Welcome!
I’m glad you found your way here. I am passionate about creating safe and brave spaces for transformation and healing in real life, online, and outside. I love cultivating connection with people, groups and organizations who care about practice, healthier systems, justice and equity, and changing ourselves to change the world.
- Kathy
Change starts with us. Let's make 2021 a year of practice.
Kathy Escobar co-pastors at The Refuge, a Christian community and mission center in North Denver and is the author of Practicing: Changing Yourself to Change the World, Faith Shift: Finding Your Way Forward When Everything You Believe is Coming Apart, Down We Go: Living into the Wild Ways of Jesus and several other books including her most recent Advent resource, A Weary World: Reflections for a Blue Christmas.
A trained spiritual director, speaker, writer, group facilitator, and advocate, her passion is for those on the margins of life and faith and creating brave, safe spaces for healing and transformation in community. A Pepperdine University graduate, she has a Master’s in Management with an emphasis in Organizational Development from JFK University and a Certificate in Spiritual Direction from Denver Seminary. She has blogged for many years in addition to writing for different platforms including Patheos Progressive Christian Channel and SheLoves Magazine as well as creating content for The Work of the People and Transform Network. She is also the Co-Executive Director of #communityheals: Making Spaces for Transformation Accessible for All, which includes #waterheals: Water Sports Empowerment for the Soul, #beautyheals: Rest & Renewal for Weary Souls, and #presenceheals: Soul Experiences that Heal.
Kathy's books are available at Amazon.
To book Kathy for an event, retreat, workshop, or team building experience, email here. Depending on the nature of the event, most bookings will be handled through Transform Network.
I'm glad to be part of:
My Books
Practicing: Changing Yourself to Change the World
(Westminster John Knox Press, February 2020)
From the masses of young people spurning organized religion to faithful followers of Jesus, there is a deep hunger across gender, age, socioeconomics, and denominational backgrounds for practical, tangible ways to live a life of love, mercy, and justice in our divided, fragmented world. But where do we start? It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the world's problems, with solutions to violence and poverty and oppression seeming so far out of reach. But we have more power to change the world than we realize-and it starts with changing ourselves. Practicing is centered on ten transformational practices-Healing, Listening, Loving, Including, Equalizing, Advocating, Mourning, Failing, Resting, and Celebrating. By putting our hearts, hands, and feet behind our good intentions, we can transform our groups, our communities, and our world. Extremely interactive, relational, and practical, Practicing can be read alone or processed together with a group, church, or class.
A Weary World: Reflections for a Blue Christmas
(Westminster John Knox Press, September 2020)
It's the most wonderful time of the year…until it's not." During the holidays, so many of us suffer for all kinds of reasons. The magnitude of our weary world weighs on our hearts and minds. We wrestle with chronic pain, broken relationships, shattered dreams, fragile faith, and unexpected losses. Our grief and sorrow often feels particularly acute, and for 2020, most all of us are feeling weary for countless reasons. A Weary World: Reflections for a Blue Christmas is for any individuals and communities who want to honor the reality of the season in a raw and hopeful way. It includes twenty-eight daily reflections paired with prayers and possible practices to help sustain us. Centered on the 4 weeks of the Advent season, the major movements include: Honoring Reality, Practicing Honesty, Embracing Paradox, and Borrowing Hope. There are also group reflection questions and resources and creative ideas for leaders. Digital resources for groups and congregations at wjkbooks.com/awearyworld
Events, Classes & Groups
Events
Groups
Faith Shift: Healing & Hope, an online Facebook group
Podcasts
Classes
Walking Wounded
