In NCB’s experience, the best settings for growth and change are learning communities. Relationships, extended conversations, shared experiences, mutual discoveries, and sometime debate are, together, deeply formative in ways that regularly go far beyond individual learning.
We are now into the third year of our core NCB learning community: our cohort program. Each year a diverse group commits to a nine-month journey together of discerning gospel faithfulness through retreats, readings, and monthly discussions.
A key feature of our cohort program is a commitment to writing. Cohort members develop topics related to the cohort theme and write a final essay. NCB is committed to writing as a way of examining inward life, sharpening thinking, and speaking publicly to the present moment. We are especially thankful to have Dr. Marilyn McEntyre as a writing consultant and coach for cohort members
We have now published eleven essays from Cohort I (2024-25) as Discerning Gospel Faithfulness Papers, Volume 1 (2024-25). The essays range very widely from the analytical to the intensely personal, and focus variously on prayer, children, social justice, inner healing, church dynamics, Christian beliefs, and NCB itself. Cohort I members were strikingly diverse, with participants from every decade from the 1950s to the 2000s, from nine different Bay Area cities, and both lay and ordained. The racial mix included Black, White, Asian, Latina, and Native American.
Cohort II (2025-26) wrapped up this last spring, and focused on the theme of discerning gospel faithfulness in this political moment. We were particularly enriched by live sessions with Michael Wear, and Drs. C.J. Baldelomar, Soong-Chan Rah, Rebecca Hernandez, Michael Barram, and Lisa Marie Bowens, and a visit to the MLK Center at Stanford University. We are gathering and editing the final essays, which will appear later this year as Volume 2. Cohort II was sponsored in part by a generous grant from a local Christian couple.
Cohort III (2026-27) is now forming, focused on the theme of discerning gospel faithfulness in our cities, focusing on the ways that Christians and churches can live out their faith commitments in large, complex, diverse urban settings. There are still openings; see the application here. Cohort III is being sponsored in part by grants from the Leadership Foundations (Tacoma, WA) and the Ministry in the City Hub of City Seminary (New York City).
There is no such thing as solo Christianity. Across all different church traditions, following Jesus has always been a shared journey. We’re grateful that NCB can provide this ongoing cohort program as a thoughtful and fruitful way to share that journey.