Vocation Narrative-Kristin Horner

Our calling as the Body of Christ

Do you remember moving into your Calvin dorm room your first year? The residence halls and apartments at Calvin College are more than just places to sleep and store stuff. They are vibrant communities integrating faith and academics. For Kristin Horner, the Boer Bennink residence hall was a home where her faith and life became intertwined while at Calvin College.

After the initial first year adjustments, she came to experience 3rd Bennink as a home; a community where she not only worked into the night writing papers, but also stayed up late conversing about life changing topics and issues.

Community shaped Kristin from her earliest days. Growing up, her parents were part of an intentional Christian community in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Community was also integral to her time at Calvin. By her sophomore year she had taken on a leadership position as a Spiritual Activities Coordinator (SAC) for her floor. There was an SAC on each residence hall floor who is responsible for planning and leading Bible Studies and spiritual activities. By the end of her sophomore year, Kristin knew she wanted to build on her experience as an SAC and serve in a residence hall leadership position. She was selected to serve in a new program called the Barnabas Team.

The Barnabas Team is a Lilly Vocation initiative. Affectionately called “Barnies,” these students live on campus, with two Barnies assigned to each residence hall and apartment. They are trained to listen to the spiritual needs of that community, plan activities, mentor students, and collaborate with other student leaders like Residence Assistants and Worship Apprentices. Barnabas team members are attuned to the spiritual needs that arise in the Calvin community and uniquely serve as peer ministers.

Kristin participated in the first Barnabas Team from the fall of 2003 to the spring of 2004. She approached the year with her past experience in mind. “I tried to improve upon what I had seen not work as an SAC. I focused on relationships, not programming.” Kristin again lived in Boer Bennink and her previous years there gave her knowledge about the community. While serving this dynamic community, Kristin also learned more about her own gifts.

Learning about her gifts was more complex and influential than Kristin thought. Kristin recounts, “That year was an intense year of learning. Because it was the first year we felt like we had to get it hammered out. As a body of Christ we’re all given gifts, and when we use them together Kingdom work gets done.” Barnabas Team mentors Cherith and Robert Nordling spent a significant portion of the team training time helping each team member understand their personality, communication style, and gifts. Kristin found the assessment tools especially helpful in sorting how she could minister and relate to others.

Kristin integrated this growing self-awareness of her gifts with her studies in sociology and social work. Realizing that parish ministry was not her call, Kristin sought to learn “what kind of career would fit with my gifts.” The Barnabas experience was instrumental in helping her identify and explore three specific gifts; discernment, prophecy, and encouragement. Kristin was able to read about these gifts and have some pivotal conversations with team members and leaders about those gifts.

Barnabas Team training helped Kristin discern her next step. Kristin felt tremendous pressure to go on to graduate school, but decided to wait and discern what program would fit her gifts. She concluded she had two options: either stay in Grand Rapids and pursue employment, or to move back to Pittsburgh to a promised job in a laboratory. Kristin decided to move back to Pittsburgh to be close to family and friends. While navigating the transition from Calvin school life to Pittsburgh working life she wondered: how does one create community when you are not living in a residence hall with several hundred other people? Kristin quickly connected with an emerging Presbyterian congregation, The Open Door.

Yet, in spite of finding community at church and home, Kristin struggled at work. While doing Excel spread sheets paid the bills, the work was not meaningful. Kristin kept praying about doing something meaningful. One day Kristin emailed the church secretary at her childhood church, Bellefield Presbyterian Church, to see if there were any opportunities to work with kids. She found herself working as a childcare provider and running an after school program at Bellefield Presbyterian Church. Reflecting on that transition Kristin recounts, “I’m completely overwhelmed at how God put it all together. I have found that in my willingness to let go of a higher salary I have learned a lot about myself. God’s been teaching me that my role is to trust and follow Him and all the other things will fall into place.”

Kristin has a sense of calling to her position as childcare provider and administrative assistant. She finds, “it is an absolute delight to serve mothers of children. It’s a ministry to give moms time for themselves so that they can be whole people. This is a place where I see God doing a lot.” Kristin has also continued to reflect during this season of her life. She’s shifted from “checking off a list of things you’re supposed to do to be an adult.” Instead, she is striving to live a whole life, not one that is compartmentalized. Kristin sees this time as an opportunity to listen for God and follow in new ways. Her work in childcare has helped her figure out she wants to pursue a career in advocacy. Kristin realizes she loves learning and would like to learn more about policy. Her gifts in discernment, prophecy, and encouragement work well with advocating for justice and truth for children in poverty. Kristin plans to apply to University of Pittsburgh’s Master’s of Public and International Affairs program. This program and vocational direction was not on Kristin’s radar two years ago. She credits slowing down and exploring her gifts as pivotal to this new awareness.

Simultaneously Kristen has learned more about what it means to be part of the body of Christ. She has found herself in leadership at her church, The Open Door. “It’s amazing to see people have no idea what their gifts are and how to be the body of Christ.” Kristin said, “I’ve been given the opportunity to teach about gifts and wouldn’t have done this without having served on the Barnabus Team.” Kristin’s experience on the Barnabas Team provided her with a good framework to holistically understand her gifts and place in her particular community. For Kristin, it was in discovering her gifts that she learned where best to contribute to the body of Christ in all areas of life.

The challenges of living in community and taking the road less traveled have pushed Kristin out of her comfort zone and closer to her vocation as a disciple of Christ. Kristin stresses that life is all about using gifts for ministry. “If we’re willing to listen and use our gifts, God really moves. I think we don’t believe that sometimes.”