Hungry for Hope: Letters to the Church from Young Adults invites readers to the table for an honest, hopeful, and transformative exploration of the pressing challenges and opportunities facing the church today. With voices rooted in the lived experiences of young adults across the United States, this book addresses topics such as climate catastrophe, mental health, marginalization, and more, offering actionable insights for the church’s journey toward renewal and relevance.

Above images from our Panel Discussion at the ELCA’s Extravaganza 2025 featuring our illustrator Lindsay Fertig-Johnson, authors Amber Kalina and Catalina Morales Bahena hosted by Kristina Frugé.

The post Exciting News! Hungry for Hope is Available for Preorder! appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

THE CONFLUENCE empowers high school youth to discover how they are uniquely gifted to create a more just and sustainable world by exploring the intersections of their story, God’s story, and the world’s story. Join us for a weeklong residential experience during which we will:

• Build intentional community
• Develop meaningful relationships
• Practice vocational discernment
• Engage in theological inquiry
• Explore spiritual practices
• Learn through experiences and relationships in the Twin Cities

Open to all youth who have completed 9th–12th grades.

COST: The cost is $400/participant. Participants are responsible for transportation to and from Augsburg University.

�鶹ԭ�� SCHOLARSHIP: Students who decide to attend Augsburg University as a full-time student will receive a minimum $22,000 Augsburg scholarship for up to four years.

Here’s what 2024 participants had to say about The Confluence: 

God has called me to hear and amplify the voices of people around me so they can be heard. God has allowed me to have an open mind and respect those around me, which will help me help God mend the universe. The Confluence has taught me about my faith and about who I am. It has shown me the lives of other people and has impacted me in massive ways. In listening to and lifting up the stories of others, I will ensure that every voice contributes to God’s mending of the universe.

– Vera Bezemer

While I was at The Confluence the things I learned about my story were that God’s wonderful plan is through self-learning and understanding beauty. First of all, I had a strong feeling of direction and purpose, I’ve also discovered tenacity and inner strength. My faith has helped me go through life’s obstacles and come out stronger by providing consolation and support. Finally, I’ve grown more capable of interacting and communicating with others. This new journey with God gave me the possibility to be empathetic and compassionate toward both myself and others.

– Gabriel Niola

The Confluence me inspiró y me abrió los ojos a un mundo de posibilidades en la cual tuve la oportunidad de conocer a nuevas personas y nuevas culturas se que tal vez Dios me está llamando a reparar este universo por que hay personas que lo necesitan. Necesitan mi ayuda porque hay personas malas que discriminan o hacen el mal lo cual yo debería de intervenir y hacerles entender que podemos vivir en un mundo donde las personas no sean maltratadas por su color su religión … Y pienso que puedo ayudar a este universo a ayudar a incluir a todas las personas y hacer entender que las personas ”con más poder” no pueden abusar de los demás.

The Confluence inspired me and opened my eyes to a world of possibilities in which I had the opportunity to meet new people and new cultures. I know that maybe God is calling me to repair this universe because there are people who need it. They need my help because there are bad people who discriminate or do evil, which I should intervene and make them understand that we can live in a world where people are not mistreated because of their color, their religion … I think I can help this universe to help include all people and make it understood that people ”with more power” cannot abuse others.

– Daykell Navarro 

QUESTIONS?

Gretchen Roeck, Program Director

roeck@augsburg.edu

612-330-1412

FIND OUT MORE: 

The post Announcing our 2025 Confluence Dates: June 22nd-June 27th, 2025! appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

Two years ago we hosted 50 young adults from around the US at Augsburg for a weekend of storytelling and listening. The reason for this gathering was to unearth the common hopes, concerns and desires young adults hold for the church and the world we share. In sifting through the stories shared, we hoped to distill themes that might give shape to a book we wanted to create – one written by young adults to the church. This book was one of the ways Riverside Innovation Hub was committed to stewarding what we learned in our first five years of the Lilly Endowment’s Young Adult Initiative. After working with congregations and young adults in our inaugural round of the Riverside Innovation Hub, supported through the Lilly Endowment, we were granted additional funding and time to share the wisdom and learnings that emerged. Who better to speak those truths than the young adults themselves? 

