“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” — Romans 12:2, NRSVUE
I just returned from a wonderful weekend with the Sisters of St. Francis in Dubuque, Iowa.1 I was invited to help lead their community retreat as the Sisters and their associates keep exploring how to live faithfully and bravely in a world that often challenges the values they care about.
Over the years, I’ve been lucky to work with several Franciscan communities, and each time I come away with a greater respect for their unique spiritual tradition. The Franciscan way of life feels especially important right now. It offers a vision of human flourishing that our culture needs, and maybe has almost forgotten how to imagine.
The Sisters in Dubuque have adopted a direction statement that names three commitments: acting with a more courageous prophetic voice, collaborating with faith-based and justice-focused organizations, and sharing the Franciscan way of life and spirituality. They conclude with a remarkable declaration: “This is who we are; this is what the global community can expect of us.”
I love the audacity of that promise. In a world where institutions routinely make commitments they have little intention of keeping, here is a community of women telling the rest of us who we can count on them to be.
But the beginning of their statement became particularly meaningful to me over the weekend. “Together we commit to ongoing conversion through contemplative living and prayer, respectful dialogue, and nonviolent action as we respond to the urgent needs of our times.” For two days, I watched them put those words into action.
We talked about serious issues. The Sisters and associates are figuring out how to share their prophetic voice in a world filled with violence, environmental harm, inequality, and the exclusion of vulnerable people. They are asking how their unique gifts and commitments can help heal our shared life.
What stood out to me most was how they approached these questions. They welcomed everyone warmly, making us all feel at home. There was laughter, real affection, careful listening, and a willingness to tackle tough topics without losing kindness for each other. Their hospitality went beyond just providing food or a place to sleep. It showed how they see the Sacred in welcoming others. I left feeling truly cared for. I also wondered why this way of being together feels so rare.
Our culture is very good at shaping relationships around competition, consumption, status, and power. We learn to measure our lives by what we achieve, what we own, and how we stand out from others. Even religious groups can get caught up in survival, influence, growth, and protecting themselves.
But the Franciscan tradition starts from a very different place. When Francis of Assisi chose a life of poverty and simplicity in the thirteenth century, he was making a deep statement about what it means to be human. He rejected the idea that wealth, status, and power are the best measures of a good life. By choosing poverty, he wanted to free himself to connect with God, with others, and with all living things.
Francis saw creation as a family. He called the sun his brother, the moon his sister, and all creatures his relatives. This view challenged the strict hierarchies of his time, when people, especially the powerful, thought they had the right to own and control the world.
The Franciscan vision is based on the belief that creation is good, life is sacred, and our true identity comes from relationships, not separation. The spiritual goal is to let go of the need to own and control, so we can join more fully in the love that already exists in creation.
This way of seeing things has a big impact on how we live together. Simplicity helps us focus on what matters most. Peacemaking means having the courage to stay connected even when we disagree. Respect for creation means seeing the natural world as a community we belong to. Joy is a way to show thanks for the gift of being alive. Contemplation is the practice that helps us return to these commitments when the world’s pressures try to distract us.
I was especially moved by the Sisters’ commitment to ongoing conversion. In Christian spirituality, conversion is often seen as a single moment of change. But for Franciscans, it’s more challenging…and I might add, more honest. Conversion means a lifelong effort to let love transform our hearts, habits, relationships, and communities. It means that none of us is finished growing.
Even after years of prayer, service, and spiritual growth, these women see themselves as still changing, still learning about God. They are open to asking what needs to change in their lives and community so they can respond better to the world’s needs.
That attitude shows real humility, especially when combined with their brave commitment to speak out. Their contemplation helps them act more deeply. Their prayer prepares them to face injustice, build partnerships, protect creation, and support people whose dignity is at risk.
Last year, I wrote about another Franciscan community and said that the future needs Franciscans.2 I feel even more sure of that now.
We need people who can help us picture lives built on kinship instead of competition, having enough instead of always wanting more, and serving others instead of seeking power. We need communities that see peacemaking as a spiritual practice and know how to hold both joy and grief without giving in to despair. Most of all, we need real-life examples of what these commitments look like when they become more than just good ideas.
That’s what the Sisters in Dubuque showed me this weekend. They reminded me that a different way of living is possible because they are already doing it. Their community still faces struggles, disagreements, uncertainties, and limits like any other group. But they have chosen to keep coming back to a way of life shaped by prayer, hospitality, simplicity, justice, joy and love. They have made that commitment openly, as a promise to all of us. I find that deeply hopeful.
