THE BELOVED COMMUNITY PROGRAM
Kickoff Retreat
and
Full Year Deep Dive
Next date will be announced soon!
PART ONE: KICK-OFF SPIRITUAL RETREAT AT FLORES DEL CAMINO
During this one week time, we will prepare for a qualitative change in our souls by spending significant portions of the day in silence. We will walk, move, create, journal and put ourselves in a posture of openness to hearing from the Divine Presence. Each day, you will have one hour of spiritual coaching with me to download what you are hearing. We will end each day as a group, to encourage one another and build our community skills.
The group of 5 people who congregates for the retreat will build a safe cocoon for one another throughout the year. We will learn and practice together the principles of the Beloved Community, first among ourselves and then also in our home communities.
We will also spend this week making commitments based on what we’re hearing. Thinking back to your own life at home, with the people who live with or near you, and the systems in place, choosing how you can actively participate in creating a community of grace.
Flores del Camino, Spain
The Beloved Community Kick-off Retreat Location
You will join a small cohort of participants in building the Beloved Community. Our kick-off retreat will be held in a beautiful retreat center in the historic village of Castrillo de los Polvazares, considered one of the most beautiful villages in all of Spain.
Castrillo de los Polvazares is a heritage site dating back at to the 16th century, famous for its perfectly preserved traditional Maragato architecture. It is made up entirely of red & orange coloured stones which contrast to the old arched wooden doors painted green & blue. The village sparkles in the warm Spanish sunlight & the stones seem to catch fire & glow at dusk.
Your in-residence experience at Flores del Camino is included in your investment. During our time together, we will be building the spiritual practices that will support us the rest of the year.
PART TWO: A YEAR-LONG SPIRITUAL, PRACTICAL DEEP DIVE
Once back at home, we will spend the next 12 months living what we are learning from the Divine Presence – a quantitative change in our lives. You will get community principles “in your bones” and live them out, with the full support of the community we built in Spain.
Each month, we will delve into the principles of community. We will hold one group call per month, one call with a peer partner, and a one-on-one call with me. Each month, I’ll be curating for you a sampling of resources to inspire you and to get you thinking, praying and acting. August and December will be free-flow vacation months, so we’ll cover 10 themes for the year. We will delve into concepts from Brene Brown, Parker Palmer, Richard Rohr and others.
6 FEATURES OF THE BELOVED COMMUNITY KICK-OFF RETREAT
Join me for 5 days in one of the loveliest areas of Spain. You will be part of a small cohort of participants in building the Beloved Community. We stay in a beautiful retreat center which includes nourishing and healthy meals prepared onsite and served with love in either the dining area or in the courtyard under the pergola. Wine is offered at dinner. Your in-residence experience is included in your investment in the program.
During our time together, we will be building the spiritual practices that will support us the rest of the year. Here are the key 6 features:
1. JOURNAL WRITING
Built into our time together is journal writing. While we will be doing reading, watching videos and discussing together throughout the year, the retreat time will not be filled with many words—it’s your time to listen to a bigger Voice, and jot down what you know to be true. Be sure and bring a journal and pen for self-reflection and free writing.
2. SILENCE
Each day, we will structure time for silence. You can use this time for any of the other activities, knowing that you will not be disturbed by the words of others, or expected to speak. Becoming comfortable with periods of silence will be part of a life-long attentiveness to Spirit.
3. SPIRITUAL COACHING
There will be time each day for a one-on-one spiritual coaching sessions. I’ve been offering a mix coaching and spiritual accompaniment for more than a decade, and know the power of listening at a deep, heart level so you can express out loud the amazing shifts that are happening during your times of silence.
4. CREATIVE SESSIONS
Art-making is a playing way to get out of your thoughts and back to your senses and your body. The scary/fun play with materials like markers, pencils, paint, paper, glue, canvas, and more helps you receive insight with a bigger portion of the brain and body. Materials will be available to you, and you can use them to integrate and express what you’re learning.
5. WALKING
Walking a pilgrimage route in Spain is a powerful way to jump-start your spiritual practices. Walking is a body movement many people can do at any time, and it can become part of your spiritual listening experience over the long-term.
