“What good can come from Nazareth?” It’s the kind of question that echoes today in places like San Francisco—where cultural narratives, spiritual resistance, and such evident brokenness might lead many to wonder: What good can come from there? And yet, that’s exactly where we gathered June 3–5 for our second city meetup of the year with New Room Cohorts.

New Room Cohorts City Meetup in San Francisco

The gathering brought together members of our four New Room Cohorts—pastors, worship leaders, and young adult leaders who have been walking together since January.

A majority of our 60 cohort participants joined us from 20 states. We shared meals and conversation, but also dove deep with the help of some local friends. 

Learning from Friends, Churches, and Prayer Movements

Jon Thompson led teaching on spiritual gifts and deliverance, offering practical and pastoral frameworks in an environment full of questions, discussion, and prayer. 

We heard from our friends at Experience Church, the home of Pray the Bay—a citywide prayer movement rooted on one of San Francisco’s most notorious street corners, known for its high poverty and crime rates.

Pray the Bay is studying the Awakening Library along with many other churches in the Bay area. While we were there, they had completed their last week of the cohort with 11 pastors, having just finished the last book in our Awakening Library Core Learnings. After talking about the reading, they decided to practice Bands together in small groups. All of the “practice” bands said they wanted to continue meeting together.

Pray the Bay’s vision was clear: prayer is not just something we talk about—it’s something we live, allowing our prayers to shape the streets and the way we walk on them.

On our final day, participants had the option to participate in a prayer walk through the Mission District using the Holy Here app—a hands-on, Spirit-led experience hosted by JT Thomas and San Francisco locals. 

We ended our time sitting with pastors Dave Lomas and Jess Gracewski from Reality SF, who shared their vision for long-term, faithful presence in the city. Dave described the pastoral opportunity they face in San Francisco to shift their congregation from a “miner mentality” to a “farmer mentality.”

Instead of extracting from the city, their church seeks to sow into it, dreaming of generational blessing in a place with no historic move of God and no formal Christian institutions

We’re on Mission—Sowing for a Great Awakening

This gathering is part of our wider mission at Seedbed to gather, connect, and resource the people of God to sow for a great awakening.

New Room Cohorts are designed to extend that mission beyond the annual conference and into the lived reality of local churches. Over 60 participants from 20 states are currently walking together through these communities of encounter, formation, and mission.

And we’re seeing it work—cities are being blessed, leaders are being strengthened, and new seeds of awakening are being sown.

How Can You Participate?

Pray – Most importantly, would you pray with us? Pray for churches like Reality and Experience Church, for leaders sowing in the streets of hard cities, and for a great awakening in the places we least expect it.

Learn – We’d love for you to go deeper with us. You can read more about our New Room Leader Gathering or explore resources from Jon Thompson here.

Invite – Know someone who you think would enjoy New Room Cohorts in 2026? Invite them to apply here: 2026 Cohort Application.

Give – Many participants are able to attend because of scholarships provided by New Room. Your support of Seedbed makes these gatherings and this long work possible.

Thank you for believing that good can come from places like San Francisco!

For the Awakening,