Juniper Table

23 women gathered last week for our first Women’s Connect Brunch of 2026.
We shared a meal, worshipped, and talked about something countercultural but crucial — slowing down to keep up with Jesus.

Then we actually did it. We practiced solitude - together. Women spread out in chairs and on picnic blankets across our property, quiet and still, listening and focusing our hearts towards God.
When we walked around calling the ladies back together, one woman said “This was the best part of my day.”
In the middle of full lives and full ministries, may we remember — we don’t have to do anything to let a shaken jar of water settle. We just have to leave it alone long enough. Our souls work the same way.

Slow down to keep up with Jesus.

In spiritual direction a few months ago, I was given this poem. So as we start 2026, I share it here with you. May it encourage, comfort, and challenge you as it has me.

The Slow Work of God

Above all, trust in the slow work of God
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability-
and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you.
your ideas mature gradually – let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Swipe —> to see a bit of what God invited us to be a part of this year.
None of these moments would’ve been possible without the community of generous partners who makes this work possible. So we celebrate every moment, every story, every leader and church community these stats represent. Thank you, to so many of you, for helping create space for leaders to BE HEALTHY and DO EFFECTIVE MINISTRY.

The simple phrase came at me like both a balm and a reprimand.
He hasn’t asked me to do anything I don’t have time for.