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The CCV Blog

Youth are Rising in Faith and Leadership Today

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AYTI participants, Zoe (left) and Dinkenesh (right)
AYTI participants, Zoe (left) and Dinkenesh (right)

For years, I had wanted to nominate youth to attend the Augsburg Youth Theology Institute, but had not yet been able to have one attend. Then, finally, my own daughter was midway through high school and we were in the midst of Covid. She applied for several opportunities in the summer of 2020 when she was looking toward her junior year of high school, and AYTI was the only program that found a way to offer their summer program online. She was not certain that she was prepared for a week of theological engagement or a week that resulted in writing a paper, but she was willing to give it a try. We promised to support her.

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Join us for the Bernhard M. Christensen Symposium

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Augsburg University’s Christensen Symposium will feature the esteemed Dr. Brian Bantum next week, Oct. 5 from 11:00am-12:00pm. Please join us either in the Hoversten Chapel at Augsburg or via livestream (register to attend online through this link.) His talk is titled, “All Things Are New: The Language of Our Life in the Face of Empire.”
Brian Bantum, PhD, writes, speaks, and teaches on identity, racial imagination, creating spaces of justice, and the intersection of theology and embodiment for audiences around the United States. He is a  contributing editor of The Christian Century and is the author of “Redeeming Mulatto: A Theology of Race and Christian Hybridity,” “The Death of Race: Building a New Christianity in a Racial  World,”  and  “Choosing Us: Marriage and Mutual Flourishing in a World of Difference,” which he co-authored with his spouse, Gail Song Bantum.

Reflections on the Word “Yes”

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Today’s blog post has been commissioned by the Riverside Innovation Hub to bring in the stories and views from our partner congregations forward. We continue with a piece by Ryana Holt, a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.

Artist, Angela Two Stars is speaking in a microphone, spaced between 4 volunteers.

I have been reflecting on the word “yes.” This word or similar affirmative phrase mark the cusp to new beginnings. Like Samuel’s “here I am”. How do young people become leaders? Some create opportunities for themselves. Others find themselves saying “yes”, “here I am,” and the journey thereafter unveils and develops their leadership.

“Yes” was the beginning to my involvement at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (HTLC) when I only knew only about five people’s names and it was likely that less than five people knew mine. After a service, one of my pastors must have recognized I wasn’t just a 20-something passing through and asked if I would join other young adults in the Riverside Innovation Hub grant team. 

Yes, of course. I was there to root in community. Take my email, I am ready to participate. 

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Church Without Walls

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Today’s blog post has been commissioned by the Riverside Innovation Hub to bring in the stories and views from our partner congregations forward. We first start off with a piece by Kaylie Johnson, a member of the Trinity Lutheran congregation.

I didn’t fully understand what it meant to have a “church without walls” until I started to attend Trinity Lutheran Congregation. Part of this phrase “church without walls” is literal; we worship on Augsburg’s campus, and the offices are down the street on Riverside Avenue. The part that kept me intrigued and engaged in Trinity is the figurative meaning of a “church without walls”: A church that works outside of the church walls and seeks to be a helping and hopeful presence in the community, not only there for its congregants, but there for those who are not at Trinity on Sunday mornings. Trinity saw needs in the neighborhood, and encouraged its members to find ways to engage with the community. The Riverside Innovation Hub gave me a chance to take a leadership role in helping Trinity continue to explore what it means to be a church without walls. 

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Starting the Year Together

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Eight Augsburg University students, both AYTI mentors and participants, gather together for chapel in September 2021.
Eight Augsburg University students, both AYTI mentors and participants, gather together for chapel in September 2021.

The Augsburg University community is in its first few weeks of in-person classes after a year and a half of being apart from one another due to the Covid-19 global pandemic. The last two summers the participants, mentors, and staff of the Augsburg Youth Theology Institute (AYTI) have gathered for our annual event virtually. This means that some people had not been able to meet each other in-person. This week however, we got to meet one another in person, some for the first time ever, and others for the first time in a long time. AYTI mentors and participants, who are current Auggies, gathered to connect as the semester begins. We ate donuts, told stories, attended chapel together, and celebrated the AYTI community.

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Public Church Practices: Neighborhood Prayer Walk

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The Riverside Innovation Hub is a learning community made local congregations who gather together to learn how to be and become public church in their neighborhood contexts. We convene the congregations and then invite them to practice the artforms of the Public Church Framework in their contexts.

Accompaniment is the first artform of the Public Church Framework. It is the movement out into the neighborhood to hear the neighbors’ stories. In this movement, we learn to engage and listen to the neighbor for the neighbor’s sake. We’ve simplified and categorized accompaniment into four layers, or four different practices to hear the neighbors’ stories. This blog post dives into the second layer of accompaniment, a relational one to one.