Just two years shy of that special gathering this very book has come to be. Well, nearly.

The manuscript was submitted to our publisher early in September and now we will work with them to take the final steps of transforming our authors’ ideas, stories and whole-hearted requests into a book that can be shared broadly. So much has transpired within those two years – an author application process, two writing retreats to launch and further along the writing community, collaboration with an illustrator bringing to life themes of the book, multiple rounds of editing drafts, countless cups of coffee and hours at laptops, and final revisions to compile the completed manuscript over the summer.��

Each chapter provides an invitation to a table. Chapter one describes what courageous curiosity looks like and proposes this posture as a necessary mindset for the church and young adults as we approach the present day challenges lifted up in this book. Chapter two orients us to the young adult experience, too often shaped by tokenization. It offers an alternative approach rooted in relationship; one where young adults are valued co-creators for our shared future.��

Chapter three (our climate catastrophe), chapter four (grief and lament) and chapter five (mental health) work together to paint the bigger picture of our times. Together these three chapters name the very hard realities that shape our human experience, while also offering guidance for finding our way in the ruins.��

Chapters six (abuse of power), seven (marginalization, inclusion and liberation), and eight (sex, shame and intimacy) reveal some of the particular ways young adults have been grieving as our churches have contributed to harm and avoided confronting the ways change is needed. The themes of these chapters are inherently intertwined.��

Chapter nine brings us back to the importance of community, and how the church can more fully embody a community defined by the centrality of Jesus. Chapter ten (beyond the walls) further fleshes out the faithful next steps for our church communities. Being centered on Jesus, in fact, means our churches are called to be decentered towards our neighbors, becoming trustworthy partners in God’s mending work in the world. Finally, chapter eleven (scarcity and abundance) lifts up a more adequate and faithful narrative from which we can enter into the challenges before us. A narrative rooted in reclaiming “enough” that roots us in God’s abundance, mending our relationships – with God, with each other, and with the earth.��

Editing and stewarding this process has been perhaps one of the largest professional projects of my career, certainly the one with the most moving pieces! I am so proud of what this team created together and deeply grateful for all of those who helped bring this project to fruition. The list is too long to name in this blog post, but as we get closer to releasing the book to the public, you will hear more about it and the many hands and hearts behind it.��

As we shared the draft manuscript with a handful of readers, we asked them, who do you think should read this book once it’s completed. Take a read at their feedback of who they hope reads this book. And if you hear yourself in their reflections, and we’ll keep you posted as the book gets closer to release!

“I imagine using it [this book] for student leadership development. Peer group book study and for young adults who are in discernment about their faith journey. And as a preacher, I confess there are definitely some quotables and “that’ll preach!” material here.”

“For me this will be a reference point any time someone brings up the fact that young people are leaving the church! I think it could be helpful in a congregational council setting, maybe for a retreat. And I think it needs to be required reading for every faculty/staff member at our schools of theological education and hopefully met with empathy. Better yet, you could have trainings with these faculty/staff based on this book so that they can meet with empathy and not scorn.” 

“I would recommend it to people who have young adults in their lives, church people who are worried about the future, young adults seeking meaning, theologians. AND! Older people who feel disconnected from the younger generation. I thought of my dad—a retired Presbyterian minister—who grew up and practiced ministry in a different world than the one his grandchildren live in. There’s a lot in here that could inform conversations we’ve had about why society looks the way it does and why young people make some of the choices they do (including to leave church in droves).”

“Every call committee and church council who are going through the process of calling a new pastor and/or figuring out a vision for their specific congregation should read this book. As one going through this process at the moment, I deeply resonated with Amanda, Jia, and Kristina’s writing in the introduction, specifically, the invitation to sit together around the table especially on the Holy Saturday moments we continue to find ourselves in. I think it’s also important for the young adult demographic to read this book, so that we can add to the conversation from our own perspectives and so that this book can become a living document of sorts, rather than another resource for older generations to try to understand “young people.”

