Cultivating Refugia: Building the Resilient Church

The BTS Center invites you to recruit a team of 4-5 from your congregation, including the lead pastor (or functional equivalent), to apply to participate in this 10-month community of practice. Six congregations will be selected.

As an expression of The BTS Center’s commitment to the health and vitality of small faith communities, this Small Church Leadership Community is offered as a gift to Northern New England congregations, without an enrollment fee.

Applications for the 2024-2025 Small Church Leadership Community are now closed. If you have questions about future cohorts, please email ben@thebtscenter.org.

In her book, Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth, author Debra Rienstra asks, “How can people of faith become people of refugia? How can we find and create refugia, not only in the biomes of the earth, but simultaneously in our human cultural systems and in our spirits?”

Following two successful Small Church Leadership Community cohorts, The BTS Center is pleased to offer another opportunity for small congregations in Northern New England to join us on this ten-month journey — an invitation to delve deeply into our missions and identities in a climate-changed world.

Participating congregations will explore the concept of refugia and consider how it might shape their mission and identity. Over the course of this program, we will work to name and deepen the unique gifts of small congregations in ways that strengthen their resilience and help them engage in meaningful ministry in this time of cultural and planetary upheaval. Together, we will discern new vocational possibilities for our communities: ones that are not about growing bigger, but about growing deeper into new ways of thinking, being, and acting that will help us better serve our communities and our planet in this time of rapid change.

One of the most powerful findings from The BTS Center’s recent Research Collaborative Report was this: space is a necessary precursor to transformation. Yet so many small congregations find themselves stretched thin by commitments and lack of resources — a combination which makes spaciousness feel all but impossible. The Small Church Leadership Community offers a space to cultivate imagination and possibility — a commitment, certainly, but one which we hope will have deep and lasting impact for your congregational community.

Additionally, the Small Church Leadership Community offers participating congregations access to resources and practices that can strengthen us for the journey while connecting with a community of like-hearted people on similar paths.

Research note: Small Church Leadership Community team members will be asked to complete surveys at the beginning and end of the cohort. Select members may also be invited to take part in research-focused interviews and focus group conversations. These surveys and conversations will enable The BTS Center to assess the ways in which participation in the SCLC is making a difference in the work and lives of its participants, as well as contributing more broadly to the exploration of questions of vocation and leadership in the context of our changing world, in ways that can be shared with a broader audience.

Please contact Ben Yosua-Davis with any questions via email at ben@thebtscenter.org.

Dates

Opening Zoom gathering: Tuesday, September 17, 2024 (4.00 – 6.00 pm Eastern)

Opening Retreat: September 28, 2024

Zoom gatherings twice monthly, September 2024 – May 2025
plus in-person retreat gatherings in September 2024, February 2025, and June 2025

Meet Our Facilitators and Host

Previous Cohort Pages