Every year, the Ranch relies on volunteers to clean cabins, do major repair and upkeep projects, and anything else needed to prepare for guests. Please consider joining us for a week of work, fun, and fellowship!

This session is full but please contact Alli Moore

at alli@ringlake.org to be added to the waitlist

Gareth Higgins and David LaMotte are both passionate about stories — the ones we tell each other and the ones we tell ourselves, the ones that inform our daily actions, the ones that limit or expand our imagination, and the ones that transform us and literally change the world. To be a part of this week’s gathering, you don’t need to tell stories for a living, you just need to be open to the idea that stories matter. These sessions will unfold with grace and stimulation, challenge and affirmation, making space for us all to re-examine the stories we have come to believe about the world and our places within it.

Gareth Higgins was born in Belfast and now lives and works in both the US and Ireland. He has been involved in peace-building and violence reduction in Northern Ireland and helping address the legacy of conflict helped teach the world’s first graduate course in Reconciliation Studies at Trinity College Dublin. Author or co-author of seven books including How Not to be Afraid, Gareth also helped found the Wild Goose, New Story, and Movies & Meaning festivals.

David LaMotte is a musician, author, and a holder of space for conversations that matter. He has presented over 3000 concerts, workshops, and lectures and released thirteen albums and three books. LaMotte holds a master’s degree in International Studies, Peace and Conflict Resolution from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. PEG Partners, the non-profit he founded in 2004, works in education, arts, and mentoring for children in Guatemala. LaMotte’s most recent book, You Are Changing the World Whether You Like It Or Not, was released by Chalice Press in 2023.

*Special incentive offer–50% off registration rates for this session! Email alli@ringlake.org to learn more!

Register for this session and more here!

*Please note that incentive discounts cannot be combined with any other discount(s)

We’ve all heard it. We’ve probably said it. Confronted with deep pain or tragedy, not really knowing what to do or say, we find ourselves “sending thoughts and prayers.” This phrase reflects our concern. Yet it often feels distant and detached. For some, “sending thoughts and prayers has come to signal the sender’s deep unwillingness—even resistance—to do anything more costly. These sessions will explore the ways that “sending thoughts and prayers” can be bound with earnest attempts to bring about wholeness, both for individuals in pain and communities suffering injustice. The biblical Psalms provide models for our reflection. For centuries, this collection of songs has taught communities how to think about suffering and how to experience hope. The Psalms can direct our thoughts and prayers in ways that bring us closer to those who are suffering. Even more, they can guide our actions as we strive for wholeness and justice.

The Rev. Rebekah LeMon is the Senior Pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, GA. Before entering full-time pastoral ministry, Rebekah was a corporate litigator with Alston+Bird LLC in Atlanta and active in pro bono work for asylum seekers and for children in the juvenile justice system in Georgia. The Rev. Dr. Joel LeMon is an Elder in the United Methodist Church and the Rev. Dr. Donald Allan Harp Distinguished Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University. His writing focuses on the Psalms and the reception history of the Bible.

*Special incentive offer–50% off registration rates for this session! Email alli@ringlake.org to learn more!

Register for this session and more here!

*Please note that incentive discounts cannot be combined with any other discount(s)

Beginning with the understanding that we are not our Enneagram type, we’ll use the Enneagram Map as a guide to deepening awareness of our automatic patterns and creating some distance between patterns and presence. Participants will be invited into presence and receptivity practices to explore throughout the day whether on hikes, horse rides, or lake activities. We will conclude with an honoring of the essential qualities of Being that are inherent in us. While a working knowledge of one’s Enneagram type would be helpful, all are welcome to attend.

Sandra Smith, MDiv, is a Certified Narrative Enneagram teacher and an IEA (International Enneagram Association) Accredited Professional. For over 20 years, Sandra has taught the Enneagram internationally as a tool for personal, professional, and spiritual development. Using the Enneagram map, Sandra leads organizational trainings, facilitates public workshops, and offers spiritual direction.  She co-hosts the podcast, Heart of the Enneagram, and co-authored its companion book. Her life experiences as a female, her identity as a lesbian, her love for Earth, and commitment to equity and inclusion shape her teaching and consulting.

This session is full but please contact Alli Moore

at alli@ringlake.org to be added to the waitlist

“Real poetry is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it.” — Matsuo Bashō. The practice of quiet attentiveness and observation is critical to the writing and enjoyment of poetry, and a key element of what makes life living in many, many ways. It is a refuge for Chris; perhaps it can be for you too. The course will include reading, discussing, and writing poems from three (or more) points of reflection. In particular, Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy, and how these ideas relate to a spiritual practice, regardless of (or lack of) religion. As Chris’s approach is deeply connected to the natural world, there will be particular emphasis there.

Chris La Tray is a Métis storyteller, a descendent of the Pembina Band of the mighty Red River of the North and an enrolled member of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians. He was recently named Montana Poet Laureate for 2023 – 2025. His third book, Becoming Little Shell, will be published by Milkweed Editions in 2024. His first book, One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays from the World at Large won the 2018 Montana Book Award and a 2019 High Plains Book Award. His book of haiku and haibun poetry, Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel, was published in 2021 by Foothills Publishing. Chris writes the weekly newsletter “An Irritable Métis” and lives near Missoula, Montana.

This session is full but please contact Alli Moore

at alli@ringlake.org to be added to the waitlist

Over the last century, religion has become increasingly toxic in the public square. Beyond the institutional and ethical failures of different religious communities, there is growing unease about God. So many Godsplainers, confident atheists, and believers alike are equally assured that the facts and reason justify their position. What if this kind of either/or certainty impedes exploring life’s most profound mysteries? What if we are in a moment where the questions humans have been asking around campfires throughout history require a more nuanced and open conversation? This workshop will explore how contemporary science and ancient wisdom can inspire a renewed vision of the sacred and the possibility of deep faith after certainty.

