Steward YOUR Vocation
Rejoicing the City
Kaylie Sauter: Advancing Healing Through Art
By Kelly Givens Art has always been a gift and passion of Kaylie Sauter’s—as a child she grew up exploring all sorts of art mediums, eventually studying art at Houghton College, broadening her understanding through her classes and a study abroad trip to Tanzania. It has only been a few years since Kaylie graduated, but already God is using her artistic gifts to help advance His Kingdom values of beauty, hope and healing. In June 2010, Kaylie attended a seminar at the BuildaBridge Art Institute in Philadelphia. BuildaBridge is a non-profit arts education and intervention organization which engages in the …
Max Anderson and the “MBA Oath”: Bringing Integrity to Business Management
By Kelly Givens and Amy L. Sherman All too often the evening news spotlights someone found guilty of some kind of unethical business practice. Remember MF Global’s former CEO Jon Corzine testifying before Congress that he simply “doesn’t know” what happened to the estimated $1.2 billion dollars of customer funds that went missing? Given stories like these, it’s not that surprising that public opinion polls often give business leaders low marks for trustworthiness. But plenty of business people are not motivated by greed. Indeed, as Harvard University professor Michael Porter has been arguing, a growing number of companies are seeking …
Jim Reiner: Belay Enterprises
By Kelly Givens and Amy L. Sherman Jim Reiner jokes that he is a “serial entrepreneur,” and has been so “pretty much my whole life.” However, like many Christians, Jim struggled to discern how his passion for business connected to his faith. Upon deciding to follow Christ, he assumed his vocational path would need to change. “I thought that [ministry] meant that you needed to sell your business, go to seminary, and become a traditional pastor,” Jim says. He started down that path, attending Denver Seminary. Three years in, however, an opportunity opened up that Jim soon realized was God’s …
Cliff Nellis: Combining Law and Urban Youth Ministry
Cliff Nellis: Combining Law and Urban Youth Ministry by Amy Sherman and Kelly Givens Cliff Nellis, a graduate of the University of Chicago’s School of Law, became a Christian near the end of his clerkship for a federal judge in Colorado. He took some time off to bike cross-country, studying the bible with all the delight of the brand-new believer. During the trip, Nellis reports, “I started feeling called to ministry. I started thinking about whether I’d stay in the law or not.” Looking back, he sees that as a young believer, he “had this very narrow view: ministry is …
Richard Alley: A Geoscientist Promotes Creation Care
by Kelly Givens Not many children dream of being a glaciologist when they grow up, studying and interpreting ice cores and dissecting the science behind climate changes. And yet, Richard Alley, professor of geosciences at Penn State University, has clearly found his calling doing just that. Alley’s personality—sanguine, comical, musical—contrasts sharply with his vocational field—studying the often disheartening effects of human waste and excess on our planet. Heavily quoted and renown as one of the “foremost glaciologists of all time,” Alley has contributed his knowledge and research in geology, hydrology, ice physics, paleoenvironmental sciences and climate change—particularly the role of …
Anne Hughes and Jenny Oliver: Realtors Going the Extra Mile
Anne Hughes and Jenny Oliver: Realtors Going the Extra Mile By Kelly N. Givens December 7, 2011 As anyone who has tried to buy or sell a house in the past half a decade knows, the housing market is currently in a state of crisis. In the aftermath of the burst housing bubble, we’ve seen investment banks going broke, the government bailing out companies, and the U.S. economy in recession. Foreclosures have steadily risen since 2006, draining wealth from consumers and eroding the financial strength of banking institutions. Home prices have tumbled, and it’s unclear if they’ve hit their lowest …
Gloria Nelund: Mobilizing Middle-Class Investors to Build the Middle Class Abroad
As one of the most successful and visible executives of an international financial institution, and now the leader of an impact investment firm managing over $85 million dollars worldwide, Gloria Nelund had a very a-typical entrance into the banking world. As an undergrad, Gloria studied elementary education at the University of Dayton. Then a friend helped her to get a job at a local bank. She liked the job so much that she soon dropped out of college. Her work ethic and easily recognizable talents soon led to promotion after promotion within the financial industry. Eventually, while employed as a …
Carole Newell: A Cop Promotes the Kingdom Foretaste of Security
Major Carole Newell, a division commander at the Broken Arrow Police Department just outside of Tulsa, Okla., is inspired by the prophet Zecharaiah’s vision of public safety in Zechariah 8. The prophet Zechariah describes the New Jerusalem as a place where men and women of ripe old age will sit safely in streets filled with boys and girls playing (8:4-5). Zechariah’s vison suggests peace and security, two things that were decidedly absent from the Jerusalem of his day, which was defined instead by slavery, starvation, and sin. God used his prophet to paint a picture of what God desires for …
