Work is a quintessential part of our lives, but it can be a source of profound stress, frustration, and despair for many. Particularly following the pandemic, we have seen wide-scale disruptions to work, with trends like the Great Resignation, the dramatic rise in remote workers, the epidemic of empty office spaces in major cities, and an increasing institutional distrust affecting major corporations and industries.
<aside> 📰 Read: Has America Ignored the Workplace for Too Long? (Jun 15, 2023, NYT) Read: Why is Everyone So Unhappy at Work Right Now? (Nov 27, 2023, WSJ)
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Our current approach to work is unsustainable. Too often, work is reduced to a transactional relationship arising from a mechanistic and industrial paradigm of work leading to burnout, disengagement, and a sense of meaninglessness. But when work is revived as a calling, as a way to creatively responding to a Voice that is orchestrating the renewal of all things, it can be an enlivening drive toward creating a better and more just future.
Revitalizing faith and work vision for individuals and churches and cultivating an integrative approach to learning that weaves together spirituality, imagination, and nature, leading to the embodiment of love and justice, the Goldenwood Institute aspires to train next-generation collaborative leaders across every sector of society who will infuse their work with new hope and compelling vision.
<aside> ✨ The Goldenwood Institute envisions a world where work is not just a means of earning a living, but a creative and fulfilling expression of our humanity. Guided by a robust theology of creation, work, and renewal, we believe that imagination, nature, and justice are critical and often missing elements that expand our vision of what is possible in our world.
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Traditional modes of learning often emphasize knowledge acquisition through one-way communication, where learners passively receive information from a teacher or instructor. These models tend to compartmentalize information and focus on acquiring skills and credentials rather than the development of the whole person.
<aside> ✨ At the Goldenwood Institute, we believe that learning should be experiential, integrative, and life-long. We want to design a holistic educational ecosystem—an organically developing process of curiosity, inquiry, wonder, and practice where learners are actively engaged in a journey of communal discovery as they are encouraged to incorporate their gifts, talents, and experiences.
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SOME THINGS JUST HAVE TO BE EXPERIENCED
Our approach is centered around immersive retreat experiences that provide learners with the opportunity to explore work, imagination, nature, and justice in an integrated way.
By undergirding this educational process with spiritual rhythms, we believe that spiritual wisdom can be infused into an expanding and more meaningful vision of work that goes beyond earning a living towards a flourishing world.
Immersive experiences are a crucial part of the Goldenwood Institute's approach to growth and learning. These uniquely curated spaces provide learners with the opportunity to step away from the busyness of their daily lives and immerse themselves in a new environment that fosters community, reflection, and synthesis.
Through this experiential approach, we hope to cultivate a new generation of leaders passionate about creating a more hopeful, just, and equitable world.
The key to this kind of dynamic design is found in the unique leadership of this institute. We are fortunate to be closely aligned with outstanding practitioners and thought leaders who pioneer the calling to bring faith and work together, infused by love and justice. Of our pool of potential instructors and facilitators, we are thrilled to announce our Founding Deans:
David Kim is the CEO and co-founder of Goldenwood. Over the past several decades, Rev. Dr. David Kim has trained, consulted, and counseled hundreds of leaders and organizations in developing a robust, meaningful integration of faith and work. David’s past experiences as VP of Faith and Work (City to City), Executive Director of the Center for Faith & Work, Director of the Gotham Fellowship, and general editor of the NIV Faith and Work Bible have given him a breadth of exposure to the calling to integrate faith and work. His expertise as a critical thought-leader in the faith and work space has been well-established, addressing prominent institutions and churches worldwide. David is also an ordained minister in good standing in the Presbyterian Church.
Amilee Watkins is the COO and co-founder of Goldenwood. Her work in the faith and work realm has spanned nearly 15 years, focusing on leadership development and spiritual formation at the Center for Faith & Work for nine years, and helping lead the Gotham Fellowship program after graduating from the inaugural class in 2009. She is a skilled facilitator and communicator. Prior to her work at CFW, Amilee worked for Starbucks Coffee Co. for seven years, managing teams inside the stores and developing leaders at every level, from barista to management positions and served as a Brand Ambassador, helping to launch new products in the NYC region. It was at Starbucks that faith and work started to come alive for her because of course, who doesn’t experience God’s glory when sipping that perfect cup of coffee?
Makoto Fujimura is one of the most unique and significant artists of our time, a painter whose globally celebrated work explores a combination of contemporary American abstract expressionism and traditional Japanese art of Nihonga. A presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts and recipient of the American Academy of Religion’s “Religion and the Arts” award, he is also an arts advocate, writer, and speaker. His most recent book, Art + Faith: A Theology of Making was released in 2021 and addresses a critically under-represented perspective of the faith and work movement through his interjection of a distinctive alternative that challenges the pragmatism overwhelmingly characterizing our approach to work today. In this new paradigm of ‘slow work,’ the brokenness we experience becomes the unexpected starting place for the ‘New Newness’ to break into our world.
Haejin Shim Fujimura serves as the CEO of Embers International, a global organization focused on victims of human trafficking, and is the founder and managing partner of Shim & Associates PC. An active member of the legal community, she is a frequent speaker on the topic of justice, beauty, and generational stewardship. She has also served as the NYC Advocacy & Mobilization Team Leader for International Justice Mission. Her work in every arena is characterized by a clear vision and confident desire to see justice made known for the long-term flourishing of individuals and communities. The Fujimuras together have been innovative and collaborative partners of Goldenwood.
Sandra McCracken Nicholson is a nationally renowned singer-songwriter and hymn writer from Nashville, Tennessee. A prolific recording artist, McCracken has produced 14 solo albums over two decades. Blending the old and new, Sandra has also shown a unique ability to recast sacred scripture texts into theologically rich yet accessible songs. Her thoughtful lyrics and gospel melodies have become staple anthems in churches across the U.S. As a published writer, she contributes a regular column in Christianity Today and hosts the Slow Work podcast, connecting spirituality and the creative process. Sandra has worked alongside David and Amilee for many years, both formally and informally, most recently in the role of Creative Fellow, as together they are developing a cohort-based holistic formation program to cultivate a new vision for the music industry.