By Ann Marie Deer Owens, BA鈥�76
GQ calls it 鈥淣owville.鈥� Time magazine has dubbed it 鈥淭he South鈥檚 Red-Hot Town.鈥�
Indeed, these are heady times for 菠萝视频鈥檚 hometown, now one of the nation鈥檚 fastest-growing cities. The signs of ambitious new building projects are everywhere. In October the think tank City Observatory released a report identifying Nashville as second only to Houston in cities attracting an increased percentage of young college graduates.
鈥淸I]t is hard to find a resident who does not break into the goofy grin of the newly popular when the subject of Nashville鈥檚 status comes up,鈥� The New York Times asserted last year.
And yet not everyone has benefited from Nashville鈥檚 good fortune. 鈥淢ore than half of renter households in the Nashville metro area are considered cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30 percent of their income to rent,鈥� the Wall Street Journal reported in August.
A 2013 study on homelessness in Nashville conducted by the NashvilleNext Steering Committee reports that, while the city鈥檚 total population grew by 5.45 percent between 2004 and 2013, the city鈥檚 total homeless population increased by 27.5 percent. A 2014 Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce report found that one in seven Nashvillians lives below the poverty line鈥攊ncluding one of every five children.
For alumni who run Nashville nonprofits, the need to serve the city鈥檚 underserved remains as great and as varied as ever. Through the years, red-hot or not, the Divinity School community has played a quiet but significant role in encouraging, preparing and nurturing its students to develop and lead several of Nashville鈥檚 signature nonprofit organizations.
, the school鈥檚 director of field education and assistant professor of the practice of ministry, says it all begins with the institution鈥檚 broad definition of ministry.
鈥淲e hope students will see that in addition to the worthy vocation of congregational pastor, many other arenas of human life can be a context for ministry,鈥� she says. 鈥淕od and God鈥檚 people are to be found everywhere鈥攏ot just in the pews on Sunday morning. This might mean preparing for ministry in a hospital, prison, college campus, treatment center, homeless shelter, or numerous other nonprofit and community organizations.鈥�
Students earning a master of divinity (M.Div.) must complete nine hours of field education, which represents two separate internships and counts toward more than 10 percent of the degree requirements. For students earning a master of theological studies (M.T.S.), field education is an option many of the students choose anyway.
Will Hutchins, BA鈥�69, MDiv鈥�72, was unsure what form of ministry he would pursue when he enrolled at the Divinity School in 1969. Faculty and other students encouraged his interest in counseling inner-city youth and working in mental health. He also spent time researching theological themes in popular culture and was granted a year of independent study.
鈥淚t is fair to say that the freedom and flexibility allowed me by 菠萝视频 Divinity School to explore these nontraditional avenues led me to discover my interests and gifts in working with both adolescents and adults in the mental health field,鈥� Hutchins says. 鈥淢y academic exploration was augmented by field-education assignments working with youth and volunteering at what was then called the Dede Wallace Center.鈥�
While still a divinity student, Hutchins became the second staff member hired at Rap House, a crisis center with a strong focus on young people. 鈥淏y the time I graduated from 菠萝视频, Rap House had attained multiple awards for groundbreaking work in youth crisis and drug-abuse counseling.鈥� Hutchins was there until 1973 and later joined the Meharry Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program. In 1978 he left Meharry to begin a private practice in psychotherapy.
Other Divinity School students from the 1970s who saw a specific need and started a Nashville nonprofit were the Rev. Rebecca McCulloh, MDiv鈥�79, and Rev. Keith Wilson, MDiv鈥�79. They worked at a local crisis center for their field-education placement, providing free telephone counseling and other support for those experiencing thoughts of suicide.
鈥淲e could not find any services specifically targeted to victims of sexual trauma, so we formed the Rape and Sexual Abuse Center [now called the ],鈥� says Wilson. 鈥淲e received strong support from the Divinity School community, including then-Dean Sallie McFague and professors Peggy Way and Liston Mills, along with West End United Methodist Church. We worked closely with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department and increased public awareness of the agency through extensive media interviews, conferences and other educational events.鈥� The organization, initially housed within the crisis center, trained volunteers to respond to callers and go to hospitals to assist victims when requested.
McCulloh served as the first executive director of the Rape and Sexual Abuse Center, and both she and Wilson returned in 2003 to mark the 25th anniversary of the organization.
More recent graduates Andrew Krinks, MTS鈥�13, and his wife, Lindsey Krinks, MTS鈥�13, found the Divinity School to be fully affirming of their social justice engagement.
