Riverside Innovation Hub /riversidehub/ Augsburg University Mon, 06 Oct 2025 15:18:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.5 Welcome to RIH, Gretchen! /riversidehub/2025/10/06/welcome-to-rih-gretchen/ Mon, 06 Oct 2025 15:18:35 +0000 /riversidehub/?p=1936 In September, I began a new role with the Riverside Innovation Hub as the Certificate Programs Development Specialist. In this ...

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In September, I began a new role with the Riverside Innovation Hub as the Certificate Programs Development Specialist. In this role I’ll be imagining the future of formation and education at RIH, focusing on ways Augsburg students and individuals from congregations can access our transformative program. As an extension of this work, I will also be deepening RIH’s roots in and connection to the Augsburg University community. This is new and necessary work as RIH builds the path to sustainability. 

I am delighted to join an organization that empowers and equips congregations to connect with their neighbors through mutual relationships based on listening. I am excited to learn more about the work congregations are already doing to build more just and life-giving communities where all people can thrive. I am also thrilled to be joining RIH’s wildly talented and dynamic staff. I can’t imagine a better group of colleagues. 

I look forward to joining the RIH community, learning alongside you and getting to know the incredible work you are already doing. 

Get to Know Gretchen!

Gretchen Roeck joined the Riverside Innovation Hub in September of 2025 as the Certificate Programs Development Specialist. 

Gretchen joins the team after serving as the Program Director for The Confluence through the Christensen Center for Vocation at Augsburg University. The Confluence is another way Augsburg invites congregations and their high school youth to contemplate vocation, neighboring practices and theological inquiry on Augsburg’s unique campus. You can read more about the program and its impact here.

Gretchen is also an ordained Episcopal priest who has served faith communities in the Twin Cities metro, particularly working with children, youth, families and young adults. She is passionate about inviting young people into a relationship with God, fostering their personal growth, and walking alongside them in their spiritual and vocational journeys. She is committed to building and sustaining safe, inclusive and welcoming communities that lead towards health and wholeness for individuals and their broader communities. 

Creating safe, supportive and loving spaces extends to Gretchen’s personal life. She is the mother of two fun and creative boys. Together they share a home in Minneapolis with their friendly but anxious dog and sweet cat.

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Hungry for Hope Available Today! /riversidehub/2025/08/29/hungry-for-hope-available-today/ Fri, 29 Aug 2025 14:42:31 +0000 /riversidehub/?p=1924 Written by Kristina Frugé Three years ago at this time, our RIH team was making preparations to host 50 young ...

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Written by Kristina Frugé

Three years ago at this time, our RIH team was making preparations to host 50 young adults on campus at Augsburg University from across the country. The purpose of this gathering was to listen to the stories of younger generations as they shared their experiences of gratitude, hopefulness and frustration in the church. Collectively these stories spoke to the hunger of this generation for a more hopeful and thriving world. The young adults gathered also shared a belief that God is calling the church to engage seriously in that vision, no matter the challenges.

This gathering unleashed a much longer journey to amplify the voices of younger generations through the creation of a multi-authored book. I am beyond proud and humbled to share that , is now officially released! It will be followed by a book launch party on September 25th, 2025 here in Minneapolis (AND you’re invited – scroll to the bottom for details!) 

In a time when there is a popular narrative about younger generations being less and less engaged in the church, we hope this book will contribute to a different story that is unfolding. A story that can imagine a church and a world that makes room for all of our thriving. A story that starts one relationship at a time, setting a table, and joining others from different backgrounds, generations and walks of life to wrestle honestly with the challenges before us. This book is rooted in a belief that we need to better understand each other’s hopes and fears if we are going to meet the challenges of our day, faithfully. Folks don’t need to agree on all the topics our authors have lifted up, but rather we hope folks will accept the invitation to the tables these chapters create. Tables for connection, understanding, and hopefully, new insights and wisdom to navigate the challenges of our world.

If you’ve read this far, consider yourself invited to celebrate with us! And if you’re busy on September 25th or won’t be in the Twin Cities, we hope you’ll check out the book and read through it with some people in your life. Our local bookstore, , is carrying it as are most major bookstores. The book also comes with an online toolkit to help groups and individuals engage each chapter. The toolkit can be found at our website:

The journey of creating this book has reached a major milestone, but now a new chapter begins as you are invited to join in. On behalf of the writing community of Hungry for Hope, I am eager to welcome you to pull up a chair at the table, invite a friend or two and join the conversation. 

