A Think Tank Among Gospel Friends –– NCB Highlights of 2024

NCB Highlights of 2024

Friendship arises out of mere companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure or burden. The typical expression of opening friendship would be something like: “What? You too? I thought I was the only one!”  
- C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, 1960.

How productive was your organization last year? This is what hypercapitalistic societies always want to know. What was your gross output? How many projects did you successfully complete? How many individuals were impacted? Did your customer base grow as projected at the beginning of the fiscal year? What was your bottom line?

Rather than productivity, Jesus uses the language of fruitfulness: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit” (John 15:3). He goes on to describe fruitfulness as love for one another and that “greater love has no one than this - to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Simply put, self-sacrificial friendship is the highest form of love!

C.S. Lewis helpfully explains what so often sparks friendship, i.e. the discovery of some keen interest shared by two or more individuals, whether that be poetry, pickleball, or Coen Brothers filmography. For NCB, the common passion is critical gospel inquiry: What does it mean to live faithful to Christ in the current social, cultural and political moment?  Therefore, it is our joyful task to create “third spaces” where folks can together grapple with such questions while keeping company that, Lord willing, could result in lasting, sacrificial friendship. This is why we envision ourselves as a “think tank among gospel friends.” In pursuit of this vision, here are seven highlights of 2024:

The Barmen Retreat.  With concerns about the growth of religious nationalism at home, we rented a 9-bedroom home in June to engage Karl Barth’s Theological Theses of Barmen to learn from the Confessing Church’s resistance to facism in 1930s Germany. The retreat represented quintessential NCB with participants across generation, culture and theological tradition.

Pilot cohort program.  In a first-time experiment, we gathered a diverse, intergenerational group of fourteen Christ-followers (including theologians, pastors, working professionals and students) from throughout the Bay Area (East, West & South Bays) to begin a 9-month co-learning journey, engaging theology and current issues within the local and national context. 

The Saturday “workshop retreat.” Inspired, in particular, by an all-day Saturday workshop we held in Berkeley, “Teologia en Conjunto” (Theology in Community) led by Dr. Robert Chao Romero, the strength of extended learning times, over short 90-minute one-offs, was evident. The nomenclature of “workshop retreat” denotes both generativeness and restoration.

Growing congregational partnerships. A first ever collaborations with a denomination’s Latino pastors network (of the Evangelical Covenant Church) and an African-American Presbyterian Church in Richmond marked significant strides in the development of new church partnerships. Co-creating retreats that serve local congregations, and their neighbors, will grow in 2025.

Visit with Sharon Gallagher. In September, an NCB contingent made an overnight trek to Red Bluff, CA, to visit with the venerable Sharon Gallagher, long-time editor of Radix Magazine. It was a rich and heart-warming time of celebration story-telling, particularly among those who date back to the Christian World Liberation Front (CWLF) of 70s Berkeley.

Acquisition of Radix Magazine.  Sharing decades-long CWLF history, the two ministries are now one. In addition to becoming the official publication of NCB, Radix will also be a key development vehicle for new writers, thanks to Dr. Marilyn McEntyre and Matthew Steem, editor. Integration of Radix into NCB’s ongoing programming is underway.

Spirituality & theological discernment. Building on Dr. Susan Phillips’ legacy of spiritual formation, NCB has begun integrating  contemplative prayer and communal listening practices, for example, the incorporation of a spiritual director at the Barmen Retreat, and the hosting of a workshop retreat on “Staying Spiritually Centered in a Political Storm.”  

All told, these highlights point to the “think tank among gospel friends” that we desire NCB to more fully become in 2025. Whether through our day-long gatherings, our three-day retreats, our writing workshops, and ongoing spiritual formation offerings, we want NCB to be a place to cultivate friendship around the task of gospel discernment. For 2025, we are establishing a rhythm of gathering. In addition to our monthly in-person Faith & Film (in Berkeley) and our online Writing Workshop, we will host each month:

• NCB’s Radix Live! This monthly, virtual offering will feature a conversation with an author or practitioner and, occasionally, a panel that engages a topic of contemporary interest. For example, coming up in February is an interview with Dr. Marilyn McEntyre on her new book, Midwinter Light: Meditations for the Long Season, a book for recentering ourselves right now, and in March is a panel discussion with Dr. Mark Baker on Centered-Set Church: Discipleship and Community Without Judgmentalism.

