2211 Riverside Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55454
612-330-1000


Contact Information

Memorial Hall, Room 231

Exploring Our Gifts
Campus Box 114
Augsburg College
2211 Riverside Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55454

View of Chapel at sunrise with clouds

Lilly Grant: Exploring Our Gifts

What We Do

The word vocation is derived from the Latin verb vocare, which means “to call.” Exploring Our Gifts, with a deep debt to the Lutheran tradition, understands vocation in a dual sense. First, people are called by God to particular roles and responsibilities in daily life. These include being a student, professor, friend, parent and family member. Second, within these callings people are called to the love and service of God’s creation. Thus faith in God and love toward the neighbor may be distinguished but never separated. By insisting on the importance of vocation Augsburg is seeking to reconnect faith with daily life.

--Mark Tranvik, Director of Exploring Our Gifts/Associate Professor of Religion

Lilly Grant: Exploring Our Gifts

"Exploring Our Gifts" offers opportunities for all Augsburg students, alumni/ae, faculty, and staff to discover their own calling and to assist others in their vocational exploration. All activities sponsored by Exploring Our Gifts fall under one of four themes:

I. Vocation as Life Approach: Orienting the College Journey.
The purpose of attending college is more than simply to take classes, fulfill requirements, and get a degree. Rather, college is a place to begin to orient your life in a way that is faithful to your beliefs and meaningful to you and the world in which you live. Explore your calling!

II. Vocation as a Curricular Focus: Refocusing the Academic Enterprise.
Your vocation isn’t just your job: it’s the work that God has called you to do, that gives purpose and meaning to your life, and that makes waking up every day a joy, whether you are a janitor, an artist, a doctor, a businessperson, or a pastor. Your vocation allows you to share your passion with the world. But how do you find your calling? How do you know when you’ve found it? And how do you live it? Learn about some ways to find answers to these questions.

III. Vocation as Education for Service: Connecting to the External Community.
We are all called to serve God’s people: how are you called to serve? Discover ways to share your gifts with the community.

IV. Developing Vocational Awareness in Faculty, Staff, and Students.
Finding and answering your call can be a lifelong process. Once you’ve found your call, sharing your discovery with others can be an invaluable gift. The faculty and staff at Augsburg College are encouraged to reconnect faith and vocation in their lives and to foster the vocational exploration of those who work with them.


Frequently Requested Info

  • Lilly Journal: "Till & Keep"
  • Sustainability Grant Proposal (pdf)
  • Programs for Students
  • Programs for Faculty-Staff
  • Programs for Alumni
  • Music and Vocation
  • Copyright © 2009 Augsburg College. All rights reserved.
    Comments, questions, or feedback can be directed to: webmaster@augsburg.edu