Pastors Learning Community Cohort · January to May 2027

You hold a faith community together. Where is yours?

Your work draws on something deeply personal, and you pour it out every week. You are part of a community, but you are rarely in it. This is a room where you get to belong, as yourself.

January 4 to May 21, 2027 · Minneapolis
Let us know you’re in by December 18. Final registration closes December 28.

apply now

Here, you don’t have to be the pastor.

You are the one leading, almost all of the time.
In this cohort, you get to be led. We guide the study. Your only job is to show up and wrestle with the Text alongside others.

You have questions you can’t say out loud at church.
Questions without easy answers are central to our Scripture Circles. None of your staff or board members are in the room to critique. Everything belongs.

This role can be lonely.
You’ll sit with peers who understand, in an interdenominational and ecumenical community of care.

What you’ll receive.

Fresh ground for your preaching.

Scripture Circles move through the Hebrew Scriptures and connect them to familiar New Testament passages. We study a few weeks ahead in the Lectionary, so you leave with material for the Sundays to come.

Time for you.

One-on-one conversations with Steph and Lisa, the kind of pastoral support you rarely get for yourself.

Clarity and courage for this moment.

You’ll learn alongside pastors pushing back against Christian nationalism and working to build communities that are just, inclusive, and doing good in the world.

Relationships that outlast the cohort.

The cohort is one piece of a larger community. Return year after year, join pastors’ open circles, and come to our retreat.

When
First Mondays and third Fridays, 9am to 1pm.

Where
In person in the chapel at the Center of Belonging,
3501 Aldrich Ave S, Minneapolis.

Who it’s for
Anyone who shapes a faith community, whether you’re a senior pastor, an associate pastor, or you lead in another way. Your title doesn’t matter to us. Your heart does.

The details.

Cost
$1,600. Our price is a target, not a gate. Pay monthly, spread payments past this budget year, or choose a lower amount on our sliding scale. Tell us what you need. Cost should never be a barrier.

2027 gatherings: come to one or both each month.
January 4 and January 15
February 1 and February 19
March 1 and March 19
April 5 and April 16
May 3 and May 21

Inside a Scripture Circle.

Each gathering begins with a check-in, then settles into a Scripture Circle. Rooted in the spiritual practice of curiosity, we follow words and themes across the whole Bible, pay attention to what has been overlooked, and learn from the wisdom of the gathered community.

A taste of the study. When religious leaders challenge Jesus, he quotes Hosea twice: “I want mercy, not sacrifice.” The Hebrew behind the word mercy is chesed. It’s the word Rahab uses when she risks everything to hide two enemy spies and asks for chesed in return. So we ask questions like: what kind of mercy is this? Are there times when you have performed your faith instead of practicing chesed?

Meet your guides.

Lisa Adams and Stephanie Spencer co-direct 40 Orchards. Both served on staff at megachurches before living their callings bivocationally. Lisa is a prison chaplain and abolitionist with an M.Div. from Luther Seminary. Steph is a former pastor and executive coach with an M.A. from Bethel Seminary. For ten years they have led Scripture Circles, preached in local congregations, and partnered with churches around the Twin Cities.

“Lisa and Steph are skillful guides; participants are open, funny, vulnerable, smart, willing to engage, to be challenged and even changed... my relationship with my sacred text was enlivened, as was my preaching.”
Rev. Victoria Wilgocki, St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ

“This is one of the best continuing ed things I have done in my 20 years of ministry.”
Sara Spohr, pastor of Lake Nokomis Lutheran Church

Questions pastors ask us.

  • Come at least once a month, on the first Monday or the third Friday, and to both when you can.

  • No papers, no prework, no performance. The curriculum deepens what happens in the room. It isn’t something you finish before you arrive.

  • Yes. If you shape how a community reads, teaches, or leads, you belong here.

  • Tell us what fits your budget or your church’s budget, and we’ll make a plan together. Churches with room to give more help fund another pastor’s seat.

  • We’ll reach out to you as the start date gets closer. In the meantime, let us know if you have any questions!

  • Email Steph at stephanie@40orchards.org or Lisa at lisa@40orchards.org, and we’ll talk it through.

Come be led for a while.

Let us know you’re in by December 18. Final registration closes December 28.

Apply Now