Hungry for Hope Book Launch Celebration

When: Thursday, September 25th, 2025

Time: 5:00pm – 8:00pm

Location: 2708 E Lake St. Suite 207, Minneapolis, MN, 55406

 

More details here:

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When Community Gets Real: Flowing Into Sustainability Together /riversidehub/2025/07/31/when-community-gets-real-flowing-into-sustainability-together/ Thu, 31 Jul 2025 20:14:01 +0000 /riversidehub/?p=1905 Written by Geoffrey Gill a reflection of our Sustainability Retreat in June 2025. “Rivers carved stones, not by force, but ...

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Written by Geoffrey Gill a reflection of our Sustainability Retreat in June 2025.

“Rivers carved stones, not by force, but by showing up day after day until Earth remembers.”

We went to Dunrovin Retreat Center in St. Croix with four intentions: slow down together, encourage through reflection, dream about the future, and claim our next right work.

What happened was we actually did those things. Not the polite version. The real version.

The Ground We Broke

Picture this: teams scattered around tables, sharing their stories – not the clean sanitized versions they tell at board meetings, but the messy truth. The breakthroughs mixed with grief. The celebrations tangled up with the spaces where they’re stuck.

Someone said the word “ecosystem” and suddenly we weren’t talking about neighborhoods as problems to solve anymore. We were talking about soil – what feeds growth, what determines what can actually take root. Climate – the forces that decide who belongs. Water – the relationships that connect everything, and what happens when they dry up.

Then we walked outside.

When the Trail Became Teacher

There’s something that happens when you stop theorizing about interconnection and start looking at it. Actual roots. Actual water flow. Actual evidence of what thrives and what doesn’t, and why.

Standing there in the heat that made us grateful for shade, pointing at trees that couldn’t survive without the fungi they’re connected to, talking about how nutrients in soil literally determine what grows – the metaphor stopped being a metaphor.

We came back inside with dirt on our shoes and feet – some people had taken their shoes off to ground themselves in the earth – and something shifted in our bodies.

The Moment Everything Got Uncomfortable

Arts and crafts materials everywhere. Big sheets of paper. Cut-out trees and clouds and rocks. People mapping their actual communities – the power holders, the connectors, the resistance, the beautiful mess of how things really work.

Then someone asked about invasive species.

The room went quiet. Because suddenly we had to name things. Put labels on community groups. Say out loud what we usually only think privately. The discomfort was thick enough to touch.

And instead of managing that tension away, we stayed with it. Let it teach us something about the difference between comfortable conversations and honest ones. About how growth happens when we finally look at what we usually can’t bear to see.

Bodies as Maps

Someone literally laid down on paper and let themselves be traced. Their body became the template for understanding how their church actually works.

Brain – the visionaries and tactical thinkers. Heart – the compassionate ones. Hands – the church basement ladies who get things done. Muscles – the power holders. Digestive system – yes, we actually assigned the opposition folks to the digestive system, and somehow that made sense. Feet – the neighborhood connectors, the door kickers, the ones who make things happen on the ground.

Watching people write and draw in different areas of that traced body, figuring out where the blockages are, where the energy flows, where things are disconnected – it was like watching surgery on community itself.

The Truth About Change

We worked with the change formula – looking at dissatisfaction with how things are, vision for what’s possible, and actual first steps we could take, weighing all of that against the resistance, reluctance, and fear.

The question wasn’t whether resistance exists – of course it does. The question was whether our pain plus hope plus action could outweigh it.

Some people’s next right action was grief. Some needed rest. Some needed to step back for conversations they’d been avoiding. The work honored that instead of pushing everyone toward the same action steps.

What We Took Home

In the closing circle, people shared what they were taking with them. Not platitudes or good intentions, but specific clarity about what God was preparing them to become. What their next right work actually was. Where they located themselves in all of this.

We sang “Build a Longer Table” before we left. Voices mixing in the air, carrying something we’d built together back out into the world.

The Transmission

Here’s what I want you to know: this level of authentic community work is possible.

Not the version where everyone’s polite and nothing really changes. The version where people cry and laugh and name uncomfortable truths and trace each other’s bodies on paper and intense conversations about invasive species and come out the other side more connected, more clear, more ready for whatever comes next.

The version where you stop managing tension and let it carve new channels, like rivers working on stone.

It requires showing up day after day, creating containers strong enough to hold what wants to emerge. It requires facilitators who know how to ground a room when things get shaky. It requires trusting that communities can handle their own truth when they’re held well enough.

But it’s possible. We know because we did it.

The people in that room walked away different than they came. Not because someone fixed them or gave them the right strategy, but because they did the work of seeing clearly – themselves, their communities, their ecosystems – and discovered they could bear more truth and see more possibility than they thought.

