Weekly Resources Coming Your Way

Our glow up and our plan for this community

Oh, hello there. Notice anything different about us?

New year, new branding and all of that.

This is a big, chonky newsletter, full of juicy updates, so bear with us and jump ahead if you need to:

-Our new weekly resource + the levels
-Our upcoming BoB study guide
-Shop+Curriculum

The feedback we are getting about The Book of Belonging continues to fill our hearts and tear ducts. It is almost eerie in its consistency, as so many of you share the pains and wonderings that have shaped your spiritual lives and the ways that BoB provides a safe space to engage with Biblical concepts.

We want to continue to help. We want to continue to create safe and healing spaces for spiritual reflection and growth.

With that in mind, we’ve decided to spend the next six months pouring into our resource offerings, both here and in our shop, before we start work on some new books.

So, welcome to The Belonging Workshop! Here’s what’s coming down the road:

1. Weekly Sabbath Practice

We decided to take our own advice and “start with Sabbath”, so our new rhythm will be a weekly email with resources to help individuals and families develop a practice of rest.

So many of you have reached out with vulnerable stories about your spiritual wonderings and wanderings. We want to meet you in that vulnerability - with helpful resources, as well as vulnerability of our own.

However, in order to be gentle to ourselves and people in that tender space, some of our posts and discussions will now live behind a paywall. Not only does this help us fund the creation of these resources, but it creates a sense of community and safety (folks are far less likely to judge or troll in the comments if they have to pay to do so!)

Read on below for more information about our new setup.

(Free Tier)

Blessings, affirmations, mindful and wonder moments for those wandering and wondering, delivered to your inbox on Friday mornings.

• A Weekly Sabbath Practice (Restful activity for kids & grownups)

• The Making of the Book of Belonging

• Resource roundups

• Q&As w/authors/creators

(Paid Tier, $5/month)

For those who’ve pulled up a chair, ready to break bread and dig in.

• Helping keep the free stuff free (you’re a patron!)

• Companion resources to beef up your Weekly Sabbath Practice (coloring sheets, art downloads, blessings, mindful moments, contemplative tools, etc)

• Access to live events: contemplative creative gatherings, live draw with Rachel, submit prompts for Q&As and live draws.

• Free & discounted access to future guides, resources, and workshops

• Reflections and Resources for liminal faith moments.

• Monthly Art download

• Discounts to the art shop

• All the goodies from the free tier.

(Paid Tier, $50/year)

For those tending the fire and keeping the feast warm.

• Discounted Table membership

• All the goodies from the previous tiers.

(Super Fan Tier) ($150/year)

For the builders, dreamers, and patrons shaping what’s next.

• Be our beta testers, our focus group for upcoming projects with Marri & Rachel.

• Exclusive access to Rachel’s sketches, ideas, and messy creative process.

• Free & discounted access to future guides, curriculum, and special resources

• Unique Art Print Delivered to your door annually.

• All the goodies from the previous tiers.

Your first Weekly Sabbath Practice will arrive in your inbox 2/28. The first portion will always be free, but you can choose to opt-in for more once you read it OR, you can choose your subscription level here and now:

2. The Book of Belonging Study Guide

We’re partnering with our brilliant friend Reverend Jenny Warner to release a seven-week adult study guide for BoB. Reverend Jenny’s congregation reads through a book together every year during Lent and we have the honor of being her choice for 2025!

To quote Jenny, “This guide was written to help adults engage the Book of Belonging in a spirit of wonder, play and curiosity. Each week you will find:

• An opening essay that will orient you to the theme for the week.

• A reading guide that includes several chapters from Book of Belonging.

• A weekly spiritual practice that is designed to take you from your heart to your soul and open you to the Spirit’s transformation.

• Resources to go deeper. Books, podcasts, articles will be offered for you to learn more on your own.

• A small group guide for those who are engaging this book with others. If you are on your own, you may find that some of the questions are helpful solo reflections.

And while I wish we could all join Reverend Jenny and her congregation in their beautiful chapel among the redwoods, she’s graciously allowed us to share her creation with our online community! We will release the guide week by week here on Substack, for all paid subscribers.

3. Curriculum & Shop Updates

We hear you! So many of you have asked for some sort of curriculum to use with your faith community, family or homeschool group. We are currently in discussions about this and will have more information in the coming months - stay tuned!

We’ve also been cooking up some exciting resources for our shop, based on your messages. We’ll be workshopping them with the help of our partners in The Studio, but for now, we’ll let you know that we’ve got reflective resources for adults, spiritual practice resources for parents and just plain fun stuff for kids - all coming soon!

Your first ever Friday Sabbath Resource will arrive in your inbox 2/28, ready to be used by you and/or your family as you set up your own unique sacred rhythms! In the meantime, if you didn’t read our “Start with Sabbath” essay, that’s your homework. It should give you a good idea of why we shaped our weekly resource the way we have.

Cheers, friends. We can’t wait to head in this new direction with you!

Thank you for being a part of The Belonging Workshop. Wherever you settle in this community (porch! table! hearth! studio!) we hope you feel the same sense of hospitality and warmth. That feeling that we’ve saved a seat for you. Some might even call it belonging :)

Peek into the Archive:

Want to get started with Sabbath Practices? Click Here.

Want to know more about what we hope to do here at The Belonging Workshop? Click here.