This past summer, ten of Whitworth’s faculty members and a dog went on a five-day backpacking trip in the Wallowa Mountains in Oregon. The retreat was led by assistant professor of theology Samantha Miller, who received a $30,000 grant for the retreat. The grant is from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning and aims to support the spiritual development of Whitworth’s faculty. Miller shared her motivation for this grant, saying, “I’m hearing a lot from faculty. We would love spiritual development opportunities. But we don’t have a lot of spaces for spiritual care for faculty. I take students on backpacking trips in Jan Terms. And I thought, ‘Why can’t we do that for faculty?’”
Over the trip a range of faculty members from health sciences to English were able to worship together, find time for companionship and as Miller put it “recognize the untamed, wild God that we worship and serve as Christians.” The retreat also offered the faculty a chance to get to know each other away from work, providing opportunities for great conversations while experiencing God’s nature. Miller spoke on how space was created for transformative experiences for Whitworth faculty to be cared for and find connection with each other.
The importance of these opportunities for faculty extends to the student body as well. Miller spoke on the effect for students, sharing that “having a space where we’re cared for, where we get renewal and experiences of refreshment just means that we have more capacity to pour to our students. These nine faculty now have an experience of God and experiences of each other that they can pass on to their students.” Miller highlighted the importance of taking care of Whitworth’s faculty and granting them these experiences that they can carry forward and model for their students’ own growth and spiritual development.
The grant is part of a two-year program and Miller intends to lead the backpacking retreat again next summer to continue this opportunity for the spiritual development of Whitworth’s faculty. She shared a hope that there can be more spaces like this for the faculty and that these opportunities can be expanded upon in the future.
