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Church Land & Building Discernment
Accompaniment for churches reimagining their Land, buildings, and ministry. We offer coaching, resources, and communities of practice to help congregations align their Land and buildings with new ways of being the Church that are rooted in relationship and place.
Rooted in Place. Practicing Church Regeneration.
We partner with congregations who are ready to move from intention to action.
Root Offerings
Below are the entry-point offerings for congregations beginning their Land discernment journey. Choose what fits your community's current needs and capacity. Let’s work together to design what will make your vision and values come to life.
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From 1 hour to 2 days — tailored to your learning needs.
Flexible, facilitated learning experiences designed to meet your group where you are.
Possible Topics
Unearthing your church heritage and hidden histories
Moving beyond Land acknowledgments
Beginning a Land & building discernment process
Sacred Organizing 101 to transform your church + community
Recent Workshops
Making a Way Out of Water Ways: Becoming Watershed Disciples
Congregational Land Stories: Unearthing Your Church's Unique Call to Racial and Environmental Justice
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Go from reading together to being part of community actions together.
How We Facilitate
Grounding in local Land and watershed context
Historical framing and theological reflection
Embodied practices (somatic, relational, contemplative)
Structured dialogue and discernment questions
Integration toward collective action and accountability
See a list of selected books we love. We are open to ideas that your church group has.
Vote for our first 2 books to read in community over the next year
The Land Is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery by Sarah Augustine
As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock by Dina Gilio-Whitaker
Afro-Christian Convention: The Fifth Stream of the United Church of Christ edited by Yvonne V. Delk
Watershed Discipleship: Reinhabiting Bioregional Faith and Practice edited by Ched Myers
Gone for Good? Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition by edited by Mark Elsdon
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We bring Land-centered, justice-rooted adult faith formation to your congregation.
Recent Reflections Have Included
Watershed Imagination: Remembering our Interdependence
Finding Manna in Wyoming: Food, Land & Ancestors
What does it mean to live generationally?
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We support your church team to imagine, plan, and implement liturgy and faith formation that are connected to your landscape and watershed community. We encourage you to include the voices of many generations and a diversity of persons (human and other-than-human).
Some Ideas Might Include:
Watershed walks
Xeriscaping garden blessing
Blessing of the animals
Solar project celebration
Neighborhood Land encounter
Blue Christmas services that are Land-centered
Rooted in Place. Reckoning with Land stories. Practicing Collective Liberation.
2027 Community of Practice
Now Enrolling - Dates TBD
Join other congregations as we unearth how our Land Stories are interwoven with systems of racism and colonialism and clarify our sacred responsibilities to generational reckoning and repair through place-based relationships.
6 months of workshops, spiritual practice, core team coaching, and leadership development. Your team is supported to integrate and implement your learning in your church + community.
Form a core team of 5 leaders from your congregation who will work together on a Land Stories Project
Reach out for a discernment conversation to see if Root & Reckon might be a good fit for your church.
Land Stories Community Gathering
Upcoming on September 19, 2026
Space is limited for this hybrid event. Please reach out here for an invitation.
Join the 2 participating churches and their core teams as they share their Land Stories projects with the wider community.
Over the 6-month community of practice, a UCC and UU congregation have been reckoning with how and where colonialism and racism show up in their church’s Land stories.
The Land Stories work grounds the teams in collective discernment to understand what their church’s place-based responsibility and reparative actions will be to dismantle systems of oppression within their own congregation, tradition, and community.
The Root & Reckon Community of Practice is our deepest offering. It’s a 6-month commitment for congregations ready to do the work together.
Strengthen Our New Ministry Roots
Become a financial partner to help our new ministry sprout and blossom.
INDIVIDUAL GIVING
One-Time Gift or Monthly Co-Sustainer
Your generosity, whether a single gift or an ongoing monthly contribution, directly nurtures this ministry's growth. Every dollar plants deeper roots in the communities we serve together.
MINISTRY PARTNERSHIP
Financial Sponsorship & Collaboration
Let’s schedule a one-on-one conversation to explore how we might partner together with your congregation, ministry team, or denominational program.
Root & Reckon is currently supported by a UCC National Neighbors in Need grant and a partnership with the UCC Rocky Mountain Conference’s Racial Justice Team.
Let’s start a conversation
If something on this page sparks your curiosity, let’s have a conversation and get to know each other better.
Fill out the form linked through the button below to get in contact with Bry Brannan, Minister for Land Discernment.
Through a free consultation and relational conversations, we will discern what offerings will be the most supportive for your church. We will work with you and your church budget when designing fee-for-service programming.
Root & Reckon is a ministry of Juniper Formation, a United Church of Christ faith community.