February 2026
In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker writes that the best gatherings create temporary alternative worlds. Places where different rules apply, where people can say things they can’t say anywhere else, where genuine connection becomes possible.
“I think of gatherings as the creation of a temporary alternative world that anyone can build. And by bringing people together in a specific way we create the wild possibility of actually altering each other.” -Priya Parker
That’s what retreat is. Or, that’s what retreat was.
Over President’s Day weekend, twenty-six of our young adults loaded into vans and made the now familiar two-hour pilgrimage outside the city to Graves Mountain Lodge in Syria, Virginia. A mixture of twenty and thirty-somethings — singles and couples, longtime members and first-timers — arrived under the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains and stepped, however briefly, into a temporary, alternative world.
This year’s retreat theme was Practices for a Storied Faith: Rekindling the Gift of God Within You. We anchored ourselves in Paul's words to Timothy. ”I am reminding you to rekindle the gift of God within you" (2 Timothy 1:1-7). We spent the weekend not acquiring something new, but returning to something old. Something true. Something that had perhaps been buried under the noise of our ordinary, sometimes chaotic lives.
Our guide for the weekend was Josh Hilburn, founding and lead pastor of Gather Houston, and I’m glad to say my dear friend. Gather is an ecumenical, inclusive Christian community near downtown Houston. Josh has spent a decade making space for people who have been hurt or excluded by traditional religion, and his teaching comes with a disarming winsomeness and particular tenderness of someone who knows what it is to help people find their way back to God.
During the weekend, we moved through four times of worship and small group conversations, each one an invitation to slow down and pay attention. We talked about honoring our stories and honoring where we came from. And, we engaged about a half dozen spiritual practices that made space for all of this to land — not just in our heads, but in our bodies, our breath, our being.
Of course, retreat is never only what happens in worship and small groups.
It’s what happens around the fire pit after dark, where conversations drift from theology to life to silly TikTok reels, and back again. It’s what happens around the fireplace at the Lodge where the hour gets late and no one wants to leave. It’s the unexpected joy of sledding down a long hill behind the lodge, some for the first time since childhood, careening downhill with pure delight.
The staff at Graves Mountain, who have become something like family, welcomed us with their characteristic warmth and hospitality. And then there was Nugget, a baby goat who appeared to have full run of the property and absolutely no regard for anyone’s theological reflection. Some gifts arrive unannounced.
What I keep returning to, now almost one week later, is this: A temporary alternative world is still a real world. The things that happened at Graves Mountain were real. The stories told, the truths spoken, the moments of recognition when someone said I see God in that. The connections formed between people who had never met before arriving on Saturday morning were real. The rekindled gift, whatever form it took for each person, was real.
We returned to the city carrying what we’d been reminded to carry: that God can still be found here. In my story and your story. In the person sitting across from me and from you. In the ordinary moments when someone dares to tell the truth about their life, and someone else dares to lean in.
That’s what our young adults experienced last weekend. And it would not have been possible without your prayers and this congregation’s generous financial support.
Thank you for making the temporary alternative world possible.
With great hope,
Pastor Eric