Anticipated release is fall of 2025, but follow us for more updates on this project. We have several ways we hope to engage interested folks in the learnings from this book before and after its public release

The post The Manuscript is in! Let’s celebrate! appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

Greetings,

In the flow of our everyday lives, finding moments of peace to hear the quiet, divine whispers can be out of sight and out of mind. Today, I’m reaching out to share such a moment with you.

This is my invitation for you to join me in a quiet reflection on the profound connections between the sacred words of scripture and the intricate details of our personal journeys. As we consider how the living words of scripture, like fresh waters, bring vitality and clarity to our lives, let us pause and be present in the serenity of this understanding. Together, let’s explore how these deeper truths resonate within our own stories, guiding us towards deeper insights and a renewed spirit.

A devotion and Invitation to Reflect on Interpretation

Peace,

In my life there is this constant movement and noise, it’s sometimes very challenging to find moments of true stillness—moments where I can pause and be deeply present with the divine whispers that my busy day usually drowns out. Today, I am extending an invitation to you, an invitation to take a moment and journey with me into a reflection on interpretation; an exploration of how the sacred word intertwines with the intimate details of our personal stories.

Ezekiel 47:9, “Wherever the river flows, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes.” This verse paints a picture of life and renewal—of water that revitalizes and sustains all that it touches. Like the river, the Spirit of God moves, flows, and brings life to all areas it reaches, including the heart.

I invite you to join me in nature, or any place where you can be still. Sometimes I sit quietly looking out my window and I let myself gently settle into myself. Relaxing the body and feeling the ground beneath you, listen to the subtle sounds around you, and simply watch what’s in front of your nose. Allow the initial rush of thoughts to digest, just let the mind do what the mind does- just like our digestive system works, the mind is a kind of its own mental digester; it doesn’t need you to do anything, just let the mental chatter chat away. As the mind is processing, let yourself be more and more in the moment, embracing the beauty, the sounds and feelings that are all around you. Come to a stillness.�� 

In this stillness, reflect on where God’s Word meets your life. Consider how the scripture from Ezekiel might be speaking into your circumstances. What fresh waters are being poured into your life? How is everything around you full of this potential for life and growth because of this divine flow?

This letter of devotion isn’t just about understanding words on a page; it’s about letting those words transform us as they connect with our personal and interpersonal experiences. It’s about recognizing the divine movement in both the extraordinary and the ordinary. As you sit in reflection, ask yourself: Where do I see the flow of God’s Spirit in my life? How does my story reflect the greater story that God is telling?

I hope this invitation will open a possibility for you to explore and deepen your understanding of how God’s living word continuously shapes and redefines our unfolding story. May you find fresh inspiration and renewed perspective as you reflect on the intersection of holy scripture and your wholly life.

In being still and knowing that I am,

The post A Devotion and Invitation to Reflect on Interpretation appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

When teaching college students how to think theologically, I often hear them say, “I don’t know if I can think theologically because I’m not really even sure what my key beliefs are.” What follows is a process I have used many times when helping high school students, college students, and adults become more aware of the key theological claims that shape how they understand and interpret life. You can go through this process on your own, with a partner, or with a group. If doing with others, find moments when you can share what you are writing with one another and offer feedback to each other.��

Brainstorming Your Core Beliefs

1. Using index cards, post-its, or small slips of paper, write down all the biblical stories and lessons that are important to you. Write one per piece of paper. Leave room on each piece of paper to add more later.
2. Continue to use index cards, post-its, or slips of paper and now write all the things you have been taught about God that are most important to you – attributes of God, things God does, things God doesn’t do, how God does things, why God does things, etc. Again, write only one on each piece of paper and leave room on each piece for more writing later.
3. On each piece of paper write a brief description of why that particular biblical story, biblical lesson, or belief about God is important to you.

Organizing Your Core Beliefs into Themes

1. Organize your individual pieces of paper into clusters with others that are similar.
2. After you have clustered similar ones together, write a one-word title for the shared theme of those cards and brief description of that theme. These themes are your key theological claims. The individual cards under each theme are specific examples of your core theological claims.