That’s the kind of sustainability that actually sustains: not the kind you implement, but the kind you become.

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Hungry for Hope is Available for Preorder! /riversidehub/2025/02/10/1807/ Mon, 10 Feb 2025 17:45:25 +0000 /riversidehub/?p=1807 We are thrilled to announce the preorder link is available for our upcoming book, Hungry for Hope: Letters to the ...

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We are thrilled to announce the preorder link is available for our upcoming book, Hungry for Hope: Letters to the Church from Young Adults!

 

 

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.

Learn more at www.hungryforhopebook.com

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What have you been preparing us for? /riversidehub/2024/11/11/what-have-you-been-preparing-us-for/ Mon, 11 Nov 2024 14:28:29 +0000 /riversidehub/?p=1822 Written by Kristina Frugé At the end of October, the Riverside Innovation Hub gathered our congregations (in person and online) ...

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Written by Kristina Frugé

Two women and Geoffrey gathered in a circle during the discernment gathering laughing and smiling. At the end of October, the Riverside Innovation Hub gathered our congregations (in person and online) for our Discernment Gathering. Since we first began to gather with this community in July 2023, each congregation and individual participant has covered a lot of ground. The journey has not always been smooth and has presented folks with several surprises along the way – some welcomed and some very challenging. Leadership transition, the loss of a building, the coming and going of neighborhood relationships, coping with the ongoing changes of congregational life and the exciting (albeit sometimes uncomfortable) questions that come from learning new things.  

Each congregation has been navigating its own path in the places and neighborhoods unique to each church. These contexts span the US – literally! From our folks at Wesley United Methodist in Eugene, Oregon to our friends at Amherst Lutheran Church in Amherst, Massachusetts and a good number folks in our Twin Cities plus region. Our Midwest crew ranges from city contexts – like those at Christ on Capitol Hill, Diamond Lake Lutheran and Awaken Church – to rural contexts like Moscow Lutheran in Austin, MN. And several folks in suburban communities of Plymouth (St. Barnabas Lutheran), Eagan (Easter Lutheran), Bloomington (Christ the King Lutheran), and Roseville (Roseville Lutheran).

From all these distinct places, we have joined our paths periodically to gather, share wisdom and challenges from the road, find some renewed energy or clarity on next steps together, and to learn together along the way, practicing the artforms of the public church framework. 

Bottom two photos are the small groups during the Discernment gathering and the top is Pastor Babette opening the space about Discernment.This most recent gathering brought all of our paths together to focus on the artform of discernment. The beginning of 2024 started with a focus on accompanying the neighbor and listening to stories from our places. Then this spring we shifted our focus to interpretation where we examined the values and beliefs that shape the lens we use to understand the world around us. This next season of discernment is one of wondering what all these things mean? What is God’s call to our congregation, given what we’ve seen, heard and experienced this past year?

Looking ahead to the future can be overwhelming. The unanswered questions typically outnumber the things we know we can count on. Not only is it a path we have not yet traveled down, but part of the discernment in our present moment includes choosing which path to pursue. There is usually more than one option so how do we choose wisely, and faithfully?

In a world that often prioritizes urgency and productivity, we are tempted to rush ahead down the most obvious (and easiest) path to action.  But discernment is an invitation to slow down, pause and get our bearings. It is permission to breathe deeply, put both feet on the ground, and take stock of God’s activity within and around us on the journey so far. Rather than forecasting the unknown future, discernment gifts us with the question: “Lord, what have you been preparing us for?”

As we gathered together this fall, the RIH community showed up as both the guest and host of this precious question. Folks shared stories from their own lives and from their congregation of how God has been active and faithful in times of discernment. The community held space for one another, listening with curiosity and compassion. The reality of grief and change was present as those in the room reflected on the transitions underway in several of our congregations. People named the many distinct ways that they experience the holy and God’s leading in their lives. And even in the midst of people’s grief, challenges, and uncertainties about the future, hope rose to the surface in our gathered space in recognition of the fact that none of us are facing whatever is next, alone. God will be faithful. And this community of fellow travelers is in our corner. 

Some of the ways we will continue to engage in spiritual discernment together in the coming months includes: meeting with each congregation for deeper discernment together on God’s invitation to be vital neighbors, a webinar on Nov. 14 hearing from alumni RIH pastors sharing their insights on discernment in uncertain times, and cohort gatherings in the new year to share what is emerging in each congregation’s ongoing discernment. 

