The Power of Cohort: Kyrie Collective
A group of people connected during their first year in the Twin Cities Tending the Holy Spiritual Direction program – and today, as Christos-trained Spiritual Directors, this cohort shares their gifts and training through Kyrie Collective. We talked with Spiritual Director Kari Pink* about the impetus of the group, and how they still come together to share ideas and walk with people through spiritual direction.
What brought you to Christos?
Years ago I had heard of Spiritual Direction through someone in my church. I love Spiritual Direction but never considered becoming a director myself. During a quiet time with God on my balcony a few years ago, I felt the invitation to do this! Our church has done a lot of spiritual practices and has spiritual directors in the congregation, so I talked to a few trusted people about Christos, and eventually completed the program in 2024.
How did the Kyrie Collective come about?
In my first small group during Year One of Tending the Holy, we really connected. We liked each other, we supported each other and wanted to find a way to find accountability and growth and continued learning as new Spiritual Directors. So we said, maybe we should explore starting our own spiritual direction practice in some way. We went away on a day-long retreat to explore how a collective would work and daydream a bit. Kyrie Collective took shape as a group of independent Spiritual Directors – but with a shared website, shared mission and common values.
The members of the collective (now seven people) have a variety of backgrounds – from youth ministry and social work to pastors of large and small church congregations. We live in the Cities metro area and Wisconsin.
We meet monthly at Christos to practice peer supervision and talk through our experiences. Then once a year we go on retreat to dig deeper, to a local monastery doing prayer practices, spending some time in silence, some time together as a group, and just growing together. We talk about daydreams for the future, things we want to offer.
“Connecting deeply over our shared love of God, the desire to walk with others in their relationship with Jesus and a deep joy in one another’s company led us to form this collective.”
What’s the benefit of keeping your cohort experience alive through Kyrie Collective?
It’s very encouraging to be with other people, both spiritually and in terms of being a director. Every month a different person leads a prayer practice or brings great book ideas or brings ideas to share.
We’re all in various stages of practicing. Some of us have more clients, some of us are trying to figure out how to build our practice. It’s good to be in it with people. Doing group direction with each other is good for sharing and processing things. We knew we could be more effective as a group, than as individuals. It’s been a really cool thing.
*Kari is also leading Crossing the Threshold: A Guided Prayer Journey, a contemplative, in-person retreat /workshop at Christos in Lino Lakes, Minn. on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. Click here for details and registration info.
