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We are already deep in Advent, but want to share a link to the Advent playlist that many of us enjoyed over the past few weeks and that still might inspire or illuminate these last few days until the beginning of Christmastide. While compiling the list, we asked Collective participants to choose music based on what Advent meant to them and/or what song they think speaks to this season. The outcome is varied, as are the musical genres, but if you’re traveling the next few days, hanging at home, or running final holiday errands, we invite you to download the playlist and let it inspire your own thoughts about the season.  The pain and joy of waiting, the desire that a better world will come, and our communal prayer for the way of light in times of darkness: This season feels as much about learning to abide and find joy in the waiting as much as the anticipation of better things to come. There will be more to follow (Christmas then Epiphany followed by Ordinary Time), but get started here:

 787 Collective Advent Playlist

For those new to Spotify, you can create an account at no cost (if you wish) and this will allow you to stream the playlist for free if you are connected to the internet with the occasional ad interruption.  Follow this playlist or the channel to stay posted as we consider this new exploration of liturgical time, and if you have suggestions for future playlists (“this song totally reminds me of Lent!” for instance), please email your contribution to mcoon@austinseminary.edu.

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Name: Betsy Appleton
Age: 35
Relationship to the Collective: Team leader for First English Lutheran Church.

Describe the event in three sentences or less: This was a celebration dinner to mark the “end of the beginning” of the work of the 787 Collective. Most groups are wrapping up their formal discernment processes at this point. We met to enjoy a meal, learn what shape others’ projects are taking, and celebrate the ways we will connect with 20somethings through the continuing work of the 787 Collective.

What did you notice during or about this event? I noticed that all of the projects described were unique, which is remarkable since we all followed a common process.

What impacted you the most? I was struck by how well the conversation prompts provided worked to facilitate more depth in conversations. Although I genuinely enjoy talking to people about Big Ideas, Wicked Problems, and the things that are meaningful in their lives I tend to be reticent and unable to ask questions that could be personal, out of fear of offending someone. This was well managed by the question prompts.

What impacted you the least? I was disappointed I didn’t get to try the delicious-looking vegetables I (gladly!) left for the non-meat/non-dairy eating folks to sample first.

What about this event struck you as spiritual and/or carried spiritual significance for you? As I noted above, I really enjoyed the conversations prompted by the questions we were given.

What new or next thing, if anything, did this experience inspire you to do/be/or try in the future? I realized through the dinner conversation that I have not taken much time these days for contemplation and prayer. It is easy for anyone to crowd out room for this sort of practice, and I need to carve out a bit more time for that.

Name: Evan Hearn
Age: 25
Relationship to the Collective: Young Adult Advisor

Describe the event in three sentences or less: Local congregation leaders, the leadership of the 787 Collective, and Young Adult Advisors came together for an evening. We broke bread, mingled, and listened as the congregation leaders shared their proposals for projects meant to improve their churches’ relationship with young adults in their communities.

What did you notice during or about this event? I noticed an incredible diversity among those in attendance. Men and women of different ages, races, and backgrounds found a common denominator in their calling to serve their communities. This shared calling was more powerful than these minor differences, and everyone had a smile and was open to conversation.

What impacted you the most? What particularly interested me was the diversity not just of those attending the event, but also of the project proposals that were shared. Each leadership team had clearly spent time soul-searching: they had reflected on their church’s relationship with young adults in the community, they had thought about how best to reach out to these young adults, and they had formulated clear means of doing so. Whether it was the organization of dinners with young adults – with the appropriately millennial name of “Sup” –, the invitation to participate in a day of silence and meditation, the plan to offer help with real-world skills to marginalized communities, or any other of the dozen proposals shared throughout the evening, each leadership team had something to offer which was appropriate for their community.

What about this event struck you as spiritual and/or carried spiritual significance for you? It’d be hard to say what didn’t strike me as spiritually significant about this event. To see such a diverse group of people coming together with such well thought out proposals, in a shared mission of spreading a message of unity, hope, and progress, was profoundly impactful. There is something inherently spiritual about a group of people coming together for a good cause, and this evening was a perfect example.

What new or next thing, if anything, did this experience inspire you to do/be/or try in the future? It’s always inspiring to see passionate people work towards a goal: for me, this event inspired me to try and be more creative with my own work, and to think about how I can reach out to others in different ways.

If you want to find out more about how the “In Our Words” series got started, click here.

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Name: Caitlin P.
Age: 26
Relationship to the Collective: “Core group” member of St. John’s Methodist Church
Describe the event in three sentences or less: The retreat was a wonderful way to really focus on creating a project outline for our church’s “new thing” regarding young adults. We received clarity about what and how we want to do, and found it very helpful to hear what other groups have done and will do.
What did you notice during or about this event? The group was quite diverse, and the freedom afforded us was much appreciated (ample food, breaks, activities, etc.).
What impacted you the most? Building out our project plan.
What impacted you the least? I honestly can’t remember! I had a wonderful time.
What about this event struck you as spiritual and/or carried spiritual significance for you? Having time to meditate/contemplate alone and in silence.
What new or next thing, if anything, did this experience inspire you to do/be/or try in the future? We planned to hold a lunch and voting guide review and followed by a midterm election “watch party” as our first event.

