Christ-centered care: How Sarah Jensen ’97 creates space to move, breathe, and belong

On a busy afternoon in Bethel University’s Wellness Center, students roll out their mats and make room for one more person. Some come with roommates or teammates. Others arrive alone, trying a group fitness class for the first time.

At the front of the room is Sarah Jensen ’97, a Bethel alumna who has spent the last 11 years teaching yoga sculpt to students, staff, and alumni. She leads the class through strength work, stretching, breathwork, and stillness. Over time, the class has become a consistent place for students to move, connect, and reset.

“I think relationships are the most meaningful part,” Sarah says. “When students tell me, ‘This is the best part of my week,’ it means so much.”

Sarah came to Bethel to study elementary education. After graduating, she taught in public schools for 12 years. Later, she began teaching yoga classes out of her home in a large space she had turned into a studio. Around the same time, she started exploring pottery and ceramics—a creative practice that eventually grew into Hemma Ceramics and Design and recently led her to display her work at Art-A-Whirl in the Twin Cities.  

At first, yoga was simply an outlet. It gave her community, creativity, and a way to create welcoming spaces for others. A few years later, Bethel built the Wellness Center, and Sarah began teaching in the new facility that fall. 

She has been there ever since.

Building community through yoga sculpt

Over the years, Sarah has watched the class grow into a strong community where students often bring friends, roommates, and teammates.

One group that stands out is Bethel’s club hockey players. Chris Oliver ’24 became one of her most committed students. He brought teammates along, and the room would fill with hockey players who were used to lifting, skating, and training for the ice. Yoga Sculpt challenged them differently. They worked smaller muscle groups, strengthened their hips and core, built flexibility, and stretched beyond their usual routine.  

“Sculpt became a mandatory hour of my Mondays and Wednesdays,” Oliver says. “I brought my friends, made new friends, and did something good for myself. I cannot believe how many friendships and connections I made at Sculpt that lasted beyond my time at Bethel.” 

For Oliver, the class offered something unique: a professionally led workout, a welcoming group, and a place to build relationships.

“Yoga Sculpt at Bethel was such a blessing,” he says. “Sculpt was so fun and so good for me both physically and relationally.”

Sarah remembers earlier classes with 12 to 15 people—now, 30 students fill the studio.

“There’s just that energy of, ‘This is a fun place to be,’” she says.  

The class is active, energetic, and welcoming. Music plays. The workout is challenging. But no one is expected to be perfect.

At the beginning of each semester, Sarah reminds students that everyone is focused on their own movement. Whether students are new to yoga or have practiced for years, they are welcome.

“This is a no-judgment, noncompetitive thing,” she says. “We’re here to have fun and work out together.”

That tone has shaped the class. Sarah often sees regular students help newcomers find weights or get settled. Many students bring a roommate or friend so the first class feels less intimidating. Others come up afterward to say they were nervous, but the class felt fun and approachable.

“They come and end up feeling like, ‘Oh, this isn’t so scary,’” she says.

Caring for the whole person

Sarah wants students to leave her class stronger. She also wants them to leave calmer.

Yoga Sculpt ends with several minutes of rest. Sarah guides students through a body scan, breathing, relaxation, and stillness. She reads a Bible verse, often from the Psalms, and gives students space to reflect. During finals week, before Christmas, or during other stressful seasons, she may build in extra time at the end.

For students balancing classes, work, activities, relationships, and constant notifications, those quiet minutes matter.

“College students are experiencing a level of busyness and stress they maybe haven’t experienced before,” Sarah says. “They’re learning how to manage it all mentally and physically.”

She also sees the final minutes of class as a spiritual practice. Before teaching at Bethel, Sarah had attended yoga sculpt classes elsewhere and found herself bringing her own faith into the quiet at the end. When she began teaching at Bethel, she wanted to create that same kind of space in a distinctly Christian environment.

“I feel like I could hear the voice of God in that space more than I could any other time,” she says. “You don’t have your phone. Nobody is saying anything to you. It’s just quiet.”

That stillness, Sarah says, can become a form of prayer. “My hope is to give that spiritual encouragement and space to students,” she says.

Carrying forward Bethel’s care 

Sarah understands the value of that care because she experienced it as a Bethel student herself. 

One of her strongest influences was Dottie Haugen, a Bethel physical education instructor who made a lasting impact on her life. Sarah took several classes with Haugen and later served as her tennis teaching assistant. Haugen was joyful, encouraging, and present with students.

At the end of class, Haugen would read a verse or say a blessing over the class. Sarah remembers leaving feeling better, lighter, and cared for.

“As a college student, you’re away from home, and it can feel really isolated,” she says. “To have that older figure come in and be nurturing was really impactful for me.”

When Sarah began teaching at Bethel, she wanted to offer students that same kind of care.  

It is not always possible to connect individually with every student in a full class, but Sarah hopes students know someone is paying attention to them. “I hope that students can leave not only feeling nourished physically—but also feeling like somebody cares for you here,” she says.

Sarah also remembers other Bethel influences who shaped her, including resident assistants, Bible study leaders, campus ministry leaders, and coaches. During one season as a student, she and a friend trained for Grandma’s Marathon alongside longtime football coach Steve Johnson and another Bethel coach. The coaches may not remember those long training runs, Sarah says, but she does.

That memory has helped Sarah think differently about her own impact. Some moments may seem small to the person offering them, but they can matter deeply to the student receiving care.

“There’s value where you don’t necessarily see it,” she says.

Sarah says there have been weeks when she has walked into class carrying hard things, unsure if she had much to give. Then students arrived with energy and joy, and something shifted.

“There are a lot of weeks when I feel like I have nothing,” she says. “But then 30 people walk into the room, and something just lights up inside of me.”

Finding purpose in steady service

Sarah's work has not always followed a traditional path, but she's built a life around steady, relational work. “I’ve worked my whole adult life, whether it’s raising kids or doing these kind of nontraditional things, like teaching yoga or creating pottery,” she says.

Not all meaningful work is measured by awards, job titles, or public milestones. For Sarah, it looks like showing up week after week to create a welcoming place where students are reminded they are seen, known, and cared for.

“It’s easy to diminish it,” she says. “But when you can step back and realize that what you’re doing is making a difference—that it does matter, even if there’s no award attached to it—just knowing you’ve had even a small impact on someone is the most meaningful feeling.”

Sarah has also found that teaching yoga has shaped her. It has helped her stay active, strong, and healthy. It has kept her connected to Bethel, to students, and to the kind of Christ-centered care she first experienced as a student.

As she looks ahead, Sarah hopes to keep teaching. As other parts of life and work shift, yoga remains one commitment she wants to hold onto.

Find the space and support to pursue health, wellness, and a balanced, holistic approach to living.

We cultivate a welcoming and uplifting Christ-centered atmosphere where students, employees, and alumni seek wellbeing together.  With 11,000 square feet of fitness space across two floors—including the Penz Strength Center, a cardio floor, and a group fitness studio—you’ll find numerous ways to be fit and active.

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