Even as a youth in the Midwest, Hartwig questioned the role of relevancy in religion. “How does what’s happening on Sunday morning line up with what’s going on in the rest of our lives?” she wondered. Hartwig moved West after college to teach high school government and economics and to coach cross-country track.

Call to ordination: While Hartwig played drums for her church in Bakersfield, women were excluded from certain leadership roles. When two female friends enrolled in seminary through the more liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Hartwig followed suit. “I felt that leaving my faith at the [classroom] door wasn’t a good fit for me,” says Hartwig, who also joined the ELCA. “It was really a longing to be present with people in a community context.”
Rewards: “It is an honor and a privilege to get to lead worship, to get to preach, to get to distribute communion,” Hartwig says. “That is the heartbeat of our life in faith together, and that extends out into every area of our lives to the rest of the week.”

Robyn currently serves as the pastor of Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, Sacramento, CA.