf, Class of 2016
“(And Jesus Said) You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.” Matthew 5:13
You are…a people of faith. You are…a city on a hill. You are…the Salt of the Earth. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls his followers salt, of all things! Don’t get me wrong, salt is delicious and needed. But we could be something great! We could be legends, we could be a mountain, instead Jesus charges us with salt. While there are numerous interpretations of what exactly is meant by being the Salt of the Earth, I personally hold this verse in the Gospel of Matthew to indicate how followers of Jesus should engage in the world. I am going to do this with a little bit of Chemistry.
I wanted to be scholarly and a little rebellious so I researched what Salt of the Earth even means. According to the Wikipedia page devoted to Matthew 5:13, it reads “Salt itself, Sodium Chloride, is extremely stable and cannot lose its flavor…(then some author notes) Jesus is ‘not giving a chemistry lesson’” I’m almost a little offended. Who are they to decide when chemistry stops. If there is one thing I learned at Augsburg…chemistry never stops. Since Jesus clearly was not teaching chemistry, I think I will step up to the plate so to speak.
Continue reading “Interfaith Student Reflection by Joseph Kempf ’16”
On April 23, several of the upcoming (2015-2016) Interfaith Scholars met with the current (2014-2015) Scholars. The current scholars shared highlights and advice for next year’s cohort. The Interfaith Scholars Program is co-led by Professor Matt Maruggi and Pastor Sonja Hagander.
All are welcome for the final project of this year’s scholars:
Interfaith Community Sending for Graduates.
Thursday, April 30
6:30pm, Hoversten Chapel, Foss Center
Graduating students of all religious and non-religious identities are invited to an interfaith service celebrating your educational journey. This 45-minute service will be a special time of reflection and blessing.
“Devoutly Would He Teach: The Legacy of Bernhard M. Christensen,” Gracia Grindal, ’65, professor of rhetoric at Luther Seminary, Bernhard M. Christensen Symposium keynote address on Oct. 2, 2010
Reflections on the 5 Lessons of Bernhard M. Christensen from the spring 2010 issue of Till & Keep journal.
Martha E. Stortz, the Bernhard M. Christensen Professor in Religion and Vocation, has a blog with her colleagues about pilgrimage.
Continue reading “Resources on Vocation: Blogs, Chapel Talks, and More! 2010-2014”
This year’s ACYTI was an intense week of friendship, classroom learning, worship, solitude, contemplation, discernment, and action on Augsburg’s urban campus for high school students from around the country interested in theology.
Students participated in hands on learning with classroom discussion both at Augsburg and sites throughout the Twin Cities. At the end of their week-long journey they reflected on what they took away from the week and wrote an essay.
This year’s theme was OMC! Christian Community in the Internet Age and focused on the impact of technology on the Christian Community. Take some time and read what current high school students are learning from Augsburg’s intellectual and diverse community experience!