Rob Vischer, president of St. Paul-based University of St. Thomas since Jan. 1, told about 70 young professionals May 2 that he tries to worry less about what his faith means for his professional life and more about whether he is becoming “the person I was created to be.”

“Which, to be clear, has implications for my professional life, but they’re different,” he said. “So, who’s the person I was created to be? Well, I was created for a relationship with God. And what does that mean? It’s going to be seen through our work.”

Conversation about what faith means for the professional life is “super important,” Vischer said, but it’s also important to remember “God cares a lot less about what I do than about who I am. What God wants is relationship. And sometimes, especially if we’re high-achieving, driven Christians, we start mistaking our own, what I call addiction to productivity, for a spiritual life,” he said.

Vischer spoke to people in their 20s and 30s participating in a Center for Evangelization and Discipleship (CEND) event at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. CEND is a Twin Cities nonprofit formed in June 2020. It encourages Catholic young adults to get to know one another and be active in their faith. The group also helps local parishes foster young adult involvement. Its young Catholic professionals’ gatherings focus on educating, mentoring and inspiring young adults to advance their careers and do so from a Catholic frame of reference. Events include meeting the first Tuesday of each month for Mass, fellowship and networking, and remarks from a local Catholic business leader.

Dominican Father Brian John Zuelke, parochial vicar of St. Odilia in Shoreview and a member of the Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great, celebrated Mass May 2 in the Basilica’s lower-level chapel. Hospitality, networking and Vischer’s comments took place in the nearby parish hall.

Referencing a book titled “The Second Mountain,” Vischer said its thesis is that in most lives that are well lived, young adults work hard to climb the first mountain — achievement — by stretching and pushing themselves. “You’re working hard to climb the mountain of achievement, to show that you matter, to show that you belong in whatever field you’re trying to conquer,” Vischer said. “At some point, you realize that that first mountain is not a sustainable source of joy.”

And then the second mountain, which is about connection and contribution, Vischer said, “that’s where you discover the joy.”

Vischer also emphasized community in his opening remarks, saying that the CEND group’s “most impactful legacy is not something you hear from the podium,” but “the relationships you form at the table.”

“So, lean into those,” he said. “That’s really important in the faith journey” and in professional life.

Vischer said his own journey has taught him cultivating joy as a leadership virtue can involve three traits. First, empathy as a leader, on the job and with friends and family.

Second, confidence, but not confidence premised on never failing or making a mistake, but confidence that comes through an accurate understanding of who we were created to be, Vischer said. “On my good days, I’m able to root my confidence in my relationship with God, my relationship with neighbor,” he said.

Third, self-awareness. Many people view leadership as “I’m going to be a leader; I need to be this person,” Vischer said. “I’ve got to figure out how to be different than I actually am …. as opposed to understanding yourself enough to know how leadership emerges from who you were created to be and what your life experience has shaped you to be.”

Many Christians under-use self-awareness as a tool because they think they can “just focus on God,” Vischer said. “Do focus on God, but God also reveals himself through the life journey.”

A Catholic today, Vischer said he was raised in the Evangelical Christian Church. During his remarks, he described how, at age 8, his journey included the day his father left their family’s home. The same day, a Sunday, Vischer’s mother called to inform their church’s pastor who, later that evening at a service, announced it from the pulpit and asked attendees to pray for his family. “About half the congregation got up in the middle of the service and drove over to our house just to be there,” Vischer said.

No crisis intervention team was there, he said. Instead, “these were just regular people in a small church in a small town in Iowa who said, ‘Oh, we’re people of faith. We need to be where the pain is.’”

Vischer recalled it as a terrible memory, but also one that gave him a memory “of what it looks like to be the hands and feet and voice and tears of Jesus,” he said. And “if you want to know who you are as a leader and you’re not trying to fake it and you’re not trying to be somebody else, you better know where your pain is because it’s going to come out,” Vischer said. “It’s going to come out in healthy ways or it’s going to come out in unhealthy ways.”