• The NCB Monthly Workshop Retreat. Rotating from the Peninsula to San Francisco to the East Bay each month (i.e. a quarterly regional workshop), these gatherings will help participants generate Christian perspectives on contemporary challenges as a way to find refreshment and rejuvenation in life and ministry. January began with Praying & Journal Keeping in Anxious Times and February will discuss being Bearers of God’s Image: Beauty & Dignity Amidst Dehumanizing Polarization.

Come join the adventure.

Growing through Retreats

NCB loves retreats! Short, one-off classes have their place, but extended retreats provide concentrated time away in restorative settings, with both focused and spontaneous conversations, shared meals, and times of rest, relaxation, and fun. Our three most recent retreats were: 

1. A 3-day retreat at a Benecia Airbnb, centered on discussions of MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “Three Evils” speech, and “Beyond Vietnam” speech. We learned how King reached out respectfully and even lovingly to those who opposed him, confronted powerful but destructive interests, and took principled but widely unpopular stands, especially in his later years. We also contemplated what has changed and what has largely remained the same from King’s time to ours.

2. A one-day “Prayer and Journal Keeping in Anxious Times” workshop retreat at Peninsula Covenant Church in Redwood City, which expanded our repertoire of approaches to prayer and to journaling, making both disciplines more powerful and appealing.

3. An overnight retreat (for members of our cohort program) that included an introduction to Eastern Orthodox iconography and worship, at Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Santa Cruz. In the midst of the “daily grind” of ordinary life, we glimpsed a more timeless, heavenly perspective on life through the images, embodied rituals, and chanted hymns of Orthodox worship.

Retreats are key for NCB’s work of gospel discernment, providing the time and space needed for relational conversations and communal reflection. While some retreats are for our cohorts (and “deep divers”) we’ve now begun monthly all-day “workshop retreats” (or sometimes “one day conferences”) that all can attend. And they rotate from the Peninsula to San Francisco to the East Bay so you won’t always have to fight that bridge. Come, learn with others, build relationships, and be refreshed!

Digging Deep––A Cohort Experience

During the summer of 2024, I realized I needed to look for community. Being relatively new to the area, I hadn’t met many local friends yet. My faith was evolving in ways that led me to more questions than answers, and I found myself in need of spaces that could appreciate and even welcome that process. When I met Craig and heard about the New College Berkeley vision to be a “third space,” I knew I had to jump in and give it a try. 

Our nine-month cohort brings together a diverse group of engaged individuals who I might not have met otherwise - across various church denominations, races, ages, and vocations. For each monthly session, we are encouraged to read a selection of articles ahead of time, and then we spend time discussing the topics together. 

So far, our cohort has touched upon a range of relevant, cultural issues, including loneliness as an epidemic, curriculum in schools, and reflections on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail in today’s context. 

Since we have limited time each month, it often feels like we barely scratch the surface on these big topics! Which is why we’re also invited and encouraged to attend events hosted by NCB, many of which dive deeper into a specific area. For example, the Faith & Film series showed a documentary on Fred Rogers and NCB hosted a panel on Advent in Empire in December. 

Some of my favorite events have been the writing workshops, on topics ranging from journey keeping to metaphors to open letter writing and more. As a trained engineer-turned-marketer who always wished I’d taken more literature and creative writing courses in college, these sessions are unlocking a part of me that has been longing to find my voice. 

Through the cohort and NCB events, I have met new friends, been freshly inspired to read further on my own, and challenged to think deeply and critically. Honestly, I think I’m learning more now than I did in some classes back when I was in school! And importantly, we are having dialogue across differences. As expected, we don’t always agree with one another on everything - yet we seek to navigate those interactions with grace and respect. In an age where polarization threatens to tear people apart, this kind of community building and sustained engagement over time is vital.