Why the cohort?
In 2023, 40 Orchards paused our cohort program. It would have been the seventh group, and pausing felt like the best way to honor the biblical concept of the Sabbath year. Now we are almost to the end of that pause, and are looking ahead to resume the cohort in 2024. Lisa and Steph have always had unique perspectives on the cohort experience, as Steph was part of its formation, and Lisa was part of the first group to go through. As they looked at the cohort starting back up again, they each had to think about their “why.” Here are each of their responses to the question, “Why the cohort?”
From Steph:
Each cohort group since we began in 2016 has been named after a letter of the Hebrew alphabet- aleph, bet, gimmel, dalet, hey, and vav. This means the 2024 group will be named Cohort Zayin.
There’s a way of seeing these names as simply a way of ordering. After all, many of us have used letters or numbers as ways of identifying groups since kindergarten. But I have always found some resonance with the mystical sense of these Hebrew letters. Zayin is a letter that begins both the words remember, zakar, and seed, zerah.
Both these words feel right for the next group. There’s a way the seventh group is both a completion of what has come before and a beginning of what is still to come. As we sit on the other side of a sabbatical year, I am flooded with both memories and hope.
When I sit with the memories, sometimes I see the difficult ones first. There are people who had experiences that didn’t match their expectations, relationships that didn’t work out, and failures I wish would get a do-over. But, those memories do not stand alone.
When I look back, I also see tremendous experiences of God at work, beginning with the beginning of it all, when the structure of the program came to me in what I can best describe as a Holy Spirit download. In the midst of a changing world, and my own shifting faith, I hold steady trust in the Spirit’s involvement in forming what the cohort became.
Added to that beginning has been the experience of watching person after person experience meaningful transformation in the 40 weeks they have spent with us. I’ve seen people awaken to becoming more than they thought they could be. I’ve walked alongside others as they rebirthed new faith after painful deconstructions. I’ve watched others light up as their ways of seeing the Bible expanded into new territories. And I’ve witnessed and forged deep relationships that wouldn’t exist otherwise, my partnership with Lisa being chief among them. (She’s been an instrumental co-leader in the cohort ever since walking through it herself.)
When I look ahead. I think of the many people I know who are longing to feel the Spirit again. Or hoping there’s a way they can still find good in the Bible. Or looking for a place to ask the questions that haven’t felt safe anywhere else. Or wishing there were other people they could talk to who were struggling with some of the same big existential things. And I wonder what could happen if those people set aside 40 weeks to wrestle and wonder, opening to what God could do with their intention.
So, why the cohort? Because I have seeds of hope for the future that have been planted by my memories of the past. My experience tells me that wrestling is worth it. I believe God can co-create something beautiful with us when we risk stepping forward to dig in and do the work.
From Lisa:
In the fall of 2016, I was really having a hard time, but most people didn’t know it because I was acting like everything was fine. Faith falling apart? I’m fine. Career path uncertain? I’m fine. Betrayed by some people I thought were friends? I’m fine. Hurt people I loved? I’m fine. Feeling like I had failed at a million things? I’m fine. EVERYTHING IS FINE. It was so ingrained in me that if you just hustled a little harder, kept busy, left well, and got to getting on, things would be fine. Fake it until you make it, babe.
It’s probably because I was busy being “just fine” that I decided to apply for the cohort. I would like to say that I knew exactly what I was doing when I applied, but I really didn’t (TBH, none of us really did since it was the very first one). I didn’t even know what exactly I was saying yes to, but I knew that I wanted to wrestle with God about some stuff, that I was lonely and didn’t want to wrestle with God without some support, and it felt a little bit risky and weird. Apparently risky and weird can be an antidote to “just fine.”
I was re-reading some of my notes and emails from 2016 and I laughed when I read an email I sent to Steph after my cohort’s first retreat. Here are some of the words I used to describe the first weekend of the Cohort:
So good. More than I expected. Affirming and wonderful. Felt seen. Overwhelmed. Expectant and terrified. Excited. I feel Inadequate. Discovering more about myself and God.
That really describes my entire cohort experience and the following 5 that I have been able to participate in and co-lead.
If you were to ask me how the cohort experience changed me, I would tell you that it helped me change many facets of my life. The cohort was transformational. I learned a new way of engaging with the Bible and with community. I got to ask many of my questions and learned new questions. I began to trust my body, my intuition, and my instincts again. It wasn’t just what 40 Orchards brought to the table; I was also a critical part of that transformation. I chose to show up and set aside the time to do this work. I said yes when it really didn’t make sense. I chose to be vulnerable with this community of people that I didn’t know. I chose to be open to whatever the experience was going to be – weird, risky or otherwise.
Things start to change the moment you say yes. I don’t know why, they just do. Maybe it’s because we honor our longing and our hope and our pain when we risk? Or maybe it’s because God gets giddy when we want to wrestle? Or maybe it’s magic? I kind of like the idea that there can still be magic in the world. And I like that every cohort is unique and beautiful because of the people who all said yes at the same time. Maybe this time is your time? Wouldn’t that be magical?
Want to learn more about what the cohort entails? Check out our cohort page for more detail. And, put your name on the interest form so we can reach out to you and talk more about it.
Want to hear a few more perspectives? Check out these previous posts from cohort members Brooke, Sarah, Tammy, Karin, Michelle, Travis, and Ashley.