On behalf of this lovely RIH community, we invite you too to hold on to the question, “Lord, what have you been preparing me/us for?” From the national to local to personal level, it is clear that we live in a time with many challenges and concerns about our individual and shared futures. The highly anticipated 2024 election and its impact looms large in our lives, as do likely many personal realities that don’t make the headlines. As we move into whatever emerges in this season, we hope this question can be a trustworthy companion. We have clues, qualities, insights, skills and stories to lean into that God can use to guide our next steps. And, we have each other. 

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The Manuscript is in! Let’s Celebrate! /riversidehub/2024/09/26/the-manuscript-is-in-lets-celebrate/ Thu, 26 Sep 2024 14:32:28 +0000 /riversidehub/?p=1825 Written by Kristina Frugé  Two years ago we hosted 50 young adults from around the US at Augsburg for a ...

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Written by Kristina Frugé 

TwoThe 50 young adults at the Threshold standing in the chapel 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. 

Headshots of all the authors of the book project in a collage
The authors of the book.

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

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There’s the Surface and then there’s the Depth /riversidehub/2024/09/12/theres-the-surface-and-then-theres-the-depth/ Thu, 12 Sep 2024 14:40:30 +0000 /riversidehub/?p=1833 Facilitators Geoffrey and Brenna were in Amherst, MA visiting Immanuel Lutheran Church at the beginning of August. Immanuel Lutheran is ...

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Facilitators Geoffrey and Brenna were in Amherst, MA visiting Immanuel Lutheran Church at the beginning of August. is in our distant learning cohort in our current RIH learning community. It was a powerful weekend of relationship building with their hub team and learning about their relationship with their neighbors at Craig’s Doors, an organization that supports unhoused neighbors.

We asked the team at Immanuel to reflect on their experience of the weekend. One of their team members, Ruth Rinard wrote the following piece about her experience.

“There’s the Surface and then there’s the Depth”

Written by Ruth Rinard, Immanuel Lutheran Church Team member

Landscape of water with trees & bushes painted by Ruth Rinard
Landscape painted by Ruth Rinard

We didn’t know you, but you came.
Curiosity lead to questions.
We began to feel a connection.
Then there was a “squirrel” moment.
And we plunged deeper.
You held space for vulnerability.
We felt a tingling of the Spirit.
Unlikely conversations happened.
We were all the richer for them.
We learned we could go as deep with others
As we go deep in ourselves.

Thank you for coming!

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You Are Invited /riversidehub/2024/06/13/you-are-invited/ Thu, 13 Jun 2024 14:34:21 +0000 /riversidehub/?p=1827 Facilitator Reflection Written by Brenna Zeimet As I reflect on this event, I am awash with a sense of expectant ...

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Facilitator Reflection

Written by Brenna Zeimet

A collage of photos from the learning event. Kristina speaking to the group at the podium, Pastor Marty smiling at the camera, post-it work from a team, and the Roseville team gathered at their table. As I reflect on this event, I am awash with a sense of expectant hope. As I wandered the tables and listened to conversations and sat one to one talking with folks, I was struck by how much has changed in such a short time. 

The conversations have changed from questioning what we’re doing here and what this is all about, to finding deep connection with the neighbor’s story and searching for a place in the narrative of the community. Where do we fit? What should we be paying attention to? Who do we need to be to meet our neighbor where they are today? It was no longer a skeptical questioning of this process or a planning session for new programs, this community has begun to fall in love with the people around them and that love is driving change in our worldview and our identity as the Church. We are changing as we adapt to the heartbeat of God for people.

I am excited about what this season of Interpretation will bring as we dig deep into the beliefs and assumptions that drive our actions. We will examine how our worldview brings hope and where it causes harm or puts up barriers to authentic and vulnerable relationship. These teams are ready to engage this intense and transformative work, and the health that will flow from this time will bring change to our churches and our neighborhoods.


At our last learning event Kristina Fruge shared a letter with our RIH community to open our space both online and in person. It was written with inspiration from her friend Lauren out in Spokane, WA. It was a beautiful way to open and close our event and there are invitations she names that are good reminders on how we can create places of belonging for all our neighbors. We share it with you in hopes that it will continue to nourish your soul as you embark on this work of being neighbor in the world in the midst of all the feelings of being human. 


Dear neighbor,

This letter is your invitation. You may have already RSVPed to show up today, but this letter and these words are your invitation to be present and to participate in this gathering – to give what you have to offer and likewise to receive the gifts of others in this community. 

You are invited today, neighbor, to show up with all of you. No need to leave anything at the door today.  Our time together will include exploring the artform of interpretation. This means we will take time to wonder about the realities that shape our understanding of the world around us. This means your experiences, your stories, the places you are from, the people who have shaped you, and the realities and relationships that are currently demanding your attention, truly matter. 