6. GROUP STORY-TELLING
Each day, we will practice our community-building skills, by learning to embrace each other’s unique gifts, listen to one another from the heart, hear one another’s dreams and commitments, and hold space for one another with compassion, curiosity and understanding. Evenings are reserved for "story time", and to learn heart-based listening.
After the Retreat …
The rest of the year, we will continue with individual and group coaching, daily and weekly practices of walking, journaling, creativity and silence–and putting the learnings from the Divine into practice. Being “doers of the word, and not hearers only”. So, figuring out how to build the Beloved Community, with support from the others in the group.
PRINCIPLES WE WILL LEARN AND PRACTICE ALL YEAR
Beloved Community Principle number 1: Embrace Differences.
True community is always inclusive. Not only do they refrain from excluding others, but they actively embrace differences. The Beloved Community can never be homogenous, and it must provide justice for every member.
Beloved Community Principle number 2: Love Thy Neighbor
Love is a verb. Those who agree to the Deep Dive will commit to an ongoing engagement on their home turfs. Actually getting out there and being a neighbor, and regularly finding active ways to express love. We will be holding one another accountable during our monthly group calls throughout the year. Sometimes loving the people in your own home is the hardest!
Beloved Community Principle number 3: Love Thy Enemy
The big dream of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and others was to reconcile the fiercest of enemies—to love so fiercely that they would liberate the oppressors from their mindset. And what about little old us? How do WE build our capacity to be a neighbor, even to our enemies?
Beloved Community Principle number 4: True respect for the other
We will commit to spending time in places where we are in the distinct minority, and clearly the “other”. We will be the person who is different, daring to be the only “other” in the room, while still maintaining our own true self. We will practice seeing the face of God in each person we meet. We will learn the ability to gradually increase trust by trusting ourselves, becoming trustworthy, and trusting others as appropriate.
Beloved Community Principle number 5: Listening with the Heart
Over the course of the year, we will develop the ability to listen with the heart. People express grief in their own native tongue. Grief counselors don’t even ask for translation, because we connect at the heart level, at the level of emotion, even if the situation is very different. We will learn the skills of empathic response and compassion, and will agree to screw it up and try again.
Beloved Community Principle number 5: Flexibility of Behavior
Throughout the year, we will plumb the depths of values and behaviors. Each of us will hone in on our top two values, and commit to living them in practice. At the same time, we will improve the flexibility of behavior—able to see how others live their values, possibly with different behavioral expressions than we do.
Beloved Community Principle number 6: Increase your Tolerance for Ambiguity
It’s a real commitment to choose to be the one who doesn’t know the answers, the one who makes it about the other person, not about myself. We will demonstrate curiosity and acceptance, while acknowledging our own limitations, lack of understanding and willingness to learn.
Beloved Community Principle number 7: Get Free from the deadly trap of Taking Offence
Together, we will overcome the fear of taking offense, and drop the fear of accidentally offending others. We know that to love someone is to accept that person exactly the way they are right now—even while acknowledging conflict, pain and the need to work on difficult issues. We practice speaking our own experiences in love, always considering ways to be compassionate with one another.
Beloved Community Principle number 8: The Universe is on the side of Justice and Peace
The Beloved Community holds a deep faith that justice and love eventually win. The Divine is on the side of justice, and we choose to be on the side of the Divine. We resolve conflicts peacefully, even if peacefully doesn’t mean comfortably.
Beloved Community Principle number 9: Love takes Action
We take direct action against poverty, hunger, and homelessness; and seek to improve mutual kindness and compassion. We foster dynamic and active spirituality – we recognize the Divine as active, dynamic and creative and seek to live these attributes in our lives.
Beloved Community Principle number 10: Creativity
We live in a universe of endless movement, joy, delight and possibility. Together, we can get together with the Creator of the universe and join the dance. We strive to think outside the box, beyond the system, and get brave with new ideas. We support one another to do the hard things.
ABOUT YOUR SPIRITUAL COACH, CHRISTI BYERLY
I love to work with people who want their deep spirituality to contribute to building meaningful community in practical ways.
