A great first evening with ministers on the Northern California District as part of the #NTS Nurturing Care NorCal Initiative https://www.nts.edu/nurturing-care/#NorCal. Tonight was basically an introduction to our work together by asking, in a world of “shoulds,” “oughts,” “cannots,” and “prohibited” mindsets… “how might we?” How might we foster experiences of God among elementary ages children from diverse settings while fostering a deep sense of gratitude and care among the children and adults in our conversations.

The first exercise really entailed a process of “naming” children we knew: the experience they have had, the hopes and expectations they might hold, the challenges they might face in their journey, the concerns and questions they might raise in their journey.

After discussion we merely gave one to two single “words” that summarized the journeys of the children represented in the narratives shared. Those words began to place children in the middle of the table discussions and later placed as words of devotion for our efforts going forward.

The next phase really began our process of where the congregations will:

Name Challenges

Find Problems worth exploring

Develop Strategies to find solutions

Build Partnerships with Mini-grants for support

Tonight we closed with challenges, naming a number of challenges and problems, but then selecting the one challenge or problem that might hold the promise of finding strategies to explore over the rest of the retreat and across the next year. Participants were reminded the retreat is designed to leave with a Strategy to explore, not a solution to implement. Hopefully we will have some great strategies tomorrow that will inspire partnerships across the congregations represented.