Interrogating Your Core Theological Claims

1. Reflect on this definition of theology by theologian Douglas John Hall (from “What is Theology? in Crosscurrents, 2003): “Theology is what occurs when the Christian community knows itself to be living between text and context . . . between the tradition bequeathed to it from those who have gone before and the unfinished book of time present and future. Or perhaps we could put it even more simply: Theology is that ongoing activity of the whole church that aims at clarifying what “gospel” must mean here and now. . . The [gospel] is good [news] because it challenges and displaces bad news. Gospel addresses us at the place where we are overwhelmed by an awareness . . . of what is wrong with the world and with ourselves in it. It is good news because it engages, takes on and does battle with the bad news, offering another alternative, another vision of what could be, another way into the future.”

2. Spend some time thinking about each of your key theological claims in light of Hall’s definition of theology and gospel above.

• When has this claim been good news for you? How? Why?
• When has this claim been good news for your neighbor? How? Why?
• Has this claim ever been bad news for you or your neighbor? When? How? Why? If so, do you think this claim might need to be reevaluated or let go?

Practicing Using Your Core Theological Claims

1. Pick a controversial issue or a current local or global crisis. Examine that issue or crisis through the lens of your key theological claims.
   1. How do your theological claims inform how you think and feel about this issue?
   2. Do they change your perspective? How? Why?
   3. Are they helpful? Problematic? How? Why?

Next Steps

1. Now that you have gained more insight into your key theological claims, it is important to be honest about how they might be helpful and how they might be harmful.
   1. How do you see your key theological claims being helpful?
   2. How do you see your key theological claims being potentially harmful?
2. Who can you share these key theological claims with for feedback and conversation?

As you move forward from this exercise, remember the words of Douglas John Hall, “Theology is that ongoing activity of the whole church that aims at clarifying what [good news] must mean here and now.”

The post Identifying Your Key Theological Claims appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

The Riverside Innovation Hub is a learning community made of local congregations who gather together to learn how to be and become public church in their neighborhood contexts. We convene congregations over two years together, shaped by learning and practicing the artforms of the Public Church Framework in each congregation’s unique context.

Accompaniment is the first artform of the Public Church Framework. It is the movement out into the neighborhood to hear the neighbors’ stories. In this movement, we learn to engage and listen to the neighbor for the neighbor’s sake. We’ve simplified and categorized accompaniment into four different practices that help us hear our neighbors’ stories. This blog post dives into the last layer of accompaniment, one to ones.

You can also read more about the other three layers – Understanding Demographic Data, Prayer Walk in the Neighborhood, and Engaging Listening Posts.

Tools for Deep Conversations

Written by Brenna Zeimet 

The desire to know and be known is at the core of our being as humans. Our compassion, our actions, and our hearts are driven by the relationships and stories of the people around us. When we understand others deeply and connect their experience to our own, we are compelled to love them, it is how we are wired.

Most of us navigate the world as the star of our own story, we spend our days running our errands, chasing our goals and interacting with the friends and family that complete our story’s cast of characters. Every single day we pass dozens of other humans, on the road, in our schools, in the grocery store, even on our own block. Like extras on a movie set, those people wander through the scenes that make up our days and for the most part, we are oblivious to their existence.

What if we got curious about the characters that pass us everyday? What if when we thought about the people who we share space with we saw human beings with stories and dreams and value. What if we began to investigate the depth and beauty and friendships that we are missing out on each day?

Any good story hinges on character development, we connect with the characters when we understand their essence. We want to know their backstory, their motivation, their strengths, their goals, how they think, what they love, what breaks their heart. Knowing your neighbor involves getting to know their essence, moving beyond surface conversation about the weather and sports, and having real, deep, curious conversations – conversations that result in knowing and being known.