It’s important to know ourselves, our history, sources of joy and of pain, and what will energize us, Vischer said. “If we really believe that God created us with a unique set of gifts and a purpose and things that energize us, and things that don’t, we have to be able to depend on self-awareness as a guide to what our leadership will look like,” he said.

An individual’s journey, the good and the pain, shapes how people “are as a leader,” he said. “The confidence, the empathy, the self-awareness … will facilitate the contribution and the connection, and that’s the path.”

During a question-and-answer session following his remarks, Vischer was asked about his vision for the Catholic culture at St. Thomas. He said his answer had to be shaped in part by the fact that 40% of St. Thomas students are Catholic. “So, it means connecting with people where they’re at and stretching and growing them,” he said. “… it’s what Pope Francis calls us all to do, is to build a culture of encounter where every person has an experience of being seen, known and valued in their daily interaction.”

Vischer said, “we want to make sure we have eyes that notice, ears that listen, voices that encourage.”

“That itself, in a higher-end world that is becoming more and more transactional, is a radically transformative culture,” he said.

Vischer added that “we want to be a culture that supports the flourishing of students, whatever faith tradition they have,” mentioning for example, hosting iftar dinners during Ramadan for “a growing number of Muslim students.”

“I think that’s really important because we want to walk alongside students, whatever their faith tradition is, to support them,” he said. “We also want to be presenting pervasive, accessible opportunities to connect with the Catholic faith through campus ministry, through peer ministries, through lots of different things.

“Of course, we want a critical mass and a strong population of Catholic students,” Vischer said. “But the Catholic identity also has to mean something to the students who want to partner. So, it’s an ongoing conversation.

At another point, Vischer said he doesn’t characterize it in any way compared to what it has been or will be, but rather that “the Catholic identity is distinctive of St. Thomas,” and this has never mattered more than it does today.

“What young people need today is formation in body, mind and spirit,” Vischer said. “Not just a transaction to give them job skills. Job skills are important, but the aspiration has to be greater than that.”

The university wants to build “a culture of encounter based on what Pope Francis has asked us to do — where every student, without exception, is seen, known and valued, Vischer said. “We want the formation to occur in the context of relationships. That means relationships with their classmates, faculty and staff,” he said. “It’s got to be a relationship-centered endeavor. The faith development, the education as a whole.”

“Our Catholic identity is a key (distinction) for us that is very important given our mission as a Catholic university,” Vischer said. “It’s also very important for our business model because it allows us to distinguish ourselves in a very crowded marketplace.”

CEND COMMUNITY

Bri Pernsteiner, 28, a parishioner of Our Lady of Grace in Edina, said participating in CEND is fun because in professional careers, conversation about faith doesn’t happen “all the time.”

“But then to come to these events and you can hear the speakers and connect with other young people in the workplace who share the same core morals and values that you do,” Pernsteiner said.

“I get a lot out of it from coming, and you make new friends, and now … after coming for several months, you see some of the same people and you get to exchange phone numbers or learn what parishes they’re from,” she said.

And speakers have been “phenomenal,” Pernsteiner said. “I’m just amazed every month with who’s coming to present. It’s wonderful.”

Grant Meyer, 26, learned about CEND from Pernsteiner, his fiancée. He attended his first CEND event about a year ago and enjoyed it, “and I wasn’t even Catholic at that point,” he said. “I just went through the RCIA process and became Catholic on Easter.”

Meyer said he enjoyed coming “right away, mostly for the speakers.” “It’s definitely a cooler experience for me to get to be a part of the Mass and get to meet a bunch of Catholics,” said Meyer, who added that he had few Catholic friends when he was younger.

CEND is “a cool way to meet people who have been part of the faith longer than I have,” Meyer said, adding many are people he would otherwise never meet in his day-to-day life. “I can come enjoy and meet and get to spend time with my fiancée and bond in that way as well,” he said.

To learn more about CEND, visit catholiccend.org.