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But how can we talk about tents, or any intentional dwelling, without talking about who is inside? Or rather, who isn’t? For us, in the scorching heat of late August, getting the tent on its’ feet felt like a success. I saw a few people go in, and got a few bits of positive feedback. The most gratifying moments were to see people who cross our campus daily stop for once, and look a little longer, or smile slightly at the curiosity of what was inside, maybe stopping to consider if they were invited (they were).   Hopefully our next go round will invite more engagement, more lingering. After all, these young people passing by, full of curiosity, timid about invitation, are the heart of our work. And in these young people, I would argue, we are learning to see much more of the world outside the church. All the “threshold people” who are waiting, curious, searching, ready to learn and to teach us how to be the expansive kingdom people that God calls us to be.

This leads me to the primary topic of this post, which is my ongoing fascination with “threshold people” and the church’s capacity to better understand itself in the mirror they provide for us in the current religious climate. Last year, in the basement of the seminary library, I stumbled upon a book that helped me fall in love with prayer again and also began to give me solid language and encouragement around this challenge of simultaneously reaching and learning from threshold spaces and those that populate them. It was written by a now-deceased Anglican priest named Jim Cotter, and I’ve since ordered a small library of his work. He uses language in a way that is both raw and heightened, traditional and invitational. And the way he imagines the work and call of the church through both contemplation and hospitality feels very in-line with the needs and desires of many of the young people crossing our path. One of his most relevant books on this topic is “Love Rekindled: Practising Hospitality.” Written in 1996, chapter titles read like a manual for reclaiming some our most authentic values as a church. Some examples include:

Taking care of the boundaries

Welcoming across the threshold

Befriending the stranger

Nurturing the vulnerable

Bearing the hurts

Feasting with the guests

Listening to the ancestors

If I had to recommend a manual for starting a young adult endeavor at this point, I think it would be this book. Most particularly because of his use and understanding of the concept “Threshold People,” which describes the growing majority of Americans as they understand and name themselves in relationship to the church, particularly those under the age of 40. His chapter on “Welcoming Across the Threshold” accentuates the need for thorough and inviting threshold spaces to invite and make comfortable those that stand at the margins, full of questions and spiritual longings that they themselves may not fully understand. These are the Threshold People he names, and hopes to encourage to draw near.

Claiming the space, or in our case, building the tent, is only the first part of the work.   In our space, and in any spaces we support in creation, we strive for a sense of hospitality that goes beyond invitation and welcome, and really gets to the question of access. In these spaces, the hospitality must continue so that each person feels capacity for participation, and a berth wide enough that they find room for both their questions and the grace of God’s spirit when they enter such spaces. Jim Cotter provides a beautiful description of such a space when describing the missionality of his rambling repurposed vicarage:

Hospitality, then, and a place for prayer and reflection in the city, in a house with an immediate vista of an urban landscape of industry, schools, hospitals, and houses, yet with open space nearby and views across the city to the moors of the Pennines. It is a place for the kind of prayer which pays attention to all this, to whatever is happening in our private and corporate lives, the prayer which is itself hospitable to questions about those lives- and to questions about faith in troubling times- in a spirit of encouragement and challenge, the prayer which becomes still and silent. Out of the weaving of these three strands of attention, question, and silence there can come the creation of something new, which will always be the unexpected gift, maybe to be shared with the host, certainly to take away and to share with others.

We hope to continue to raise the tent, to provide spaces to pay attention, to question, and to indulge in silence. Hopefully you will join us, or consider creating your own endeavor. Either way, may the silence invite the beginning of something new in all of us, in those we serve, and in those not yet adequately served by the church but at our threshold, full of yearning.

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Name: Karen

Age: 71

Relationship to the Collective (or the event): Member of
St. John’s United Methodist Core Group for the 787 Collective.

Describe the event in three sentences or less: The retreat was a marvelous opportunity to experience time away with other members of my church’s core group; to engage with participants from other churches and participating organizations; and to focus on where our initiative is heading.

What impacted you the most?  The creative exercise, based on the passage from Mark 6. Once I got beyond the challenge of being creative in a “crafty” way, the activity was liberating.  The main take-away for me: v.8-9: “You are the equipment.” The worship opportunities were contemplative and centering.

The post In Our Words: Collective Retreat appeared first on 787 Collective.

Name: Travis Fitzgold

Age: 33

Relationship to the Collective (or the event): First English Lutheran Church, 36 Days/36 Ways Challenge, 2018

Describe the event in three sentences or less: I decided to walk up and down Guadalupe St. (“the drag”) in Austin, holding a sign that said, “Free Prayers/Oraciones Gratis”. My goal was to evoke a response from young people (if not conversation), and to stay open to whatever would happen.