Kristina at the podium smiling looking out into the crowd. The screen down with a question of how is people's energy level that day.Are you bringing sadness with you today? You are invited. 

Are you bringing joy with you today? You are invited.

Are you bringing worry about the uncertainties of the future – of your own, your congregation’s, your community’s, this planet’s? You are invited. 

Are you bringing exhaustion or fatigue with you today? You are invited. 

Are you bringing compassion and hope with you today? You are invited. And if that’s you, don’t be shy to share a little with those of us who are running on low…

Are you bringing grief with you today? If so, you are invited. And may you be reminded that God’s presence is ever more close to you right now. So keep an eye out.

Each and everyone of you is invited to keep your eyes and ears and hearts open, expectantly on the look out for God’s activity among us. You are invited, just as you are invited to pay attention to all the parts of you that shape the lens you use to engage and understand the world. 

Thank you for saying yes to this invitation when it likely meant saying “no” to others. Welcome! Welcome to this time of sharing, of learning, of connecting. Welcome to this time of community. Your presence and participation today is what makes this community possible. And community makes all things possible. Yours truly, Kristina

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A Devotion and Invitation to Reflect on Interpretation /riversidehub/2024/06/07/a-devotion-and-invitation-to-reflect-on-interpretation/ Fri, 07 Jun 2024 14:37:47 +0000 /riversidehub/?p=1830 Written by Geoffrey Gill Greetings, In the flow of our everyday lives, finding moments of peace to hear the quiet, ...

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Written by Geoffrey Gill

A pond with grass, lilly pads, ripples and a fishing pole. 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,

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Faith in Action: Reflecting God’s Relational Essence /riversidehub/2024/05/02/faith-in-action-reflecting-gods-relational-essence/ Thu, 02 May 2024 14:46:46 +0000 /riversidehub/?p=1840 In between our learning events, our facilitators Geoffrey and Brenna spend time with the congregations in cohorts. We asked Brenna ...

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A round table of a team during our last learning community looking down at their prayer walk. "I have been trying to figure out this whole time what our project would be at the end of this, but I’m realizing…Relationships are The Project... Alice in our RIH Learning Community"In between our learning events, our facilitators Geoffrey and Brenna spend time with the congregations in cohorts. We asked Brenna and Geoffrey to reflect what they are hearing and experiencing with their learning cohorts.

Brenna’s Reflection

As we journey together through our season of accompaniment, our teams are learning a lot about their neighbors and what it means to be a public church. In our March cohort meeting we heard stories of engaging with schools, local police, members in our congregations, and local pastors from other churches. Our teams have begun to explore their neighborhoods on prayer walks and they’ve been meeting in local coffee shops and restaurants to listen and learn. They’ve engaged in public forums and local events and even attended Iftar dinners with their Muslim neighbors. Their curiosity and love for their neighbors is growing and it culminated in an exciting moment at our March cohort meeting where one of our team members interrupted the sharing time with an epiphany, “I have been trying to figure out this whole time what out project would be at the end of this, but I’m realizing…Relationships Are The Project”. They’re starting to catch it, knowing and loving your neighbor is the whole goal.

Geoffrey’s Reflection

Many teams are slowly and steadily unfolding how to express the purpose of this work. In a meaningful conversation, Pastor Andrea, from Diamond Lake Lutheran, one of our mentor congregations, asked team member Kurt, why does this work matter? Remembering what Jeremy Myers said, at the accompaniment learning event, Kurt emphasized that our mission aligns with the biblical narrative of accompaniment—God is a relational God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This insight compels us to genuinely live out our faith, walking with and being in trustworthy relationships with our neighbors just as Christ did.

A thread that underlies every team is embracing change, everybody is moving at their own pace but all reimagining their role as the church in today’s world. This shift has been deeply emotional, bringing up forgotten and unforgiven threads that were swept under the rug. Walking through this shift, we are carefully tending and deadheading our spiritual gardens, and we are encountering a mix of grief and opportunity. Clearing the debris; composting and making space for new growth and blooming.

Alas, all this work brings up feelings of loss and hope. Grieving has been a recurring theme and an integral part of our conversations, it reminds me of a kind of enduring, like a mother pregnant with new life and physically going through a transformation to welcome and raise a new being into the world. This process as we learn or more accepting requires us to slow down and break the agenda, to pause and deeply reflect, making space for both lamenting what was and anticipating what will be.

As we adapt, it’s clear that many teams are ready to step into this new path and some of us are struggling forward into a new possibility of a deeper and more profound relationship with God, church, and neighbor.

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