Sojourn Grace Collective

Pastor Colby reminds us what we've learned about GRACE over the past eight years, and why it's our middle name. PLUS: hear two “Moments of Gratitude” as people from our Collective share why Sojourn has been so meaningful for them. PLUS PLUS: Original song from Wide Open Commons, “Good Day.”

The coronavirus pandemic fundamentally altered Sojourn Grace in ways we simply could not overcome or recover from. Therefore, our final Sunday service will be on October 30, 2022. We invite you to listen to the announcement from Sept 25th, shared by our founding pastors, Colby and Kate.

If God is love, and love doesn't judge, then God doesn't judge.

In order for “it all belongs” to be true, and in order to truly know Wholeness, we must stop rejecting the parts of us that make mistakes and hurt people, and move to embracing those parts of us. For it is only through compassion and love that we find growth and transformation.

A love letter from Pastor Kate

Pastor Kate loves to share the really pretty and alive photos of her garden… and not so much the dying ones. Yet the dying is all part of it. it's normal. May we, too, live knowing that all the parts are normal.

A special meditation for you, from Pastor Kate, reminding you that you're magic.

It's not your job to change people. But people DO/CAN change. So let's talk about that, eh?

As coach, guide, and mentor, Coach Yeamah helps LGBTQ Christians make peace with their faith and sexuality. We here at Sojo love Coach (remember when she joined us last year? https://youtu.be/Cx-HsBvJRpU) and can't wait for her to join us for our PRIDE Speaking Series as she shares with us the gifts of being bisexual. Learn more about Coach here: https://www.yeamah.com

As an author, activist, and public theologian, Brandan Robertson works at the intersection of spirituality, sexuality, and social renewal. Sojourn is thrilled to invite the TikTok preacher Rolling Stone once named to its HOT LIST of artists, creatives, and influencers. Learn more about Brandan here: https://www.brandanrobertson.com He also used to pastor a progressive church here in San Diego, and is a longtime friend of our pastors, Colby and Kate. Join us as we welcome Brandan for our PRIDE Speakers Series, and may we learn as he shares with us the gifts of being gay!

As the Founder of Gender YOUphoria--a social enterprise on a mission to shift the disempowering narratives about transgender people--Ashton Colby is a leader in transgender integrative health. Sojourn is PROUD to invite Ashton to share with our community about the ways in which being Transgender has been a gift to him. Learn more about him and his work here: https://www.ashtoncolby.com

June 5th is Pentecost in the church calendar, aka the birth of the Church. And what happened then? The Spirit of God, well, she took sameness and mixed it all up. Same thing God did at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. It's almost as though God PREFERS difference and diversity (to that of sameness and conformity).

Special guest, author and activist Brian McLaren joins Sojourn this week to give a talk titled, “Jesus Beyond Dualism.” Brian shares ideas from his latest book, “Do I Stay Christian?” Which can be checked out here: http://brianmclaren.net/books-by-brian-mclaren

In many of our church-world's growing up, we were taught explicitly to mistrust our heart. Join Pastor Kate as she leads us in a meditation designed to help re-write those old/bad ideas. PLUS: Music from Colby and Karyn (“I Know,” by Birdtalker) and Colby/Missy/Laura (mashup of John Lennon's “Imagine” with “Amazing Grace”)

Pastor Kate shares a letter to all those who mother. All those who hold and support and nurture... within a society that does not often provide the same kind of support in return.

‘Round here we say that “Wholeness” is our Vision. And that's cool and all, but it can sound a bit highfalutin at times. So this week, Colby connects four stories from the gospels (a Roman centurion, a bleeding woman, a pagan mother, and a woman known as “Sinner”) in order to show us where the journey toward wholeness must begin.

Pastor Kate loves gardening. And garden metaphors. And mushrooms? Well, she finds them endlessly fascinating. Listen in for a trip of a metaphor about a life of composting.

Happy Easter! For this year's message, Pastor Colby wraps up our Lent series of writing letters to past versions of ourselves in order to prepare us for the upcoming death of our religious ideas. This week, hear Pastor Colby share what it feels like, nowadays, to “lead a church.” Plus, a celebration of what he now believes!