As you get to know your neighbors, this exercise will help you have deep and meaningful conversations. I want you to approach these interactions like a writer who is exploring a character for their story. I want you to treat these interactions like a mystery that you are solving. Ask the deep questions, listen past the words that are said to discover “the why” behind it all, seek to truly understand and fully appreciate the human you are interacting with.�� 

You can tell a lot about a person from what they love, what makes them mad, what intrigues and motivates them, what they find funny, how they approach conflict/obstacles, how they feel about people/crowds/ talking, what breaks their heart, the wins and losses in their story.��

As you listen to the story of the person you interact with, pay close attention to the things they reveal about themselves and begin to connect the details into a picture that you can paint for us in this exercise…

Exercise

The post One to Ones: Tool for Deep Conversations appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

Accompaniment is the first artform of the Public Church Framework. It is the movement out into the neighborhood to hear the neighbors’ stories. In this movement, we learn to engage and listen to the neighbor for the neighbor’s sake. We’ve simplified and categorized accompaniment into four different practices that help us hear our neighbors’ stories. This blog post dives into the third layer accompaniment, engaging listening posts.��

You can also read more about the other three layers – Understanding Demographic Data and Prayer Walks in the Neighborhood.��

Listening Posts

Written by Kristina Fruge

Listening posts might just be my favorite element of accompaniment. As someone who is an introvert at heart, but who also prefers to spend the energy I do have on relationships, listening posts offer a soft landing for accompaniment to begin. Listening posts provide an invitation to be fully present and curious about new surroundings while also creating the potential of connections with neighbors in big and small ways.��

A listening post is the term we use to describe the locations that people naturally convene or gather in a neighborhood. This might include the local coffee shop, the ball fields during the summer, a local YMCA, neighborhood association meetings, the local community garden, the town grocery store, the dog park, or even a neighborhood gas station. Your particular context likely has other types of listening posts not on this list, but the common thread is that they function as a sort of hub for people who live, work, worship, pass through or play in that neighborhood to gather and connect. AND, they are great places for listening. Listening posts blend together opportunities for noticing desolation and consolation, as we do in the prayer walks, but also can open doors for one-to-one conversations with neighbors.��

Here is some advice to help you explore the listening posts in your neighborhood. that you can print out to share! 

Identify local listening posts.��

Your prayer walk will help you identify possible listening posts! You can read all about prayer walks in our other blog here. Not only can a prayer walk help you locate possible listening posts, but based on your other observations as you pay close attention to desolation and consolation in the neighborhood, you may discover things that you want to learn more about. That curiosity could lead you to a more focused approach in your search for listening posts.��

You also can ask local leaders, business owners or other neighbors who live in the community where they gather. The local librarian may also be a good resource to talk to. One RIH congregation discovered that another community group was facilitating something called Circle Groups in their neighborhood. These circle groups were gatherings where leaders intentionally invited people from different backgrounds into vulnerable conversations about the things that mattered most to them in the neighborhood. The team members from this congregation were invited to participate and were amazed and humbled to be in a place with neighbors sharing from the heart and in a safe place.��

Finally, feel free to use our list as a jumping off point to imagine possible listening posts in your neighborhood.��

Prepare to visit the listening posts and to be a good guest.

Accompaniment in our neighborhoods is an invitation to flip the script on radical hospitality. A young leader we worked with was a part of an RIH congregation that highly valued offering radical hospitality in their space. He wisely challenged his team to explore this question – What does it mean to extend radical hospitality when we are the guest? They took this imagination with them out into their neighborhood, attempting to apply their core value of radical hospitality from the position of guest, rather than host. And we invite your congregation to do likewise as you visit the listening posts of your neighborhood.��

What does it mean to extend radical hospitality when you are the guest in the listening posts of your neighborhood? The answer to this question will vary depending on your particular context and the particular listening post you are visiting. However, humility, curiosity and compassion again become important values to hold on to. The importance of these values was explored in an earlier post on prayer walks which we encourage you to read, especially since participating in prayer walks in the neighborhood will help you discover the neighborhoods’ listening posts! 

However, the summarized explanation is that in all of our efforts to become vital neighbors, we will find ourselves encountering people and places we don’t know or don’t know very well. We will encounter differences between ourselves and others – whether it be racially, religiously, socio-economically, generationally, or across so many other distinctions. We also expect to experience connection as we discover similarities – love of the same local business, or our pets, or our children, or perhaps share similar fears or longings for ourselves and our neighborhoods. Our differences and our similarities are beautiful gifts – they are what makes up a community and can contribute to the mutual flourishing of its members. However, when ignored, dismissed, threatened or undervalued, these similarities and differences can contribute to harm and heartache in our neighborhoods.��

Imagine a time when you have been a guest in someone else’s home or in a context different than your own. How did humility, curiosity and compassion factor into your efforts to be a good guest in those places? Spend time with others in your congregation wondering about how these values help us be radically hospitable guests as you prepare to visit some of the listening posts in your neighborhood.��

Bring some good questions and a goal.