The practice of a neighborhood prayer walk is a spinoff of the  Ignatian Awareness Examen, a contemplative prayer exercise that guides you through an examination of your day as you prayerfully seek moments of desolation and moments of consolation.

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Reflections on Antidotes to White Supremacy Culture

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This reflection has been written by Amanda Vetsch who works as the Congregational Coordinator and Facilitator of the Riverside Innovation Hub and has recently completed her Master’s theses which focused on dismantling white supremacy, the church, and Lutheran theology [1,2]. 

Many of the staff in the Christensen Center for Vocation have used the list of White Supremacy Culture Characteristics by Tema Okun to examine, name and begin to dismantle the ways in which white supremacy shows up in the work we do as a Center [3]. See this previous blog or website to learn more about White Supremacy Culture Characteristics.

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Launching a New Riverside Innovation Hub Learning Community!

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Event Recap

On Friday, July 30th and Saturday, July 31st, the Riverside Innovation Hub gathered online with 75 participants from 12 local congregations to mark the launch of new learning community. We spent our time together learning more about who is in the learning community, how our learning will take shape, and what’s next.
Enjoy a few highlights from our event.

Introductions to Congregationsmap of Minneapolis with pins of congregations

One person from each congregation was invited to introduce their congregation and why they’re participating now. Some shared that they hope this learning community can provide  guidance as they reimagine what church might look like after the pandemic has disrupted the ways in which the church had often remained inside the four walls of a building, or for others in time of deep transition. Some congregations hope that this learning community helps hold them accountable to the neighbor-oriented work they have wanted to do, but have not always been able to make a priority. Others hope for a process to learn how to be good neighbors in their neighborhoods. See this blog post for a list of partner congregations.

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Celebrating Young Theologians

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The Augsburg Youth Theology Institute (AYTI) is one of the many initiatives of the Christensen Center for Vocation. AYTI inspires emerging high school theologians to observe, interpret, and engage their world through Christ for the sake of their neighbor. Our participants learn how to reflect theologically on culture and find meaningful ways to respond to the call from God that happens in this process of reflection. Following their week at the institute, students write a theological paper on the theme that is compiled into a journal and shared with congregations and the wider community.

At the end of June we wrapped up the 2021 institute, and it was incredible! So many amazing young people were excited about our theme, And It Was Very Good: Affirming and Advocating for Gender and Sexual Diversity in God’s Creation. We welcomed instructor Deacon Ross Murray to guide us through a week of curriculum that focused on faithful advocacy that allows LGBTQ people to be full members of society, reading the bible through a queer lens, assessing our congregations using the Reconciling Works Building an Inclusive Church tools, and telling compelling personal stories rooted in theology. Our young people engaged in deep discussion, thoughtful reflection, and learned what it means to be a young theologian.

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Meet our RIH Congregational Facilitators

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The Riverside Innovation Hub is excited to introduce our Congregational Facilitators who will be working directly with our 12 new partner congregations over the next two years. You can read more about each of them below.

Geoffrey Gill

Image of a smiling black man, black hair, white shirt in foreground. Green shrubs and red building in backgroundGeoffrey Gill began his ministry to youth as a youth leader for Faith Tabernacle Church, in Minneapolis. From there, he has worked with youth within the community in a variety of capacities, including working with the Youth Advisory Council for National Youth Leadership, and starting “Helping Young Men” a  nonprofit mentorship group at Central High School in St. Paul.

Geoffrey is a graduate of Augsburg University in Minneapolis, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in youth and Family Ministry. He is a certified Master Life Coach from the Best Life Coaching Society, in Fargo, ND.

Along with private coaching clients, a consulting partnership, healing and restorative justice circles, Geoffrey also works with teenage boys, who are in recovery for substance abuse.

Geoffrey is a man of God, a mentor, coach, educator and father of a wonderful son, whom he considers his number one investment, and the fire of his legacy.

Jennifer Starr Dodd

headshot of Jennifer with a building in the backgroundFor over twenty years, Jennifer Starr Dodd has been committed to building community vitality by connecting with and empowering others to be the change that they would like to see around them. Through relationship, Jennifer has been successful in this goal by turning ideas into attainable goals for the populations she is serving.

Having worked with at-risk children, youth, and young adults for 15 years, Jennifer masterfully intersects education, experience, and environment   to promote awareness, understanding, and opportunity.

Jennifer shared her expertise in curriculum development and implementation when she served as a Teacher’s Assistant at Saint Paul Public Schools, and when she facilitated a wide range of academic and enrichment classes for school districts located in Apple Valley, Rosemount, Eagan, Farmington, Lakeville, Hastings, and Washington County for REACH With Me, an educational company that merged education with enrichment to help students develop a passion for learning.

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