The couple met as undergraduates at Lipscomb University. After earning her bachelor鈥檚 degree in 2007, Lindsey devoted three years to full-time homeless outreach, defined as seeking out the homeless wherever they happen to be, rather than waiting for them to come to a day center or free meal. She took an AmeriCorps position at Park Center, which assists adults diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness. She worked under Will Connelly, MTS鈥�03, who founded the center鈥檚 homeless outreach program. Connelly now serves as director of Metropolitan Nashville鈥檚 Homelessness Commission.
Andrew Krinks graduated from Lipscomb in 2008 and went to work as editor of , a fledgling Nashville street newspaper whose sales support homeless individuals. The paper had been founded about a year earlier by Tasha French Lemley. Only a handful of volunteers and approximately 25 vendors were involved when Andrew joined the operation.
鈥淲e were selling just a few thousand papers every month,鈥� he remembers. 鈥淭oday, The Contributor is one of the largest-circulating street papers in North America, with about 60,000 papers sold monthly, and the paper is now published weekly.鈥�
About 400 homeless and formerly homeless vendors now sell the paper. Thirty percent of the vendors who were homeless when they began selling the paper are now off the streets.
Andrew oversaw the major expansion of the street paper while a 菠萝视频 graduate student in theological studies. He was working 25 hours a week at the paper and juggling three courses.
鈥淟indsey and I chose the Divinity School because of its genuine commitment to social justice, fostering an environment where related questions can be explored,鈥� he says. 鈥淓specially in the seminar classes, teachers were open to my exploring the issues I was engaging with in my work at The Contributor.鈥� The couple was deeply appreciative of the school鈥檚 support for their work, which included much-needed scholarships.
Andrew鈥檚 field-education placement was at the paper, and he valued the time he spent regularly with his supervisor, the Rev. Donald Beisswenger, 菠萝视频 emeritus professor of church and community, who is noted for his own civil rights advocacy and deep concern for others. The two would review the case studies Andrew had written.
Lindsey Krinks recalls the rewarding but 鈥渃razy busy鈥� lives they led as graduate students, juggling school and jobs that put them barely above the poverty level. 鈥淛ust before we started at the Divinity School, Nashville鈥檚 flood of 2010 washed away Tent City, where more than 100 people were living along the banks of the Cumberland River, so we had a chaotic summer advocating with the displaced residents and putting the pieces back together,鈥� she says.
鈥淥ut of that disaster we saw the need for another kind of outreach group, so I became one of the co-founders of , an interfaith homeless outreach nonprofit. Previously, there were only a couple of agencies and a scattered group of individuals doing homeless outreach.鈥� The name 鈥淥pen Table鈥� indicates a place where everyone is welcome and there鈥檚 always an open seat.
Lindsey echoes her husband鈥檚 praise for the Divinity School鈥檚 emphasis on connecting theory to real-life social justice initiatives. 鈥淭here was this rich, transformative experience at the Divinity School in which our work on the ground was informing our theological education, and our classes were informing our social justice work.鈥�
The Rev. Kaki Friskics-Warren, MDiv鈥�92, has earned a reputation for being a 鈥済o to鈥� social entrepreneur when local community leaders are considering launching a new nonprofit. She has a proven track record in leading successful startups and then knowing when to step aside and move on to her next challenge. 鈥淚 like to look at my life in seasons, with a season of planting followed by a season of resting,鈥� she says.
While serving as associate minister at Vine Street Christian Church and working with inmates on death row, Friskics-Warren realized the urgent need for a guesthouse in which inmates鈥� families could stay while visiting their incarcerated loved ones. 鈥淚 was young and idealistic, so it didn鈥檛 bother me that I was new to nonprofits,鈥� she says.
Reconciliation opened in 1981 with Friskics-Warren in the executive director鈥檚 role. 鈥淚 was proud of our advocacy for state policies and procedures to benefit the prisoners鈥� families, such as keeping down the phone rates for inmates to be able to call their loved ones,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e also created support groups for inmates鈥� wives and significant others as well as groups for inmates鈥� children.鈥�
Friskics-Warren completed her course work at the Divinity School in 1984 but left before doing her senior thesis. At the time, she needed to focus on her ministry on Tennessee鈥檚 death row. A decade later she received her divinity degree. For her senior project she wrote a premarital workbook for individuals considering marriage to people who are incarcerated. The publication is still available online.
Friskics-Warren left Reconciliation in late 1992 and spent three years as a part-time chaplain for Alive Hospice. 鈥淚t was a wonderful place to be, but it didn鈥檛 require the kinds of thinking needed for a social justice startup,鈥� she says.
