Last year, we claimed the call to Partnership: Courageously Conspiring Together —breathing together in trust, unity, and shared purpose as we faced the challenges before us. We learned that courage is not only found in bold action, but in faithful relationship: listening well, risking vulnerability, and believing that God works powerfully when we move together. That shared breath has strengthened us. Now, in 2026, we take the next faithful step and ask what happens when that partnership encounters tension.

Our theme, Faithful Friction: Turning Tension into Faithful Witness | Eradicating Systemic Poverty, invites us to acknowledge the very real tension we feel as disciples of Jesus living within the prevailing culture of our time. We experience friction when the values of Jesus’ kin-dom press against cultural expectations, political realities, and personal comfort. We also experience friction within ourselves—as we wrestle honestly with how our own choices, assumptions, and participation may either perpetuate systems of poverty or help dismantle them. Rather than avoiding or fearing that tension, we can lean into our community as we are called to notice it—to trust that friction can be holy.

Grounded in Matthew 25, we are reminded that Jesus meets us in those who are hungry, thirsty, sick, imprisoned, and pushed to the margins. This call compels us to address both immediate human need and the deeper systems that create and sustain economic inequality. Eradicating systemic poverty requires advocacy, service, and partnership—but it also requires self-examination, courage, and a willingness to be changed.

Friction does not have to be disagreeable or destructive. It can be a faithful signal calling us deeper into right relationships. When we encounter discomfort around issues of economic injustice, access, and power, that unease can open space for reflection, repentance, and renewed commitment. Staying faithful in moments of friction allows the Spirit to shape us, refine us, and expand our understanding of what it means to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

Together, we can support and encourage one another so that friction becomes not a breaking point, but a spark—an opportunity to let our light shine more clearly in the world. Across our 2026 gatherings, we will explore how to remain faithful amid tension, how to hold one another with grace when convictions collide, and how our shared courage—first learned through conspiring together—can sustain us as we engage the holy friction of following Jesus and faithfully seek the flourishing of all God’s people.