Tripp Fuller is a podcaster, theologian, minister, and competitive home brewer. Currently, he is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Theology & Science at the University of Edinburgh. He received his PhD in Philosophy, Religion, and Theology at Claremont Graduate University. For over 12 years Tripp has been doing the Homebrewed Christianity podcast where he interviews different scholars about their work. Last year it had over 3 million downloads. It also inspired a book series with Fortress Press called the Homebrewed Christianity Guides to… topics like God, Jesus, Spirit, and Church History.

This session is full but please contact Alli Moore

at alli@ringlake.org to be added to the waitlist

We live in a landscape of ancestry. To be cognizant of this history we turn to what was written before, rocks marked with messages, legends, renderings, and prayers. These Indigenous records are the oldest deeds to the land. What do they represent, how are they connected to each other, and what do they say about the ancient world? The sessions focused on aspects of rock art from astronomical alignments to clan symbols, and motifs of animals, hunting, and birth. At its heart, this is a storytelling workshop that links an ancient era with our own. If you are going to live in a place, in fact, belong to it, it’s important to recognize its oldest voices.

Craig Childs, author of Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau, has spent a lifetime in the company of this kind of imagery. He comes to us from extraordinary journeys in the field informed by interviews and conversations with Native scholars, scientists, and rock art aficionados. Childs has published more than a dozen critically acclaimed books on nature, culture, and science. His work has appeared in the The Atlantic, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Men’s Journal, and The Sun.

This session is full but please contact Alli Moore

at alli@ringlake.org to be added to the waitlist

For most of Christian history, the Bible has been read and preached as a set of instructions on how to go to heaven after we die. Authors and public theologians Diana Butler Bass and Brian D. McLaren believe that approach is misguided, even tragic, especially in these times. During this session, we’ll give an overview of the Biblical text as a rich library of ecological wisdom – all-too-relevant guidance for living wisely, sustainably, and abundantly while we’re still alive on Earth. Each evening, we’ll do a close, imaginative reading of one or two key biblical texts. whatever your background, you’ll gain a deeper appreciation for the ecological groundedness of the Biblical text and a deeper sense of why reverence for the Earth is of highest importance in this time of ecological overshoot, climate change, and civilizational transition.

Diana Butler Bass is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. Her books include the bestselling books Freeing Jesus, Grateful, Grounded, Christianity After Religion, and A People’s History of Christianity. Diana regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and networker among innovative Christian leaders. His dozen-plus books include Faith After Doubt, Do I Stay Christian? and The Great Spiritual Migration.

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Molly and Ruby discovered that there was so much aligned in art and history that they decided to collaborate on Ruby’s young adult version of her book Empress, a biography of Nur Jahan, India’s first female leader who ruled the vast Mughal lands in the seventeenth century. Seeped in multiple traditions and forms of drawing, the acclaimed, award-winning painter and writer Molly found Ruby’s ways with art fresh and intriguing. Acclaimed historian of India, and award-winning writer of historical nonfiction, Ruby found Molly’s brilliant eye a new way to consider history. As they have worked on their project, Tiger Slayer, they have encountered new directions – digressions and allure. During the sessions, Molly and Ruby will explore why both art and history are creative and why both disciplines can be visual and textual. What is the magic in coming together to create? How do the familiar and the mysterious speak to each other? How do we respond when the unexpected takes shape?

Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer based in New York. She is the author of two books, Drawing Blood and Brothers of the Gun (with Marwan Hisham), which was long-listed for a National Book Award in 2018. Her reportage is the 2022 winner of the Bernhart Labor Journalism Award, and has been published in the New York Times, New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. Her art is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art. Her animations have been nominated for three Emmys and won an Edward R. Murrow Award.

Ruby Lal is Professor of South Asian Studies in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies at Emory University, Atlanta. Her fields of study include feminist history and theory, and the question of archive as it relates to writing about Islamic societies in the precolonial and colonial world. She is the author of several books including Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan and the forthcoming Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan.

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Modern humans live in a scientific era. But how do we define objective reality, scientific evidence, or observable, measurable phenomena? As infants develop in language, we babble all the possible phonetic bits of all languages but begin to prune off those sounds not mirrored by our caregivers. Similarly, we prune off sensory perceptions that receive no social validation, forming our shared understanding of the world around us. This week we will examine our frameworks of understanding and play with novel ways of seeing the natural world through art-making activities.

Mo Morrow is a lifelong educator and artist, specializing in supporting children with learning differences and their parents. She holds degrees in Studio Art and Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Space Science. She has been involved with the riding program at Ring Lake Ranch in various roles since 2012. She currently tutors children and teaches painting in watercolor in Colorado Springs.

This session is full but please contact Alli Moore

at alli@ringlake.org to be added to the waitlist

How can we read the Bible in ways that center LGBTIA2Q+ experiences, ancient and modern? What does it mean to read biblical texts from queer perspectives? Instead of defending LGBTIA2Q+ folks from the passages typically used to “clobber” them, this session guides participants to use different strategies for reading the Bible that embody a queer politics of transformation and justice.

Dr. Jimmy Hoke (he/they) is a teacher and scholar of queer and trans Biblical Studies. Dr. Hoke’s research focuses on reconstructing the queer folks who crafted their own theologies in the earliest assemblies of Christ-followers. Their book, Feminism, Queerness, Affect, and Romans: Under God?, uses these reconstructions to unsettle readings of Romans that focus only on Paul. Dr. Hoke publishes weekly queer commentaries on the Revised Common Lectionary in a project called “Queering the Lectionary.”

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