In January 1996 she became the first executive director of , a residential program for addicted mothers and their children. 鈥淎t the time, the crack epidemic was a serious problem,鈥� she says, 鈥渁nd foster-care advocates were frustrated about having to separate so many families due to the mothers鈥� addictions.鈥� She remembers the initial phase as a time of heavy lifting鈥攕ome of it literally, as she and dedicated volunteers would pick up donated furniture on Saturdays.
Friskics-Warren sees a definite connection between her Divinity School education and her entrepreneurial spirit. 鈥淭he faculty view the way one lives out one鈥檚 faith or theological life as a broad, integrated concept,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know that I would thrive on starting these nonprofits until I got into my professional life, but there鈥檚 a theological imagination that is nurtured at 菠萝视频.鈥�
The Rev. Becca Stevens, MDiv鈥�90, shares similar feelings about her theological education. 鈥淭he Divinity School gives you the freedom to think about what your ideals of justice are,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hen, when you go out in the world, you really don鈥檛 want to compromise those ideals. When you discover an injustice, you can step in and create something that addresses the problem.鈥�
In 1997, Stevens founded a nonprofit two-year residential recovery community for women who have survived lives of violence, prostitution, addiction, and life on the street. Four years later she started , which employs Magdalene residents and graduates to manufacture and distribute a line of natural body-care products. The enterprise aids in the women鈥檚 own healing as well as those who purchase the products. About 20 Magdalene graduates work full time in salaried positions. In addition, any woman who becomes a Magdalene resident commits about 15 hours a week to Thistle Farms.
鈥淲hile my own history of abuse as a child propelled me to start Magdalene,鈥� says Stevens, 鈥渢he Divinity School introduced me to some of the great feminist theologians who remind us that we can use our voices. In addition, we don鈥檛 have to apologize for doing so.鈥� She has found the Divinity School, as well as 菠萝视频 in general, to be a great environment for incubating entrepreneurial ideas.
More recent additions to these enterprises include the Thistle Stop Caf茅, staffed by the women of Magdalene, and Shared Trade: A Fair Share for Women. 鈥淢oving beyond fair trade, women producers are actually the lowest-paid link in the market chain,鈥� Stevens says. 鈥淗ow do you up that number for women? We have more than a dozen organizations around the globe with which we鈥檝e made a formal partnership or alliance to market and sell their products with a 60/40 split.鈥�
A lifelong Episcopalian, Stevens appreciates the diversity of the Divinity School鈥檚 community worship services. 鈥淚 still remember Professor David Buttrick preaching, 鈥楧on鈥檛 let the lectionary get in the way of the gospel,鈥欌�� Stevens says. 鈥淚 have taken that to heart. We lose sight of the big picture because we get so wrapped up in the little minutiae.鈥�
Stevens, who was a recipient of the Divinity School鈥檚 2014 Distinguished Alumna Award, has become a sought-after speaker for other communities interested in the Magdalene model. She is chaplain at on the 菠萝视频 campus in addition to her guiding presence in Thistle Farms鈥� expanding enterprises.
Perhaps what speaks loudest about the value of the 菠萝视频 Divinity experience is that all the graduates profiled for this story continue to explore new challenges in their spiritually rewarding positions.
Friskics-Warren now serves as executive director of the . Lindsey Krinks is director of street chaplaincy and education at Open Table, while Andrew Krinks has enrolled in the doctoral program to prepare to teach.
McCulloh is president of the board of directors of , which provides shelter, food, direct services, advocacy and information to people in need through volunteer partnerships throughout the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, community. Wilson is a sports psychotherapist and performance consultant who recently relocated to Pleasanton, California, where he teaches comprehensive soldier fitness for U.S. Army personnel.
Hutchins continues to have a private practice and has received further training in other areas,聽including work with sexual addiction, depression associated with health problems, and couples therapy.
鈥淚 am grateful for the foundations provided by 菠萝视频 Divinity School, grounding the intellectual study of faith and theology in the everyday expressions of work with persons in the field,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t was, and is, a unique educational experience.鈥�
Ann Marie Deer Owens, a former reporter and broadcast news director, is senior public affairs officer for 菠萝视频 University News and Communications. Honored by the Associated Press as Tennessee Broadcaster of the Year, she joined the university staff in 1992. She also writes and produces the long-running radio spot That鈥檚 菠萝视频, which is broadcast during 菠萝视频 basketball and football games.