Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church serves university students, young adults, young professionals, and entrepreneurial thinkers. Its congregational calling is to cultivate a culture where individuals discern, affirm, and answer their callings.

Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church serves many university students, young adults, young professionals, and entrepreneurial thinkers. Through the years, these individuals viewed their experiences at Harvard-Epworth as an important formational time of discernment, as they reflected on purpose and calling. The church hears often from “alumni” who have moved away from the area who share how they have been blessed by their time at Harvard-Epworth and how it was an impactful step in their journey.

The church has developed a culture that nurtures this reflection of purpose and calling, but it is not fully or systematically intentional. Our calling as a church is to take intentional steps to systematize our process, transform Harvard-Epworth’s established culture of call into a deeper mission to discern, affirm, and answer calls, and build a ministry model that can sustain this mission for years to come.

Specifically, our church’s calling is to cultivate a culture of call at Harvard-Epworth that treats each individual as a person called to a particular vocation. We have people of all ages and professions who are considering God’s call in their life. Our students and young adults are considering all possibilities for their life and how best to use their unique life experiences to live out their call and values. Those in the middle of their life are trying to balance their many responsibilities with their call. Our elder cohorts are considering how they might spend the later part of their life in service to their faith, values, and community.

We believe Harvard-Epworth is particularly well-suited for this culture of call. Our church is blessed with both rooted members, individuals and families who attend for the better part of a lifetime, and transient members, both students and young adults participating for 0-5 years. This means that there is both a groundedness to our faith community and a constant flow. We have the opportunity to participate in the shaping of many vocations and calls over the years.

We envision a church that accelerates individuals into lives of calling. We want to equip individuals within our congregation with the ability to discern their call, as well as the skills to help others to discern theirs. We will develop programming to help individuals think about call in various contexts, build a mentoring network to help people navigate their call, and cultivate an overall shift in the culture of call at Harvard-Epworth.

Accompanying Through Discernment: A Reflection from Harvard-Epworth Member Kim Yeasir