Nikki Heckmann: A Chef Does Her Part in the Recipe of Neighborhood Revitalization
by Sally Carlson and Amy Sherman Nikki Heckmann’s story highlights both the ability of individuals to use their passions to pursue the common good, as well as the ability of the Church to play an active and crucial role as a catalyst in the process. When Nikki Heckmann became a Christian at the age of 30, she had an impressive vocational track record: she had become a successful chef and had opened 57 restaurants. Upon joining Allegheny Center Alliance Church in Pittsburgh, she served in several different capacities, such as working as a youth volunteer. It was not until a …
Don Schoendorfer: An Engineer Brings Mobility to Thousands
Don Schoendorfer has been part of Mariners Church in Irvine, CA for many years. Compelled by the congregation’s strong emphasis on service, Don, an engineer, volunteered as a tutor at the church’s “Lighthouse Center,” an after school program in a low-income Hispanic neighborhood. He participated faithfully for over three years, but wondered if there wasn’t a better use for his talents. “These kids didn’t need help with differential equations and higher math,” Don explains. “They were struggling with their multiplication tables.” He felt he could invest his 25+ years’ experience as an engineer in something more strategic. During this “searching” phase, he …
Dan Blevins: A Paper Chemist Discovers the “WOW” Factor in Vocational Stewardship
Paper chemist Dan Blevins doesn’t really see himself as an extraordinary guy. He grew up in a small town in Michigan, went off to college, and got a job after graduation. He found a wife, started a family. They joined a church. At Mt. Pisgah Methodist in Atlanta, Dan sang in the choir and volunteered with the recreational ministry as a soccer referee. In April 2003, Dan turned 50. He’d worked for Dow Chemical Company for nearly a quarter century. He heard about a missions conference coming to downtown Atlanta in June and decided to attend. Given his recent milestone …
Lydia Penner: A Surveyor Donates Her Skills to an African Orphanage
Lydia Penner: A Surveyor Donates Her Skills to an African Orphanage. by Kelly Givens Lydia Penner is a 26-year-old Canadian whose volunteer work with Engineering Ministries International (EMI) is a perfect example of how we can donate our vocational skills in ministry. Penner received her technical certificate in geomatic surveying from a technical college in Canada, and is currently working on an advanced degree in the same field at the University of News Brunswick. She also works for the company Ollerhead and Assoc. Ltd, doing digital sketches for predevelopment projects, as well as various survey projects like elevation plans for …
Mayor Don De Graff: Promoting Unity
In the multi-racial village of South Holland, IL, Mayor Don De Graff has made the promotion of unity a major theme throughout his many years on the job. Fifty years ago, South Holland was a mostly white, historically Dutch community. In 1990, the population was 86 percent white.¹ Today, Mayor De Graff reports, “We have probably around 72 percent African-Americans here, around 23-24 percent Caucasians, about 3-4 percent Hispanics, and maybe 1-2 percent Asians.”² To break down the barriers among these diverse groups, Mayor De Graff has promoted CommUNITY dinners. As his website explains, “The main goal of CommUNITY Dinners …
John Shegerian: CEO Recycles Waste and Lives
John Shegerian: Recycling Lives as Well as Waste By Kelly Givens www.vocationalstewardship.org, 2011 John Shegerian, Chairman and CEO of Electronic Recyclers, Inc., (ERI) has overcome many odds to become the entrepreneur and businessman he is today. As a child, John remembers “[w]e were the first family in our neighborhood to be on welfare, the first family to have a divorce. I was also the first kid in the neighborhood to get a job,” Shegerian recounted on The Big Idea, a CNBC talk show hosted by Donny Deutsch. “Everyone kept telling me I would never make it. All I kept telling …
Vocational Stewardship In Action
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Cliff Nellis: Comb...
Cliff Nellis: Combining Law and Urban Youth Ministry by Amy Sherman and Kelly Givens Cliff Nellis, a graduate of the University of Chicago’s School of Law, became a Christian near the end of his clerkship for a federal judge in Colorado. He took some time off to bike cross-country, studying the bible with all the delight of the brand-new believer. During the trip, Nellis reports, “I started feeling called to ministry. I started thinking about whether I’d stay in the law or not.” Looking back, he sees that as a young believer, he “had this very narrow view: ministry is …
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Anne Hughes and Je...
Anne Hughes and Jenny Oliver: Realtors Going the Extra Mile By Kelly N. Givens December 7, 2011 As anyone who has tried to buy or sell a house in the past half a decade knows, the housing market is currently in a state of crisis. In the aftermath of the burst housing bubble, we’ve seen investment banks going broke, the government bailing out companies, and the U.S. economy in recession. Foreclosures have steadily risen since 2006, draining wealth from consumers and eroding the financial strength of banking institutions. Home prices have tumbled, and it’s unclear if they’ve hit their lowest …
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