Abe is a STEM teacher in West Michigan who likes to think carefully about how people learn—together.
For several years, he’d been co-leading a house church made up of five or six families. Week after week, he found himself praying and wondering how to shape gatherings that actually formed people, not just filled time.
So when Abe was invited to lead a Tend group for the first time this past fall, he was curious—and hopeful.
“The group was already very flexible, very fluid,” he said. “Very open to building our faith in different ways.”
Formation, Not Isolation
One of the core values of Abe’s group was simple but countercultural: spiritual formation is something you do together, not alone.
“I think the best part is doing it with other people,” Abe reflected. “Not just thinking about things solely by myself.”
The group wasn’t looking for another program to squeeze into busy lives. They were trying to cultivate shared practices—rhythms that could shape how they lived, paid attention, and showed up for one another. In many ways, they were already living the kind of communal life Tend encourages.
The Gift of Not Having to Wing It
Leading week after week had started to wear on Abe.
“We were kind of like, ‘Okay, what are we doing this week?’” he laughed. “Basically planning things week-of, if not 15 minutes before.”
When Abe first opened the Tend the Garden curriculum that came with his kit and saw actual scripts for each gathering, it felt … strange. Almost too structured. But instead of resisting it, he decided to try trusting it.
“It was nice to be able to look down and know where I was at and what I was going to say,” he said.
Rather than constraining the group, the structure created space. Space for conversation. Space for attentiveness. Space for Abe himself to be present instead of constantly planning ahead.
“Tend actually turned out to be more of a blessing for me as the leader.”
Noticing Eden Among Us
During one of the Tend Dinner & Discussion nights, Abe invited the group to draw pictures of where they saw “Eden” in their own lives—places of harmony between God, self, others, and the Earth. Kids and adults picked up crayons, pens and paper. After a few minutes of doodling and writing, everyone had something to share.
One group member drew a picture of the group itself.
“My life is kind of hectic right now,” they explained. “We’ve got a lot going on at home. But this group is the one place in my life where there is that Eden harmony.”
For Abe, it was a moment of recognition: this group is living out their faith together and finding Eden along the way.
Faith on the Move
On alternating weeks, Tend groups engage in an Earthcare Activity. Instead of gathering around a table, Abe’s group hosted a Sacred Hike on Thursday nights at Hoffmaster State Park. Friends, neighbors, and family members were invited to meet at the trailhead for brief introductions and a moment of gratitude.
Then they walked.
Each hike included a simple icebreaker question to spark conversation. Midway through, the group paused to notice where they were—the sound of the lake, the smell of fall leaves, and, later into November, the crunch of snow. At the end of their hikes, they gathered around a crackling fire under a pavilion, pouring hot drinks from thermoses and lingering together.
“One of my favorite things was walking up and seeing the glow from the fire underneath the pavilion,” Abe said. “That was magical.”
The hikes were intentionally low-bar. No pressure. Low prep. Just show up and walk.
“Those weeks really helped me know what was going on in the lives of my friends.”
An Expanding Circle
Inviting people felt easy.
Abe’s wife and their teenage daughters quickly began asking, “Can I invite her? Can I invite her?” And they did. While Abe’s core Tend group was around 17 people, the Sacred Hikes regularly drew closer to 30, including neighbors who weren’t part of the group and some who didn’t identify as Christians.
One of those neighbors was Kyle, who cares deeply about the environment but doesn’t belong to a church. During one of their Sacred Hikes, Kyle became curious about the group and struck up a conversation with one of the group members in which he learned about God’s mission to restore all things in Jesus.
A week later, he emailed Abe to say how much that idea had stayed with him. He’d been thinking about it all week.
Wondering Together About New Creation
The final Dinner & Discussion night brought the group back around the table. One couple there had only recently become Christians. As the group discussed the Garden of New Creation in Revelation 21 and 22, the wife spoke up.
“Maybe it’s because I’m new to being a Christian, I didn’t grow up in religion, but I never learned what Christians mean when they talk about heaven,” she said.
That night, they encountered that story for the first time together. She realized for the first time the hope of resurrection in Jesus, and the comfort of knowing that we’re held in Christ until then.
Later, she sent Abe a message thanking him for the conversation. It was something they didn’t even know they’d been missing.
Making Space for Eden Moments
Abe’s experience captures something essential about Tend. Neighbors are welcomed in. Faith is practiced in ordinary, embodied ways. People are invited to wonder about their place in God’s world, often with their guard down and their senses awake.
“Tend really helped me expand my circle outward,” Abe said. “It’s helped me connect with people outdoors where we get to talk about faith and life and just build relationships.”
Throughout the season, Abe modeled humility and adaptability—introducing new rhythms into an existing community, offering creative hospitality through firelight and warm drinks, and trusting that God was already at work among them.
And along the way, his group experienced what he came to call “Eden moments”—brief glimpses of harmony between people, the Earth, and God.
Sometimes those moments happen around a table. Sometimes they happen on a trail. For Abe, moments like these make him eager to start the next Tend group as soon as possible, finding Eden.
