Vocation Narrative-Lindsay Wieland Capel

Spring Callings

Spring at Calvin College means the emergence of Frisbee golfers on the lawn, tulips in bloom, and leadership applications. Student leadership opportunities at Calvin College are numerous, from those in student life and co-curricular organizations to ones stressing faith formation. Each spring many students decide which program or opportunity may best fit into their schedule or connect with their passions. Among those contemplating student leadership was Lindsay Wieland Capel. For 2005 alumnae, Lindsay Wieland Capel, the decision to apply for a student leadership position was not easy.

Lindsay was familiar with student leadership at Calvin when she entered in 2001. Her older sister had served as a Resident Assistant (RA). Spring approached during her second year, and Lindsay struggled to discern how to spend her time. “I always thought I would apply to be an RA at Calvin, but as I prayed about it I didn’t have a sense of peace. Then I thought instead of being an RA I would go to Ghana for a semester, but it became clear that God wasn’t calling me to that either.” During this time of decision, Lindsay’s Residence Hall Director encouraged her to apply for a new program called the Barnabas Team. Lindsay applied and was accepted as a member of the first Barnabas Team.

The Barnabas Team is a Lilly Vocation initiative devoted to the spiritual formation and nurture of students living on campus. Two Barnabas Team members are assigned to each residence hall and several to the Knollcrest East apartments. These students are responsible for empowering and training students to identify and creatively use their talents in the community, mentoring individuals, and coordinating events in Calvin’s on-campus housing.

Lindsay participated in the first Barnabas Team for the 2003 to 2004 academic year. She was placed in Knollcrest East along with two other female Barnabas Team members; Emily VanderSchel Rice and Nicole Nieboer. As with most leadership positions, the team took some time prior to the fall semester for training and team building. Among the activities, Lindsay appreciated the personality inventory. Lindsay recounts, “Learning the different personality colors via a personality inventory was the most helpful aspect of the year. I learned more about myself and how to understand people who are different from me. It gave our team a language to talk about our similarities and differences and instead of seeing those differences as bad or frustrating, we began to be thankful for the different aspects that people contributed to the team.” While this was helpful for team dynamics, the impact on Lindsay has remained, “My husband and I were both on the Barnabas team and we still talk about the color wheel all the time, it is a helpful tool that we use to talk about our relationship with each other and to understand other people in our lives.” Armed with knowledge about themselves, the Barnabas team began the work of serving.

Taking time to understand community was the primary focus of the Barnabas Team. As a social work major, Lindsay found her Barnabas Team work intersecting with her studies. Lindsay recounts, “Our focus was to get to know people, make connections, and start with what people needed and had to offer, utilizing the community’s gifts. This approach fits well with the values and themes of social work.” Lindsay honed a lot of her social work skills like leadership, administration, and community organizing. As the year progressed she also learned some important lessons, “I learned that leadership was not about coming in and doing everything. A good leader brings out the best in others.” Working behind the scenes Lindsay and the Barnabas Team enabled students to start Bible Studies, a prayer group, lead worship, and contribute to the Knollcrest East community behind the scenes through art, creating a Knollcrest East Cookbook, or praying for others. Lindsay and other KE students also worked together to start a partnership program between apartment and residence hall students called Dormament.

Working on the Barnabas Team, Lindsay also discovered new gifts. “Within the context of other team members, I discovered I have a lot of administrative and creative visionary gifts. The team pointed out I was an organizer, planner, and enjoyed creating and starting new programs.” This process of self discovery and confirmation of gifts played a role in Lindsay’s journey after graduation from Calvin in 2005. Lindsay worked for two years as a case manager at Thresholds in Grand Rapids. But she wanted go back to graduate school so that she could develop the visionary gifts that she discovered on the Barnabas Team. Now a graduate student in the Master’s of Social Work program at Loyola University, Lindsay is focusing her studies on leadership and development, partly as a result of her Barnabas Team experience. “I discovered that year that I enjoy thinking outside of the box and imagining what could be. I’m excited about being a voice in changing organizations and coming up with innovative ways to solve problems in human services.” Lindsay has an opportunity to create and vision via grant writing and event planning in her current internship at the Chicago Center for Jewish Genetic Disorders.

Lindsay’s experience on the Barnabas Team has impacted her personal life as well. She recounts, “What I’ll carry with me throughout my life from that year is an experience of what the Church could look like. My year on the Barnabas team gave me the experience of close Christian community and what it looks like to support each other and to keep each other accountable.” Lindsay has taken this understanding to her current church community, LaSalle Street Church in Chicago, IL. “LaSalle is a church that is able to talk about issues in a fresh way, appreciating that we are brothers and sisters though we have diverse perspectives on some aspects of theology.” Lindsay and her husband Tyson have found community at LaSalle. This body has nurtured them as they prepare for the next step in their journey.

Spring is around the corner again for Lindsay. She will graduate in May 2008 with her Master’s of Social Work. Once again, Lindsay finds herself discerning where to apply for jobs, praying about where God will lead next. She is excited, taking her knowledge from the past and weaving it in with possibilities for the future.