We often focus on what’s broken in our world and forget about the communities quietly working to heal it. Some are religious, some are not. They are people learning to share, care for the Earth, welcome strangers, solve conflicts peacefully, and build lives where everyone belongs. The Franciscan tradition is one especially beautiful example of this bigger human possibility.
As I left Dubuque, I felt grateful for the wisdom the Sisters and associates shared and the kindness they showed. I also felt something I’ve missed lately: a new sense of hope for the kind of world we could still create together.
Their lives invite us to look at our own. What if we shaped our days around what truly makes life sacred? How might things change if our communities measured success by the strength of their relationships, the generosity of their hospitality, the courage of their values, and the health of the world around them?
The Sisters of St. Francis have spent generations exploring these questions. This past weekend, they reminded me that the answers come from living differently every day.
And it truly is a beautiful way to live.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
What did you experience in a community or relationship that helped you imagine a different, more generous way of living? What made that experience so meaningful?
The Sisters commit themselves to ongoing conversion through contemplation, dialogue, and nonviolent action. Where in your own life might love be inviting you to change a long-established habit, assumption, or way of relating to others?
If someone observed your daily life, what values would they conclude you were committed to? How closely would those observations reflect the person you hope to become?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer To Teach Us Another Way
Holy Mystery, You have woven our lives into the great community of creation. Teach us to live as though we truly belong to one another. Free us from the restless hunger for more than we need, from the fear that makes strangers of our neighbors, and from the violence we have learned to call normal. Give us the joy of simple things, the courage to make peace, and hearts spacious enough to welcome one another. May contemplation deepen our compassion, and may our prayers find expression in lives of generous service. Keep converting us, Holy One, until the love we seek becomes the life we live. Amen.
Spiritual Practice: A Day of Ongoing Conversion
The Sisters of St. Francis begin their direction statement with a commitment to ongoing conversion through contemplative living, respectful dialogue, and nonviolent action.
For today’s practice, choose one of those commitments and allow it to shape an ordinary part of your day.
If you choose contemplative living, set aside fifteen minutes to be fully present to something you usually rush past. You might sit outside, tend a garden, walk through your neighborhood, or simply enjoy a meal without distractions. Pay attention to what happens when you stop treating the present moment as something to get through on your way to the next obligation.
If you choose respectful dialogue, seek out someone whose experience or perspective differs from yours. Ask a sincere question and listen without preparing your response. Notice what it feels like to approach another person with curiosity rather than the need to persuade them.
If you choose nonviolent action, consider where your words, habits, or decisions might be contributing to unnecessary harm. Perhaps you can interrupt a pattern of contempt, support someone experiencing exclusion, make a choice that reduces harm to the natural world, or take one concrete step toward repairing a strained relationship.
At the end of the day, reflect on what you experienced. Did the practice change how you felt, what you noticed, or how you related to another person?
The Franciscan understanding of conversion invites us to keep returning to the work of becoming. We need not wait for some extraordinary spiritual experience to begin. Our ordinary lives provide more than enough opportunities.
Tomorrow, you can begin again.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.
NEW!!!!!! October 13, 2026 - 11-12:30pm ET - FREE ONLINE EVENT - The Art of Creating Community - We talk a great deal about the need for community these days. We are living through an epidemic of loneliness, deepening polarization, declining trust in institutions, and a growing sense that many of the places that once brought us together no longer do. But gathering people is not the same thing as creating community. Join me for a conversation with community strategist Laura Zug about the art and practice of forming communities that people genuinely want to be part of.
October 13, 2026 - 12:30 - 1:30pm ET - FREE ONLINE BOOK CLUB - For the next 5 weeks, I am hosting a book club where we will read Fr. Gregory Boyle’s “Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times.” Father Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, has spent decades building community among people whom society has often discarded. In Cherished Belonging, he draws on those relationships and stories to explore what might happen if we stopped sorting people into categories of worthy and unworthy, us and them. Don’t worry if you don’t have time to read the book. We always have incredibly rich conversations. All are welcome. RSVP Here.
October 15, 2026, 7-8:45pm ET - I will be joining Jackie Sussman for an online session on practicing eidetics as part of our “Reclaiming the Power of Imagination” monthly series. Eidetic Imagery is a powerful tool for pastors, denominational leaders, coaches, and spiritual directors working with others, and for individuals seeking deeper integration and healing in their own lives. Jackie is a psychotherapist, author, and leading expert in Eidetic Image Psychology, and has spent over forty years helping leaders and individuals unlock creativity, uncover hidden strengths, and move through limiting patterns. During this session, she will lead a live Eidetic process shaped by mythic imagery, offering a direct experience of the work. REGISTER HERE.