Pastor Kate writes a letter to her younger self who always seems perplexed by this earnest desire to hear and know God's will, coupled with the confusion at why it seems so unknowable.

We continue our Lent series, "Preparing for the Death of Your Religion," by writing letters to our past selves, preparing us for the upcoming death of our religious ideas, hopes, and expectations. Today, our favorite Drag Queen, Flamy Grant, shares a letter she wrote to her past self about how one day she won't need to keep herself hidden.

We continue our Lent series, "Preparing for the Death of Your Religion," by writing letters to our past selves, preparing us for the upcoming death of our religious ideas, hopes, and expectations. Today, one of our resident music leaders, Karyn Gilmore, writes a letter to her past self to prepare her for the death (and re-birth) of how she'll come to understand and think about marriage.

We continue our Lent series, "Preparing for the Death of Your Religion," by writing letters to our past selves, preparing us for the upcoming death of our religious ideas, hopes, and expectations. Today, Pastor Colby writes a letter to his 20 year old self to prepare him for what is coming soon: a total reimagining of what the Bible is (and is not).

For our Lent series, we are writing letters to past versions of ourselves to prepare us for the upcoming death (and resurrection!) of our religious ideas, hopes, and expectations. This week, join our co-pastors as they each write a letter to their past selves to say, “Get ready, little Kate… little Colby… because church as you know it is about to end. But fear not, for it comes back even better.”

Lent is a season of reflection, introspection, and preparation. In this message, Pastor Colby suggests that perhaps Lent is a time to prepare for an upcoming death—specifically, the death of our religious hopes, ideas, and expectations. Join us this year for Lent as we write letters to our past selves in which we write, “Say goodbye to…” some particular aspect of religion as we once knew it.

This week, in light of several significant events around the world (the Russian invasion of Ukraine) and here in the US (the aggressively anti-trans legislature coming out of Texas), we made the call for a Soul Care Sunday. Included was this Mindful Moment from Pastor Colby, reflecting on what he does when things start to feel out of our control.

Pastor Kate opens her heart to share one of her hardest things: her journey with the idea/term “surrender.” Listen in as she takes us through the hardest, scariest parts of surrender, and then frames for us a way to embody it with power and grace.

Pastor Colby shares what has been the most helpful for him in learning how to love his enemies. From the teaching of the recently departed Buddhist master, Thich Nhat Hahn, first we seek understanding, which leads to compassion, which opens the pathway to love. PLUS: A guided Tonglen Meditation.

Pastor Kate reminds us that the pandemic has not “paused” our lives. No, this moment—right now—IS our life. Let us do our best to live it to the full.

Pastor Colby shares how he's noticed a phenomenon lately: he's more quick to judge others. After sitting with this, he connects it in part to how the Fundamental Attribution Error is more prone to happen in us when we are under heavy cognitive load. And things like “pandemics” cause massive cognitive load. So what can we do about that (to be less judgey)?

In this Mindful Moment, Pastor Colby explores a Psalm written by King David about our inability to escape the presence of God. However, this is only “good news” if being in the presence of the Divine is, well, a good thing.

Happy New Year! In this, our first service of 2022, Pastor Colby explores the word APOCALYPSE. As we consider Epiphany, and the idea of Invasion, and the anniversary of the riot on the Capitol on January 6th, it might be time we ask: Is this the end of the world as we knew it?

It's absurd to think that God (whomever or whatever that is or means) would “become a human being.” But also, it's absurd to imagine a God who never knows what it's like to be a human. To love and to suffer. In this message, Pastor Colby continues our series of auditing religions words and ideas by examining the word “Incarnation.” What if the only reasonable option for Love was indeed to put on human skin?

There is so (so) much wrapped up in the religious term “lost.” The church has used it for centuries to dictate who is in, who is out; who is near to God and who is far. In this groundbreaking message from Pastor Kate, hear anew how being “lost” does not (and cannot ever) mean that you are cut off from God. When you are lost, it is then you are found.