Listening posts are great places to observe and take a pulse on the neighborhood. But hopefully, an opportunity to interact with neighbors as well. If you’re an extrovert, this may be a fun challenge to meet new people but you’ll want to have some questions in your back pocket to help you be a good listener. We’ve shared some of our favorites below, but get creative.��

• What’s your history with this neighborhood (or this listening post?) 
• What do you love about this neighborhood? What concerns do you have about this neighborhood?
• What’s your favorite place in this neighborhood?
• If I wanted to get to know more about this neighborhood, who would you suggest I talk to? 
• What is one wish you have for this neighborhood? 

And if you’re an introvert, you may want to consider setting a goal for yourself. Here are some examples:

• I want to meet three new people, learn their names and one thing they like about this neighborhood.��
• I want to learn about the history of this listening post.
• I want to find one person who I can invite for coffee for a one-to-one conversation at a later time.��

One RIH congregation spent several afternoons at a local park that was a listening post near their church. They set up a table with some simple kids games and prizes and had a sign up that simply said, “What are your hopes for this community?” They were truly surprised how many people stopped and visited their table, many sharing their thoughts on this question. And a small number of their interactions went from small talk to strangers sharing stories and opening up about some of their heartaches. The church members reflected afterward about how real the presence of God’s love was in these interactions, despite no talk of God, Jesus or church. It left them wondering about the countless stories they didn’t yet hear in the lives of their neighbors.��

Share, reflect and identify next steps as a team after your visits.��

Finally, after you’ve made some visits with other members of your congregation to local listening posts, plan a time to share about your experiences together. Compare your experiences. Listen for any common themes or surprises that come up across your different experiences. Discuss how these encounters are shaping your next steps, especially as you make plans to do one-to-one conversations with neighbors.��

We often talk about “pulling the thread” in this work, which is a way of talking about how we follow the energy and curiosity this exploration of our neighborhoods sparks. As you think about next steps, specifically potential one-to-one conversations you may want to have, reflect on the threads that are starting to poke through. Maybe it was a surprising encounter or discovery in the neighborhood. Maybe it was a theme you noticed. Maybe someone suggested an organization or local leader to connect with. Allow your reflections as a team to surface the threads you want to pull on as you develop your plans for deeper, one-to-one conversations with neighbors.��

The post Accompaniment – Listening Posts appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

Accompaniment is the first artform of the Public Church Framework. It is the movement out into the neighborhood to hear the neighbors’ stories. In this movement, we learn to engage and listen to the neighbor for the neighbor’s sake. We’ve simplified and categorized accompaniment into four different practices that help us hear our neighbors’ stories. This blog post dives into the second layer of accompaniment, a prayer walks in the neighborhood.��

You can also read more about the previous layer in our last blog post – Becoming familiar with the Demographics of your neighborhood

Often congregations may begin at the top of the triangle and work down as a pathway to getting to know the neighbor. However, notice the proportions of each of the layers match the amount of time folks are encouraged to spend with each aspect. Demographic information begins to help us get to know things about our neighbors and may spark curiosity around things we want to learn more about, but to really get to know our neighbors, one to one conversations are at the heart of building real relationships.

The Prayer Walk in the Neighborhood

Written by Kristina Frugé 

The practice of a neighborhood prayer walk is inspired by the , a contemplative prayer exercise that guides you through an examination of your day as you prayerfully seek moments of desolation and moments of consolation.

Moments of desolation are times of sorrow, brokenness, fear, anxiety, etc.

Moments of consolation are times of hope, healing, courage, peace, etc.