Results you can expect:
– a qualitative change in your soul
– a quantitative change in your ability to build real community for yourself and others
– a lifetime of feeling brave, scared and very alive all at the same time.
Who I Work With
I work with big-hearted, dedicated people who are frustrated with the way things are and want to create a world that works for everyone. I help you take brave action so that the way you live your life and the spiritual practices you maintain help you live more brave and more awake and alive than ever before.
Why is this important to me?
I believe that we are in a period of massive spiritual transition. My own faith background is in the Christian community, and I see that we have been shifting into a new kind of spirituality that I want to live in, because I have come to see that the most important question is: “Are you willing to sit down and eat and build community with people you are supposed to hate?”
What would it mean for me to rediscover my faith as a way of life rooted in love and compassion? What if it’s not about being part of an insider’s-only group who have proper institutions and who can judge others for their lifestyle choices? What if it’s about welcoming the “other”, forgiving while being rejected, and choosing justice and peace? What if faith leads to practical, real-life hard choices? What if it changes me and the world I live in?
I don’t find it easy at all! The more I walk the path of love, the more I recognize how often I hate. The more I quiet myself to listen to the divine nudges, the more my own petty thoughts intrude. The harder I work to take just action, the more ineffective and angry I feel. Sound familiar?
But, I think a mature, inspired, trusting, brave way of living is possible, and I want it more than anything. I want it for you, too, regardless of your religious or non-religious background. Together, I want us to build practices of listening to the other, spending time in silence, obeying the voice of the divine nudge, and finding ourselves truly brave and alive.
We can build on many who have walked this path before. Some of my favorite heroes in this work include Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr, Brené Brown, Robert Dilts, my dad, M. Scott Peck, Parker Palmer, Mother Theresa…
I’m sure you have your favorites, too. I’ll be bringing my 20+ years of experience living overseas, my authentic stories, coach training and practice, NLP training, spiritual accompaniment training, Daring Greatly and Rising Strong training, and a decade of leading group workshops… but most of all, I’ll be bringing my whole self.
I plan to show up and live brave, and I’m inviting you to do the same, bringing all of your brains, expertise, lived experiences, hard knocks, wisdom and love to our community. Your only prerequisite is that you be willing to show up as yourself.
We welcome anyone who has experienced being the “other”, and all those who are willing to welcome the stranger and learn to love.
Are you in?
WHAT IS MY FINANCIAL INVESTMENT?
$4,950 per person for the full year experience
Your investment includes accommodation at Flores del Camino for five nights, with three home-cooked Spanish meals per day, all instruction, and all monthly group and private coaching activities for the following year.
Payments can be made by major credit cards. A 25% deposit is required at the time of enrollment to secure your reservation and the balance is due before the retreat starts.
Payment does not include airfare and/or train fares. International health insurance coverage as well as trip cancellation insurance are mandatory.
Next date will be announced soon!
HOW DO I KNOW IF THIS GROUP IS FOR ME?
If you are happy and content with the status quo and you feel like you fit in beautifully with the way the world is running, then this is probably not your group. If you’re curious about possibilities, willing to move beyond religious and cultural constructs, and move into a deep experience with the Divine and humanity, you’re a good candidate.
You should know the basic ground-rules, which we’ll develop further together as we go along:
| What’s OK in our group |
What’s not OK in our group |
| Speaking truth to crappy, dualistic thinking. Creatively and lovingly thinking of other ways to think and act. |
Any type of aggression, verbal abuse, criticism or name-calling. |
|
Learning and messing things up and trying again. |
Festering resentment, and keeping quiet because of fear. |
| Working to remove evil or unjust forces and systems. |
Any attempt to destroy or dehumanize a person. |
| Owning your whole story, including your faith journey, family history, hard times and successes. |
Proselytizing for a religious or theological viewpoint or attempting to change other people’s minds. |
|
Using curiosity and vulnerability to bravely share ourselves with others. |
Armoring up with masks and inauthenticity. |
If you think this experience might be right for you now, simply click the button below. I personally read and review every application, and we will decide on 5 singles or couples to be part of the Beloved Community Deep Dive.