Where does community happen for you? Is community about people or about a place? Or is it about both and something even broader? Over the past few weeks, I’ve learned how community is connected to people and places but is something we constantly practice. Some experiences of community are enduring — like lifelong friends or close family — while others are ephemeral, but across the spectrum community is something we build on an ongoing basis.

On Thursday nights, it has been a treat to host one of our New Year, Renewed Hope Community Groups. There have been a couple dozen folk finding their way to our Zoom room each week. Some have been with us each week since the beginning; others have only been able to pop in once. Regardless, everyone in that Zoom room feels like they belong. As facilitators have prepared highlights and discussion questions from different chapters of Colors of Hope, we’ve seen different hues of how people are living their lives across the country. We’ve connected about vulnerable topics with bravery and with comfort. And together, we’ve learned that hope is an act of resistance — something we do not just in big, life-changing moments, but in small practices like logging onto Zoom on a Thursday night to reflect with friends old and new about the ways in which God is present in and across our everyday lives.

How have you been renewed this year? If you haven’t joined, there will be more Community Groups — and you can still sign up for the Ash Wednesday Eve “Spread Love Like Glitter” event.

During this winter season, God invites us inward to reflect on the ways in which we belong to God’s interconnected world. In these groups, we’ve caught glimpses of how that connection can encourage us in our own practice of hope and community however we come to the table.