What did you notice during or about this event? I noticed that most people actually made an effort to avoid eye contact. Those that did make eye contact averted their eyes pretty quickly thereafter. Some people smiled. One person riding the other direction on a bicycle shouted, “Yeah, pray for me, brother!” Another person, when I asked if he would take my picture, required a fair amount of convincing before he would agree that I was actually not a Russian spy. I started a conversation with a homeless man named David. He treated me like I was absolutely normal. He identified himself as a Nichiren Zen Buddhist, and was currently working on 5 different books, including a socio-political history of mankind. His difficulty in making and keeping a buck, however, was getting in the way of his writing. David was kind and pleasant. I bought him a coke from Einstein’s.

What impacted you the most? The most impactful part of my experience was the difference between how I was treated by the “haves” and the “have nots”. I felt first-hand what it was like to be tacitly ostracized, and I felt a sense of compassion for those who are treated this way, but for reasons they themselves cannot change.

What impacted you the least? At the end of my walk, I stopped in a shoe store to look around. The salespersons were trendy young men, and I felt totally out of place there. They were sort of obligated to interact with me because of their role as salespeople, but I didn’t fit the stereotype of their traditional clientele. I was glad to leave.

What about this event struck you as spiritual and/or carried spiritual significance for you? I felt far more closely in the presence of God in dialogue with David than at any other time on the walk. He had clearly been wounded in his life in a variety of ways, but there was no pretense to his words or actions. He was simply a down-to-earth, flawed, frail, brilliant, beautiful human. He reminded me of the many ways in which the good news is “hidden” or “surprising” in Jesus’ parables.

What new or next thing, if anything, did this experience inspire you to do/be/or try in the future? I went out thinking that I would potentially have a conversation or two with some young people in their twenties. After the experience, however, I was far more interested in going back to talk with David than with the many people who intentionally avoided me.

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Name: Doug Harrison:

Age: 46

Relationship to the Collective (or the event):

A member of St David’s Episcopal Church 787 team, and lead artist for this event: The RSVP I: How will you respond?

Describe the event in three sentences or less:

After weeks of sending cryptic teaserinvitations (an even a questionnaire), we hosted a threshold-themed interactive dinner that was carefully designed to foster different kinds of participation and engagement.  We held it at artistic home setting none of the participants had been to and placed colorfully lit full sized doors in the front yard. While the environment was intentionally strange, many of the details communicated a sense of familiarity and thoughtfulness, like the graphic “name” tags that used images instead of words in such a way that each tag would only be recognized by the person for whom it was intended because it had images that were specifically meaningful to them.  Rotating teams would finish and serve each course while other participants took turns answering modified versions of the now-famous, “36 Questions to Make You Fall In Love” from the New York Times.

What did you notice during or about this event?

It was striking just how eager each person was to answer what were sometimes very probing questions.  Some people expressed remorse that their question they answered wasn’t as challenging as they had hoped.  

What impacted you the most?

The evening was framed by three videos created to drive the theme of the event – that we were standing at the threshold of being a community.  During the final video (set to the music of P!nk’s “What About Us?”) a few people were moved to tears, and not necessarily people I would have originally expected.  It really seems like we were collectively consenting to move closer toward each other in our relationships. We actually crossed a threshold.

What impacted you the least?

Several aspects of our creative planning did not succeed. We lost musical playlists, had technological failures, failed to print some essential elements of the event, but the energy and courage of the participants quickly demonstrated that what we really wanted to happen, was happening.  Small, butstressful, problems melted away.

What about this event struck you as spiritual and/or carried spiritual significance for you?

Many people opened up about some personal things including their families, struggles and spirituality. Some questions prompted people to share affirmations with someone else at the table and they were quite sincere and carefully worded.  Itwas fairly intimate at times. The best sign was at the end of the evening, rather than expressing gratitude on the event organizers, people were quite emphatically thanking each other and their openness and participation. People took chances and made connections and it really paid off.

What new or next thing, if anything, did this experience inspire you to do/be/or try in the future?

We were already hoping that people who had attended this event would want to take leadership in planning the next “RSVP” event.   Several people expressed interest in doing so that very night. It is a great opportunity for people to identify and use their gifts in a way that gives them joy, while also discerning where we are as a group and how are gifts can shape and experience that evokes a response in those who attend (hence the tagline: “How will you respond?”).   We can produce interesting and engaging experiences using the gifts of the people who show up and we can use them to help people reflect on and respond to what God is doing in us as a group. Meanwhile, we will be practicing discernment through the whole process.

How would you like to see The Collective craft a follow-up or a response to this event or experience?

We have a really unique mix of gifts to work with.  We have a strong spiritual leader that has established a culture of openness, acceptance, and safety.  Members of our team also have knowledge of how to intentionally crafter transformational experiences and not just entertaining events while still relying primarily on the gifts of the people within the group, (and recruiting outside young adults who have gifts that would be appropriate for a particular experience – this is also part of our outreach).   We would like to keep doing more of the same while letting other branch out into deeper discernment, awareness of each other’s giftedness and skills, and I hope we can eventually empower other groups and churches to also think creatively and engage all the gifts of their members.

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