Augustine Institute chief mission officer Ben Akers sees common mission with archdiocese to make disciples by teaching
For Ben Akers, the Augustine Institute’s new 284-acre campus at the former Boeing Leadership Center north of Florissant is not just a pretty location with great buildings.
As the institute’s chief mission officer looks out from his favorite scenic overlook on campus above the Missouri River, he remembers the missionaries that came before in Florissant, like Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne and others who used the area as a hub to then go spread the Gospel to the West.
“Florissant was crucial to the first evangelization of the United States,” Ben said. “So it’s God’s providence that we are coming here to be in this great historic diocese. We want to be the hub of the new evangelization in the U.S.”
The Augustine Institute is a lay-led graduate school offering four master’s level degrees to both on-campus and online students — more than 500 are currently enrolled — and also publishes catechetical and sacramental preparation materials for adults and children, produces films and podcasts, created formed.org, a streaming service of Catholic content, and Amen, a free prayer app. The institute moved its headquarters from Denver to the north St. Louis County campus last summer.
Ben and his wife, Heather, and their five children, ages 14, 12, 10, 8 and 6, packed up and moved the 1,000 miles east to follow the mission of the institute. The family settled in the Old Jamestown area and are parishioners at St. Norbert in Florissant.
This interview has been edited for brevity.
How did your family decide to move with the Augustine Institute to St. Louis?
Ben: It’s relatively easy to move boxes, but the harder thing is to move the mission. I talked to my wife and my kids about, is the Lord calling us to continue here? Is it just a job, or is it actually more than a job? Is this a way that I can actually respond to Christ’s call of discipleship in my own life, in the gifts and skills that He’s given me? And I heard the answer was yes. When Christ calls you to follow Him, it entails leaving things behind. We left family, we left friends and relationships in Denver. But the call was clear, and we always want to be generous with the Lord. My wife and I could display that to our children. They see, wait, Mom and Dad are moving the whole family 1,000 miles to St. Louis, for what? Why? And to have those conversations as a family is a gift for the children to see — this is real discernment that we need to do.
What has been your initial experience with the local Catholic community?
Ben: I remember our first Sunday at St. Norbert walking in, and the thing I was struck by was how welcoming everybody was. The deacon, Deacon Bill (Twellman), came right up to us and welcomed us and said, ‘I know you’re not from here — are you from the Augustine Institute?’ The people had heard that we were coming, so that was kind of fun. I think we brought up the gifts that first Sunday. Then after Mass, I was struck by how many people just stayed around in the lobby to welcome us and to introduce themselves. I’d always heard of ‘Midwest nice,’ the kindness of people in the Midwest, and it’s absolutely true.
Tell us about your role as the chief mission officer at the Augustine Institute.
Ben: It’s to keep us on mission and to know what our mission is. Our mission comes from the great commission of Jesus, which He gives at the end of Matthew’s Gospel: ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.’ It’s the task of every generation to respond to that great commission, to go make disciples. And in a particular way, we (at the Augustine Institute) make disciples by teaching. We help Catholics understand, live and share their faith. Because the more you know about and understand your faith, the more you’re going to want to live it. The more you live it, you’re going to want to share with others.
As chief mission officer, I’m part of all the different conversations in the graduate school, the conversations we’re having on our content team, the content we’re producing for parishes and dioceses, welcoming the generous donors who helped us buy this campus and that want to be part of our mission by financially supporting it. Externally, I work with outside organizations, first and foremost the Archdiocese of St. Louis. We don’t want to just be part of the archdiocese — we want to be a partner with the archdiocese.
To that end, Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski has given us his vision for evangelization in his document “Disciples Make Disciples.” How do you think the Augustine Institute can be part of this larger evangelical mission in our archdiocese?
Ben: The way that we’ve really hit the ground running to help the archdiocese in its mission to also make disciples is the project we’re working on called Missionaries of Joy. Missionaries of Joy is a one-year initiative that starts this summer 2025 and ends on the feast of St. Louis in 2026. Missionaries of Joy takes its name from Pope Francis’ apostolic letter on evangelization, “The Joy of the Gospel,” and Archbishop Rozanski has said that it’s the “Magna Carta of evangelization,” the defining document of what evangelization is. A disciple is someone who follows Jesus; a missionary is someone who goes and tells others about Jesus. So the missionary disciple gives that kind of apostolic outward movement of coming from Christ, knowing Christ and bringing Christ to others.
For 12 months, (participants) have the opportunity to take three hours of class from our professors at the graduate school. You study at your own pace, and the subjects have to do with Christian doctrine, Christian life and spirituality, Catholic social teaching — a nice baseline foundation of what the Church teaches. There are practical aspects as well, run by the archdiocese, where there will be once-a-quarter gatherings for everyone to get together and talk about these things. That’s a key way that we’re excited to work and partner with the Archdiocese of St. Louis. We’re all called to learn. We’re all called to make disciples. If we’re not making disciples, we’re making excuses.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to grow as a disciple of Jesus right now?
Ben: Read the Gospels for five to 10 minutes a day. Once you get to know who Jesus is, what He says, what He does, His words and His deeds, that will change the way you look at the world.
The Augustine Institute
Learn more about the Augustine Institute, its programs and resources at augustineinstitute.org.
Learn more about the Missionaries of Joy initiative at archstl.org/missionaries-of-joy
