Have you struggled to converse with family members or friends from different perspectives?

Do you feel it is better to avoid certain important, yet difficult, topics with family, friends, or church community than to enter into a conversation you worry will be unfruitful?

Do you ache and hurt that there is so much division?

Do you wish we could talk with one another rather than at one another?

If your answer to any of these is yes, we want to invite you to practice having healthy conversations on topics that can be awkward, triggering, unsafe, and difficult to engage. The only way we can change the course of polarization, silos, and echo chambers that are all too common in our culture and the church today is to practice the spiritual disciplines of active listening, asking transformative questions, and speaking with gentleness, humility, and self-control.

Join Christians from throughout Greater Boston for a series of five conversations on issues affecting the life & mission of the Church right now, including restoring trust, economic difference, political affiliation, and race. Our purpose is to practice and become more comfortable having hard conversations within the Body of Christ, and by doing so create greater understanding across various lines of difference and truly learn and experience what it means to live out “unity in diversity.”

Through this series of intentional conversations, we have the opportunity to be holistically formed more into the likeness of Christ by 1) thoughtfully engaging rather than avoiding difficult conversations about our diverse experiences, and 2) learning how to live out the  fruit of the Spirit in these conversations that so easily trip us up. 

These conversations will be hosted by our team of facilitators who have been trained in Reflective Structured Dialogue, a model for conversation and story-sharing across deep divides that nurtures empathy for those of differing perspectives and spiritual growth of loving God and neighbor. You will be placed in a small group of 4-5 people and meet weekly for five weeks together to engage in these conversations. In order to cultivate relationship-building, we ask that participants commit to attending with minimal missed attendance and inform the facilitator in advance if they’ll have to miss a session. UniteBoston’s network spans historic divides across race, denomination, culture, age, etc, so it’s likely that you will have the opportunity to hear from those you might not normally interact with. In doing so, together we can uphold a “deep unity” that honors diverse viewpoints and models God’s call for reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18).

Sessions:

Sessions will take place on Zoom for five weeks on Monday evenings – April 11, 18, 25, May 2, 9 from 7:00 to 8:30pm

-Week 1: Restoring Trust

-Week 2: Economic Difference

-Week 3: Political Affiliation & Voting Choices

-Week 4: Racial & Ethnic Differences & the Church

-Week 5: Overall reflection/application

To sign up, click here. Sign-ups are due March 31st.

If you want to understand the difference between regular conversation and these conversations, click here.