Most of the time, if you ever get to a genealogy list in the Bible, you understandably skim it over. But this week, Pastor Colby, as part of our “Words of our Heritage” series, explores how these ancient genealogy lists (like in the beginning of Matthew's Gospel) illuminate some deep truths about the human experience. Namely, how understanding (and owning) our past can increase our chances to be the kinds of people we want to be.

As we continue exploring the words, ideas, and practices of our religion's heritage, Pastor Colby examines the idea of “blessings.” Many of us may have stopped using this word (for very good reasons). But might there be good reasons to bring it back?

Continuing our exploration of our religious words, ideas, and practices, Pastor Kate shares about her background in (and deep love for) “worship.” How might this word/practice still have value and benefit for us today?

We're starting a new series called, “Words of our Heritage: Exploring the Words, Ideas, and Practices of our Religion's Heritage.” Do these things still have value/benefit for us today? And if so, how? Pastor Colby kicks things off by examining the word “salvation,” and how it means “to be made whole.”

In our final Sunday meeting here at Christ Lutheran, we invite you to join us for gorgeous music, connection via our Collective Conversation, and celebrating communion. And join Pastor Kate as she shares about the practice of holding of space and hospitality, and being HOME for one another.

Have you ever noticed that Sojourn kinda feels like a church (some days) and kinda not so much? And also, we're a "Christian" church, right? This week, Pastor Colby shares how our community stands in a long line of self-critiquing religion (you know, like Jesus did).

You know that moment when some reminds you of a past version of yourself? And all your insecurities and fear are triggered? Join Pastor Colby as he tells the story of Peter REACTING to Simon the Great--instead of RESPONDING. Spoiler alert: Don't Be Like Peter.

Many of us have a visceral response when someone tells us to "just" do something: Just relax... Just let it go... Just move on. This week, Pastor Colby explores the unjustness of this word, and offers us a way to move through it.

Join Pastor Kate as she invites us to consider how we might still be living out old beliefs about God, and how this impacts our relationship to our own growth.

Listen in as Pastor Colby shares some thoughts about why life feels so hard and exhausting right now. And five helpful practices to move us out of the state of languishing.

Some days, some weeks, are harder than others. At Sojourn, we try to be aware and sensitive to those moments when we just need to pause, breath, and be together. Join co-Pastors Colby and Kate as they lead us through a series of guided mediations for when the world feels like too much.

We often can feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders. But what if we were able to reframe that? What if we could hear the invitation from Jesus to come, rest, and take his light and easy yoke upon us?

You're familiar with the saying, “Don't just survive… THRIVE!” Well, Pastor Kate wonders if those two things aren't all that separate after all. Maybe, sometimes, what we think is just surviving is actually thriving.

After 17 months of Virtual Church only (heeeey virtch church, we seeee you!), Sojo finally returned to in-person services on August 1st. Listen in as Co-Pastors Kate and Colby share a bit about where we've been as a community and where we're going.

Pastor Colby concludes his four part message on how faith communities can thrive in the context of religious diversity. In this message, he shows what a roadmap can look like for how to handle disagreements and differences of opinion. Though the concept is simple (ie, the strong defer to the weak), the process itself requires tremendous effort on all sides to ensure that everyone feels seen, heard, valued and respected.

When Paul dealt with diversity of religious beliefs in Rome, he insisted the onus was on the “strong” in faith to hold space for the “weak.” In this message, Part III, Pastor Colby finally explores what these two terms might mean, what the differences are, and how it is we shift from weak faith to strong. Don't sleep on this series!

Last week we established the situation: faith communities will contain diversity of beliefs. This week, in Part II, Pastor Colby differentiates between diversity of doubtful matters (yay!) versus core values (not so much). Plus, depending on your posture of faith (weak or strong?) your path toward making peace will be different. This exciting three-part message explores how “It All Belongs” can make sense with regards to religious diversity within community.

When we say "It All Belongs" here at Sojourn, how can that extend to holding space for diversity of religious beliefs? In Part One of a two-part message, Pastor Colby shares how we might begin to imagine creating and sustaining such a community. To do so, he sets up why Paul's letter to Romans (indeed, why Paul at all) might have something worth listening to.