The Riverside Innovation Hub is launching our newest Community of Practice this October! We hope your congregation will consider participating.
Our next programming season will begin with a retreat at Camp Friendship on Oct. 9-11 that will work with congregations to:
- Map their neighborhood ecosystem.聽
- Discern their next right work as trustworthy neighbors.聽
- Chart the way forward, including discernment into one of several RIH cohort programs to love our neighbors better. These cohorts will begin in January 2027.聽
If you are interested in learning more please:聽
- Fill out this brief . We have limited spots at the retreat and in the cohorts that follow and getting your input will help us adjust our plans to best meet the interests of potential congregational partners.聽
- Join us at an online info session on Thursday, June 25 or聽 Monday, June 29. Sign up through the interest form and bring a decision maker from your church to get your questions answered and learn more about these exciting opportunities.
- Thursday, June 25th from 2:30 – 3:30pm, Link to Register for Zoom:
- Monday, June 29th from 7:00 – 8:00 pm, Link to Register for Zoom:
Frequently Asked Questions:
What dates should interested congregations be aware of?
- June 25 at 2:30-3:30pm (on zoom) – Congregational Info Session
- June 29 at 7:00-8:00pm (on zoom) – Congregational Info Session
- July 1 – Fall Retreat Registration Opens (online)
- August 18 – Fall Retreat Sign-up Deadline
- Oct 9 – 11 – RIH Fall Retreat at Camp Friendship in Annandale, MN
- Nov 15 – Cohort Registration deadline
- January 2027 – Nov. 2027 – Relationship Cohort begins
- January 2027 – August 2027 – Community Partnership Cohort begins
What is happening at the fall retreat?
At our fall retreat we will map the ecosystem of our neighborhoods, locate ourselves, our churches, and our next right work by understanding how our congregations fit into our neighborhood ecosystem and where God is calling us. At the end of the retreat, congregations will discern next steps, including joining a cohort that best fits their context.聽聽
Congregations interested in the retreat should recruit 3 people to attend. Room for additional team members may be available depending on interest and availability of spots at the camp. Some congregational teams may also consider inviting a community partner to be a part of their team at the retreat (more below on cohort options.)聽
What are the cohort opportunities our church can consider for 2027?
The Relationship Cohort
A year-long journey of intentional relationship skill building. We were created to live in relationship both within our church and the wider community – to be each other鈥檚 people and show up for each other in the good and the bad times. This cohort will help you push outside of your comfort zone and engage your neighbors in new ways while also going deeper in relationship with your team and your church community. This cohort is ideal for congregations new to RIH, just beginning to build relationships in the neighborhood, and/or eager to equip new leaders for the work of neighboring.聽聽
The Community Partner Cohort
Connecting Twin Cities congregations, community partners and 绿茶直播 students together in the work of mending neighborhoods. You and your partner organization will spend 9 months building trust, learning together, discerning direction and designing collaborative ways to support thriving in your neighborhood through relational and financial investments. After the cohort concludes, RIH will work to partner you and your community partner with an Augsburg student intern 10 to 12 hours a week. The community partner will be the internship site while the congregation will fund and supervise the position. This cohort is designed for churches that already have established community relationships and are ready to begin mending work in partnership with their neighbors.
Emerging Opportunities with RIH
If neither of these cohorts are the right path for your team, we have a few shorter opportunities in the works and will have more details available at the retreat. Emerging opportunities may include community organizing and mutual aid skill building and exploring how to use your building and church property to love your neighbors.
The Community Partner Cohort mentioned hosting a student intern from Augsburg. What is involved with that opportunity?
The nine month cohort experience launching in January 2027 aims at strengthening the collaboration between a congregation and community partner and provides training and support towards the development of a student internship opportunity.聽 After completing the cohort, congregations and their community partners would be prepared to host a 10-12 hours/week Augsburg student intern beginning in the fall of 2027 and through the following two academic years. The community partner will be the internship site while the congregation will fund and supervise the position. RIH would continue to provide support to your team through this process. Congregations would be asked to make a financial commitment of $12,000-15,000 distributed over two years to support student compensation. The internship will be a new way for congregations to meaningfully support their community partner through investing funds and time. It will also be a way for congregations to support and invest in young adult leaders and become a critical part of the Augsburg teaching and learning community.聽
What does it cost to participate in the upcoming RIH offerings?