October 18-21, 2026 - PREACH! 2026 Conference- I’ll be co-hosting PREACH in Minneapolis with Church Anew, a new gathering for preachers, storytellers, worship leaders, and spiritual communicators navigating what it means to speak with clarity, compassion, and courage in a changing world. If you’ve sensed that the preaching moment has changed and are longing for thoughtful community and renewed imagination for this work, I hope you’ll join us.
November 10, 7-8:30pm ET - I’ll be joined by theologian, writer, and professor Dr. Debra Rienstra for a special ONLINE conversation on Refugia Faith. In ecology, refugia are small places where life survives amid disruption, pockets of resilience from which life can eventually regenerate and spread. Debra invites us to consider what this might mean spiritually in an age of climate instability, political turmoil, institutional decline, and profound uncertainty. What if our congregations, communities, relationships, and even our own lives could become refugia, places where courage, compassion, beauty, wisdom, and possibility are protected and cultivated for whatever comes next? I hope you’ll join us for this timely and deeply hopeful conversation. REGISTER HERE!
November 4, 2026 - 7-8:30pm ET, ONLINE EVENT - Theologian Matthew Fox and I are teaming up again in a series called Journeying with the Mystics. The mystics have always emerged in times of uncertainty. They appear when old certainties are crumbling, when institutions no longer provide easy answers, and when people find themselves longing for a deeper experience of the Sacred. Join us for a 24-session exploration of the teachings of St. John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, Hildegard of Bingen, Kabir and Rumi, Meister Eckhart and more. This is more than a lecture series. It is an invitation into a living spiritual journey. Learn more and REGISTER HERE!
December 15, 7-8:30pm ET - FREE WEBINAR - I will be joined by Dr. Charissa Mikoski, Assistant Professor of Research and Hartford Institute for Religion Research for a presentation on “The State of American Congregations: What the Latest Data Tell Us.” This webinar explores findings from the 2025 Faith Communities Today survey, including changes in worship attendance, congregational vitality, finances, volunteering, programming, and leadership. It will also examine what more than 24,000 individual attenders tell us about participation and their experiences of congregational life. Together, these findings offer a picture that is neither simply one of decline nor one of revival, but of significant change and uneven recovery. REGISTER HERE.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
My dear friend Brian McLaren has a new novel coming in November, and I’m excited about this one. The Great Rift is the second book in his Last Voyage trilogy, imagining ten pioneers leaving a dying Earth for a fragile human settlement on Mars. The story weaves together ecological imagination, spirituality, art, survival, and the possibility of creating a genuinely different future. Brian is one of the most thoughtful and imaginative writers I know, and I love seeing him use fiction to explore questions he has spent a lifetime asking. The Great Rift comes out November 3 and is available for preorder now.
My friends at Church Anew have been building a terrific library of resources for congregations and church leaders navigating ministry in these strange and demanding times. You’ll find thoughtful worship and preaching resources, practical tools, and material designed to help communities engage the questions actually shaping our lives right now. I deeply appreciate the imagination and theological depth Church Anew brings to its work, so if you’re a pastor or congregational leader looking for fresh resources, spend a little time exploring what they’re creating.
Every Monday, 12pm ET - ONLINE WRITING GROUP - My dear friend, Meryl Marshall-Daniels, is leading a writing group open to all. This is a simple and spacious writing circle for people who want time to listen inwardly and put words on the page without overthinking, performing, or polishing. Meryl offers a prompt designed to invite reflection, imagination, and attunement to what is already alive within you. The practice honors writing as a way of listening, of letting images, memories, questions, and insights surface in their own time. Learn more here.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
Sisters of St. Francis website: osfdbq.org
The Future Needs the Franciscan Spirit
“What we are looking for is what is looking.” — St. Francis of Assisi
Thank you for highlighting the Franciscan charism and its lived example in the Sisters of Dubuque. It strikes me that these centuries old charisms in the Christian Church-- Franciscan, Benedictine, Dominican, Augustinian--(enfleshed in real, living communities all these years) offer both hope and light for the fears and dark places of each age....making these charisms both rooted and evergreen. Ever ancient, ever new.
In gratitude for all Religious Women throughout the world.Their commitment to the Sacred Mystery offers a safe abode for the world now and the new world trying to come to birth.