You can use the lens of desolation and consolation as you walk through the neighborhood in which your faith community is located, asking God to show you the places of desolation and consolation in that neighborhood. The general outline of this activity includes walking through the neighborhood, paying particular attention to what stands out as consolation and desolation. Then, together, with people in your faith community, reflect on what you saw, felt, sensed and heard and map the locations of those places of consolation and desolation on a shared map. You will find some simple instructions at the end of this post to help you plan for a prayer walk. However, while this activity is fairly straightforward, there are some important aspects to be aware of as you begin.

In all of our efforts to become vital neighbors, we will find ourselves encountering people and places we don’t know or don’t know very well. We will encounter differences between ourselves and others – whether it be racially, religiously, socio-economically, generationally, or across so many other distinctions. We also expect to experience connection as we discover similarities – love of the same local business, or our pets, or our children, or perhaps share similar fears or longings for ourselves and our neighborhoods.��

Our differences and our similarities are beautiful gifts – they are what makes up a community and can contribute to the mutual flourishing of its members. However, when ignored, dismissed, threatened or undervalued, these similarities and differences can contribute to harm and heartache in our neighborhoods. Or to name it through the lens of the Ignatian Awareness Examen – they can cause much desolation. The systemic realities of racism, bias, and unchecked power dynamics play out in neighborhoods everywhere with devastating consequences. They also shape our individual frame of reference as we encounter new people and new places. Entering into the neighborhood on these prayer walks means we inevitably will bring with us some of our own biases and limited understandings. The best medicine to counter our own limitations, is to also carry with us a posture of humility, curiosity and compassion.��

Humility, curiosity and compassion work together as we participate in accompaniment and encounter our neighbors. On a prayer walk this means that what might first look like desolation to me, could hold a much bigger story. An empty, rundown playground might first appear like desolation, especially if it doesn’t look like the newer playground in my children’s neighborhood that our family visits regularly. But if I hold on to humility and remember my own assumptions are limited, I have room to become curious about what else is going on with this playground in this neighborhood. If I remain curious, I might eventually discover that during the evenings and on weekends, this park is a busy listening post where many local neighbors gather for pick-up soccer games and on Saturdays the picnic tables fill with seniors from the nearby apartments who play chess together every week.��

Similarly, if I observed a newly constructed apartment building getting ready to open with the promise of a coffee shop on the first floor, my initial thoughts may be of consolation knowing it means more housing for new neighbors and good coffee. Yet, if I’m a bit more curious about what this development actually means for this neighborhood, there is likely a lot more to the story. It’s possible that it could be new affordable housing, making it easier for people to access housing. Or, it could be that the apartments are luxury and not affordable to many and the new development may actually be pushing existing neighbors out of the neighborhood. The new coffee shop may threaten local businesses who have been in the area for years.��

These examples are offered to illustrate that participating in a prayer walk in the neighborhood near your church isn’t an end in and of itself. The work of accompaniment invites us into this sacred place of relationship building where the gifts of our similarities and our differences can be experienced. A prayer walk through our neighborhoods without humility, curiosity and compassion in the forefront could result in damage and harm. And most certainly can result in missing out on witnessing God’s activity in the neighborhood beyond our unexamined first impressions.��

A prayer walk is an invitation into greater curiosity about what God is already up to. The steps (or car rides!) you take through your neighborhood become a part of a journey towards more deeply understanding what your neighbors experience as desolation and consolation. It begins with some small humble steps, paying attention to what sparks your curiosity, and trusting that God is accompanying us as we step deeper into relationships in the neighborhood.��

Access to the .

Check out these to share with your context.

The post Accompaniment: The Prayer Walk in the Neighborhood appeared first on Bernhard Christensen Center for Vocation.

Accompaniment is the first artform of the Public Church Framework. It is the movement out into the neighborhood to hear the neighbors’ stories. In this movement, we learn to engage and listen to the neighbor for the neighbor’s sake. We’ve simplified and categorized accompaniment into four different practices that help us hear our neighbors’ stories. This blog post dives into the first layer of accompaniment, the Demographics of the Neighborhood.��

Introduction

Written by Jeremy Myers

Summary and Learning Outcomes

This lesson is intended to help individuals and/ or teams gather the demographic data of their particular neighborhoods and begin reflecting on that data in order to gain more insight into those who live in that particular neighborhood. Completing this lesson should help you:

1. be able to find and collect the demographic data of those who live within a particular neighborhood.
2. know more about the people who live their lives within this particular neighborhood.
3. develop a deeper sense of empathy for these neighbors and become curious about how you might get to know them better.