Expect both financial costs and time commitments. We realize there may be limitations on capacity for both of these valuable resources. We would encourage congregations to first consider your capacity (time, energy, people power) and sense of calling related to these opportunities. Then consider the financial commitment. If financial cost is the primary barrier to considering a partnership with RIH, please reach out to us. Fees are not intended to be prohibitive, but to help support the sustainability of this work by supplementing the costs of offering these programs.聽
- Oct 9-11 Retreat – $500 for a team of 3 from your congregation (additional team members as capacity allows). Covers camp lodging for 2 nights and meals for 3 days.
- Relationship Cohort – $5000 for a congregational team through calendar year 2027.聽
- Community Partner Cohort – $5000 for congregational and community partner relationship and program development, includes ongoing internship support for two years (due January 2027). Additionally, $12,000-15,000 for internship funding (distributed Sept 2027 鈥� Spring 2029).
Why does programming look different this year?聽
RIH is rooted in a belief that relationships are everything. We are also shaped by a belief that context always matters. Our relationships and our context continue to be our greatest teachers in directing how RIH best stewards its gifts and resources for the mending of the universe – or our little corner of it.聽
In 9 years, our relationships and context have taught us a lot. RIH has worked to respond faithfully. The big ideas that launched this work have nurtured a growing community of practice of congregations and community leaders. These like-hearted folks are also working to root themselves in relationships within their context in ways that love neighbors and help neighborhoods flourish.聽
For many years we told partner churches – trust the process. Eventually it became clearer that what we really need to do is trust the relationship. Relationship is the location for love in action. And when we can grasp the gift of a highly interconnected web of relationships that embody God鈥檚 creation, we can get closer to cultivating a way of being community that more closely fosters God鈥檚 desire for us all.
Our Twin Cities community has a fresh imagination and lived experiences that back up this truth. Neighbors loving neighbors matters. Metro Surge reminded us that love is a verb and through our networks of relationships this love can stand up to the most powerful and exploitative threats to our mutual thriving. While the surge has ended, the impact and ongoing need remains for embodied 鈥渓ove in action鈥� kind of neighbors, faith communities, schools, businesses, local leaders, institutions and more to stay rooted in relationship and explore ways we can keep showing up to contribute our part to a vision of flourishing and an experience of belonging.聽
All of this is reshaping how we’ll learn together in this next round. For years, “trust the process” looked like a single anchor program that ran for two years 鈥� formative for those who could commit, but it left little room for new people to join partway through, asked a great deal of our staff, and simply wasn’t feasible for many. Trusting the relationship asks something different of us: to meet congregations and leaders where they actually are. So we’ve built a more nimble infrastructure 鈥� small, medium, and large pathways, with more on-ramps into the deep neighbor work that shapes RIH and more focused learning along the way informed by important learnings from our Twin Cities context. The invitation hasn’t changed. The doors into it are now many.聽
What is the Riverside Innovation Hub and why is it part of 绿茶直播?
The mission of 绿茶直播 is centered on educating students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. It is guided by the faith and values of the Lutheran Church while also being deeply shaped by its urban and global contexts. An Augsburg education aims to engage its students in exploring the gifts that come from their own identity and passions, alongside an imagination for mutual thriving – their own thriving and the thriving of the communities they are part of.
Informed by Augsburg’s mission and shaped by the same vision of mutual thriving, the Riverside Innovation Hub has spent the past nine years educating and accompanying non-traditional Augsburg students – clergy, lay leaders, and community leaders across the Twin Cities and nationally. The Riverside Innovation Hub exists to accompany, equip, and activate people in loving their neighbors better – relationally, interdependently, and collaboratively – toward the mending of the world. This work is rooted in a belief that relationships are everything.
As part of Augsburg鈥檚 Christensen Center for Vocation, RIH builds bridges for relationship and learning between churches, neighborhoods, Augsburg students, faculty and staff and other like-hearted collaborators who care about loving neighbors and mending our world. Congregations and leaders who partner with the Riverside Innovation Hub become a valuable part of the broader teaching and learning community of 绿茶直播.