While we may want to leave them in the past, our formative experiences shape us and the ways in which we interact with our families, friends, communities and the people we lead. Becoming aware of the patterns in our lives, and how they are shaped by these formative experiences, opens the possibility of healing and change. 

The Hope & Anchor Weekend is for you if you: 

• Have patterns in your life that you want to learn and heal from

• Desire to learn how to hold and engage another person's story with wisdom and compassion

• Want to develop resilience as you respond to the various demands of life

• Hope to experience spiritual transformation in a new way

Hope & Anchor

When we engage the human heart we seek to be people who offer a powerful yet grounded presence. To be truly present to another person in their distress requires a certain depth of character that can only found over time through the careful processing of personal stories of tragedy and heartache with others that have the capacity to offer an attuned presence.

The great gift we offer those under our care in any position of leadership is our non-anxious presence. 

Being present is also the trajectory of the Biblical story; since the beginning, although God walked with his people, he did not dwell with them. Whether it was the tabernacle in the wilderness or the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, movement through the story of scripture has always meant that God would dwell with—and be present to— his people. 

This is the hope we have: as God is moving the story to one of greater presence, we are also growing our capacity to be present with one another.   

Hope is not an abstract proposition, it is not wishful thinking, but became personal and intimate.

Hope walked among us and calls us to be a hope-filled presence for one another, patient and expectant for what the Spirit is birthing, practicing a broken-hearted listening as the foundation for all social action and leadership.

The tallest trees in the world (Redwoods) anchor themselves through drought, fire, and storm by joining their roots with other neighboring trees. We must be that connected and present to sustain our hope in God’s future.