Preparation

1. Use “” to help you complete these following steps in preparation for leading this lesson.
2. Read “What is Accompaniment?” and “Why Demographics?”.
3. Generate your Demographic Report and familiarize yourself with it.
4. Gather the following materials below.��

Materials

• Whiteboard or large sheet of paper to write on
• Bible
• Copy of the demographic report for each person in your group
• Copy of the for each person in your group
• Writing utensil for each person
• Drawing materials (optional)
• Access a !

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Dr. Patrick Reyes, Dean of Auburn Seminary

The Christensen Symposium

The Christensen Symposium and the Christensen Center for Vocation were both established to honor the legacy of Dr. Christensen, the 8^th president of Augsburg University who served from 1938-1962. His legacy was one of critical inquiry and genuine hospitality. We have drawn these lessons from that legacy which still shape our work.

• Christian faith liberates minds and lives
• Diversity strengthens vital communities
• Inter-faith friendships enrich learning
• The love of Christ draws us to God
• We are called to service in the world

It is my hope that you will hear echoes of Dr. Christensen’s lessons in Dr. Reyes’ presentation.

Dr. Patrick Reyes

Dr. Patrick Reyes currently serves as the Dean of Auburn Seminary in New York City.

He is a Chicano writer, theologian, and executive leader and the award-winning author of The Purpose Gap and Nobody Cries When We Die. Prior to his current position he was the Senior Director of Learning Design for the Lilly Endowment’s Forum for Theological Exploration (FTE) where he provided strategy and direction for their diverse programs, grants, and teams supporting the next generation of leaders. In addition, he led the historic fellowships supporting scholars of color, the Institutional Doctoral Network, and partnerships in theological and higher education.

He is a peer among public theologians and deeply respected among faith and justice leaders and funders. He is the current Board President of the Religious Education Association and serves as the Co-Dean of the Freedom Seminary for the Children’s Defense Fund, offering an immersive experience for diverse seminary students from across the country to engage and cultivate prophetic voices with communities on the margins.

Patrick provides leadership on several boards in theological and higher education, publications, and the nonprofit sector, supporting the next generation of Black, Indigenous, and Chicano spiritual and cultural leaders. In the last decade, he has been recognized for his service and scholarship by Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Boston University, Claremont School of Theology, Drew University, Children’s Defense Fund, Hispanic Theological Initiative, Hispanic Youth Leadership Academy, and others.

Patrick was also recently inducted into the Morehouse College MLK Jr. Collegium of Scholars. He lives in New Mexico, where he and his family embrace the cultural and religious traditions and communities they have inherited.

The Purpose Gap: Empowering Communities of Color to Find Meaning and Thrive

“In The Purpose Gap, Patrick Reyes reflects on a family member’s death after a long struggle with incarceration and homelessness. As he asks himself why his cousin’s life had turned out so differently from his own, he realizes that it was a matter of conditions. While they both grew up in the same marginalized Chicano community in central California, Patrick found himself surrounded by a host of family, friends, and supporters. They created a different narrative for him than the one the rest of the world had succeeded in imposing on his cousin. In short, they created the conditions in which Patrick could not only survive but thrive.

Far too much of the literature on leadership tells the story of heroic individuals creating their success by their own efforts. Such stories fail to recognize the structural obstacles to thriving faced by those in marginalized communities. If young people in these communities are to grow up to lives of purpose, others must help create the conditions to make that happen. Pastors, organizational leaders, educators, family, and friends must all perceive their calling to create new stories and new conditions of thriving for those most marginalized. This book offers both inspiration and practical guidance for how to do that. It offers advice on creating safe space for failure, nurturing networks that support young people of color, and professional guidance for how to implement these strategies in one’s congregation, school, or community organization.”

(Description from Bookshop.org)

Recording of 2023 Christensen Symposium

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