Community Groups

We're excited to offer a second year of Abide Community Groups starting in January 2026!

Do you remember the positive feelings of connection and feeling seen and known at Abide Gathering, and how our relationships and interactions helped create pathways to healing and repair? Abide’s community groups offer a continuation of this experience, providing a powerful way to experience healing and growth through an intentional, safe conversation group with Abide alumni that have a shared context and trust.

There will be two groups – one for women and one for men – with no more than eight members each, including the group leaders. Starting in January and running through May, we'll meet virtually every other week for a total of 10 gatherings. Each session will be 75-90 minutes.

In each conversation, you’ll explore various topics that will help you get to know yourself and others in the group more deeply. You’ll move through themes that connect to your past, present, and future, touching on subjects like family of origin, forgiveness, the body, and beauty. Before each meeting, you’ll share a brief reading and reflection questions to create a foundation for meaningful discussion. You’ll also spend time together in prayer.

Screenshot of six men in a Zoom meeting smiling

Our Community Agreements

To create a space of trust and authentic connection, we’ll practice these essential norms:

  • Offering our full attention to each other and prioritizing attendance at each gathering

  • Listening with genuine curiosity and compassion, sharing how others’ stories resonate with our own emotions

  • Creating a judgment-free zone where we pause before offering advice and ask permission to share more than our empathetic presence

  • Sharing with wise vulnerability, being mindful of appropriate boundaries while opening our hearts to connection

  • Maintaining absolute confidentiality unless explicit permission is given to share beyond our group

Learn More & Sign Up

To learn more, please watch the 15-minute Info Session video, which goes into more detail about the vision for these groups and what the groups will look like. Note: this meeting was recorded in 2024, so some of the final details and leaders will be slightly different with future cohorts. Also, here is the video of Stan’s talk that David references.

If you want to sign up for the 2026 cohort of community groups, please fill out the interest form by December 15, 2025!

If you have any other questions, please email grace@abidegathering.org.

Sign up for 2026 Community Groups

FAQ

    • To deepen friendship and connection within Abide between the annual gatherings

    • Encourage and minister to each other through creating a safe space for sharing, listening, and learning

    • These groups are a reflection of Abide’s core values

    • Our community asked for it :)

  • There will be two groups – one for women and one for men – with no more than eight members each, including the group leaders.

  • All meetings are held on Zoom. The meeting time will be determined after interested participants submit their availability. We'll choose the time slot that accommodates the majority.

  • At the moment, these groups are for Abide alumni (those who have already been to one of our annual gatherings).

What participants said about Abide’s community groups…

  • The Abide Community Women's Group was a powerful and meaningful experience! It really builds and deepens the concepts and principles of the Abide Gathering into an extended and ongoing community. All of the women collectively created a space that was authentic, accepting, loving, and unconditional. I felt I could truly be myself in the group. The content was well designed and curated and gently but expertly facilitated! I loved it!

  • As a Korean American Christian, joining this community group was both healing and empowering. It helped me grow in my faith while also embracing and taking pride in my identity as both Asian American and Christian. Growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood and attending a conservative, performance-driven Korean American church, I often felt pressure to hide my flaws and struggles. In contrast, this group gave me a safe space to share openly and vulnerably, free from shame or fear. I truly appreciated the experience and believe many others would find it deeply meaningful as well.

  • I loved my first Abide Gathering experience, and this CG has been a beautiful and meaningful way to go deeper in relationship and friendship. It has me that much more excited about the next Abide Gathering, and the broader Abide community.