Written by Gretchen Roeck, Program Director for The Confluence
The Confluence 2024 is in the books!
Here are the stats:
- 15 participants
- 12 churches
- 5 Christian faith traditions
- 5 Augsburg rockstar student mentors (shout out to Sarah Runck, Liana Whitlock, Marcia Francois, Luke Owens and Stephen Nushann)
- 1 Auggie Alum (the *amazing* Grace Porter)
- 6 musicians leading worship from Redeemer Lutheran Church in Minneapolis
- 9 speakers from around the Twin Cities including Joe Davis, Dave Sherer, and Rev. Cyreta Oduniyi-Howard, Pastor of Christian Education, Middle School Specialist, Academic Navigator and Lead Teacher at 21st Century Academy, and Young Survivors Lead at Northside Healing Space, all ministries of Liberty Presbyterian Church – learn about our other facilitators below
- 7 locally owned restaurants – you should visit them too!
- 6 Augsburg Staff (Big thanks to our partners in Campus Ministry, CCV Staff Brenna Zeimet, Augsburg Events and Professor Jeremy Myers)
- 1 wildly talented translator, Yesenia Morales Bahena, for our 4 incredibly smart and brave English Language Learners
The Week
The week was guided by our understanding of vocation as the place where our Biblical story intersects with our world’s story and personal stories.
To develop their understanding of the Biblical story, participants spent time each morning with Professor Jeremy Myers where they explored Manna and Mercy by Daniel Erlander. With Jeremy, participants explored the ongoing arc of our sacred story: God’s invitation into relationship, how that relationship creates and inspires relationships and communities of hope, the breakdown of those relationships and communities, and God’s offer of redemption. Participants applied this arc to their personal story and communal realities. Our goal for participants was for them to ask how they might partner with God and participate in God’s business of mending the universe.
To understand the world’s story, participants learned about different ways to see and understand the world. On Monday, they spent the afternoon with Jim Bear Jacobs, a Native cultural facilitator who works to create understanding and healing between Native American and non-Native people through storytelling. With Jim Bear participants learned about the history of indigenous people in Minnesota and how they can play a key role in promoting and experiencing healing by opening themselves to our own history and listening to the stories of Native people. On Tuesday, participants took a neighborhood tour through the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, where Augsburg is located, with Jenean Gilmer, Augsburg’s Community Engaged Learning Program Manager through the Sabo Center. With Jenean they learned about the rich history of Cedar-Riverside and how world events, cultural dynamics and power structures shape neighborhoods and the people who live in them. On Wednesday participants met with Brenna Zeimet, a Christensen Center for Vocation Congregational Facilitator at the Riverside Innovation Hub to map out the assets and challenges of the communities they come from.
Finally they explored their personal stories by mapping their life histories, charting their gifts, strengths, passions and growing edges, and articulating what they care about by naming what they find beautiful at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
It was a week of personal reflection and growth, critical learning and inspiring conversations. In the midst of it all, meaningful relationships were built between participants from wildly different backgrounds. Our participants included six recent immigrants and three children of immigrants, folks from Minneapolis and St. Paul, small towns in greater Minnesota, the shores of Lake Superior and even California!
Right now participants are working on their final papers, integrating what they learned and articulating how they will partner with God in mending the universe. We’ll be publishing their papers on the Confluence website in September.
Looking further into fall, I will be developing a sustainability plan for The Confluence. Currently the Confluence is grant funded by the Forum for Theological Exploration through the Lilly Endowment. The grant period is ending soon so I will be exploring different funding options and developing programmatic stability. If you, your congregation or organization would like to be a partner in this work, please contact me at: roeck@augsburg.edu