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.

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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.��

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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.

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At a recent vocation chapel, our speaker shared this blessing as an opening reading. It was lovely and a much needed reminder.��

May we continue to show up true to who we are.��

May we remember that the small ordinary moments are worth blessing.��

That the small things that you do every day matter.��

That we each are worthy of love and no resolution will make us more worthy.��

May it inspire us to continue to work together towards justice, not to earn worthiness, but because we understand that we are in this life together.��That we are called by our faith to show up as neighbor with an open heart and open arms reminding those that they matter and demanding that the world see it too.��

A New Year’s Blessing for realists by Nadia Bolz-Weber.��

As you enter this new year, as you pack away the Christmas decorations and get out your stretchy pants,

as you face the onslaught of false promises offered you through new disciplines and elimination diets,

as you grasp for control of yourself and your life and this chaotic world –

May you remember that there is no resolution that, if kept, will make you more worthy of love.

There is no resolution that, if kept, will make life less uncertain and allow you to control your aging parents and your teenage children and the way other people act.�� 

So this year (as every year),

May you just skip the part where you resolve to be better do better and look better this time.

Instead, may you give yourself the gift of really, really low expectations. Not out of resignation, but out of generosity.

May you expect so little of yourself that you can be super proud of the smallest of accomplishments.

May you expect so little of the people in your life that you actually notice and cherish every small, lovely thing about them.

May you expect so little of the service industry that you notice more of what you do get and less of what you don’t and then just tip really well anyhow.

May you expect to get so little out of 2024 that you can celebrate every single thing it offers you, however small.

Because you deserve joy and not disappointment.

So, I wish you a Happy as possible New Year.

Love, Nadia.

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The Young Adult Book Project has surpassed another mile marker in our project! Our author team gathered for a second Writers’ Retreat at Mt. Olivet Conference and Retreat Center last month. This gathering marks the completion of mile marker #5! We’re just over a year out from The Threshold Envisioning event, where about fifty young adults gathered to share our joys, heartaches, hopes and dreams for the church and the book chapter themes were distilled from those stories and experiences. Since then, we selected a young adult author and a thought leader author to co-write each chapter. We gathered those authors in March at the first Writers’ Retreat to create a shared vision for the book and start the co-writing process. Two authors have had to discern out of this project due to needing to prioritize their time and energy on health and recovery. As people come and go from this project – we give our deep gratitude for the contributions along the way. Their departures created space to invite two new authors in.�� Each set of authors has navigated the highs and lows of the writing process, defined and redefined their expectations of each other, and wrestled with their busy schedules to write and revise first and second drafts of their chapters.

The purpose of this second Writers’ retreat was to move into the of the book.  Rick Rubin describes the creative process as four phases: Seed, Experimentation, Craft, and Editing & Completion. The “Craft Phase” moves from generating possibilities and ideas into refining material with a clearer sense of direction and structure. For this project that means both the individual chapters and the larger book are beginning to take clearer shape and more cohesive structure. We accomplished this at the retreat by developing a shared larger vision of the overall book, large group discussion and decision making for cohesiveness across chapters, and co-author work time.��

So far, each author has focused specifically on their own theme, and Kristina and I are the only people to have read each chapter. To help the whole writing team develop a wider vision of the book, we had each author pair share a brief overview of their chapter. They explained the main concepts, the hoped for impact, the writing style, and anything else they want everyone else to know about their chapter so far. This helped everyone have a wider view of the book, with a better, more updated, understanding of how each chapter is emerging.��

Then each writer was assigned a different chapter to read and share feedback on. We paired each pair of co-authors with authors from two different themes, ones we (Kristina and I) considered having some sort of connection or overlap. They each read the paired chapter and spent time sharing their reflections on the following questions: 

1. What needs clarifying? Was there anything confusing to you or that you think might potentially be confusing to other readers? 
2. What seems key to this chapter theme? What do you think is most important (and helpful) for the reader to take away?
3. What would help you as a reader take ideas from this chapter and integrate them to your own context? 
4. What questions do you have for the author? 
5. What connections do you hear with your own chapter?

After this work to expand the team’s understanding of the book as a whole, we reflected on what we’re hearing as themes throughout the book and distilled some common themes and moved our focus onto the cohesiveness of the book. The cohesiveness will emerge with attention to shared elements across each chapter, and how the chapters are framed with the introduction and conclusion. Some of the key elements that will be intentionally built into each chapter are: 

• Voice: all chapters will be written in a distinct two-author perspective
• Contextualize Authors: there will be a clear, concise paragraph so each reader knows who the authors are for this chapter and why they are writing on this theme
• Reader Accessibility: authors will tend to the language and structure of their chapter so the readers will be able to clearly understand and receive the message in each chapter
• Application Toolkit: the end of chapter will include a toolkit to help the reader respond to and integrate the ideas into their context. The toolkit will include discussion questions, practices, and recommended resources.��
• Nitty gritty details: The specifics of citations, font and formatting will also get more attention in this draft than they previously have.��

The framing of the book will open with an introduction that serves a lot of purposes. It will build trust with the reader by sharing how this book came to be, who is behind this book, our hopes for what the book invites the readers into, and some tools for the readers as they read. The conclusion will end the book by inviting readers to respond to the invitation of the book, and each specific chapter. Much like the process of writing this book, the invitation in the conclusion will be deeply relational, imaginative, collaborative and embodied.��

We closed our time together by tying up loose ends. Each author pair had time to finalize their plan to work towards a final draft due at the beginning of February, and sent us on our way with a shared song. It was a gift to be together again, sharing space and intentional work time together, remembering our hopes and vision for the project and the church, playing games, being nourished by food, laughter, nature and rest.��

As we look ahead to the next milestones of the project, we’ll be revising and editing, having ongoing conversations with the publisher, developing a marketing and promotion plan for the book, following the publisher’s lead, and celebrating and compensating for the great work of this amazing writing team! If you’d like to get an update when pre-orders become available, fill out this google form to join the mailing list

Additional Resources:

Read more about the Threshold Event here: /ccv/2022/11/17/emerging-themes-from-the-threshold-envisioning-event/

Recap from the first Writers’ Retreat /ccv/2023/04/13/the-writers-have-met-a-recap-of-the-writers-retreat-in-montreat/

Learn more in his book (Rubin, Rick. The creative act: a way of being. Penguin, 2023.) or the On Being Podcast Episode:

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