by In today’s highly charged social and political environment, we often don’t know how to talk well with other people–especially with people whose backgrounds differ from our own. In this episode we talk with writer, editor, and community developer Chris Smith about:
- why conversation has become such a challenge in the 21st century,
- why conversation is perhaps the most-needed spiritual practice of our individualistic age, and
- how to have hard conversations in the church.
We must learn to converse effectively with those who differ from us in the body of Christ so we can embody Christ together in the world. In community, we learn what it means to belong to others and to a story that is bigger than ourselves, presence and embodiment is key with people and communication, which leads to the most transformative and productive relational communication.
How would we communicate differently if we really believed that we belong to one another in the body of Christ?
Links from this episode:
- Chris’s Book How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church
- The Englewood Review of Books, where Chris is the editor
- Follow Chris on Twitter
- Our Membership Community on Patreon
- Our upcoming Enneagram Transformation Workshops
Christopher Smith (MA, Indiana University) is a writer, community developer, and founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is coauthor of the award-winning book Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus and the author of Reading for the Common Good: How Books Help Our Churches and Neighborhoods Flourish. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, USA Today, the Indianapolis Star, HuffPost, Christianity Today, the Christian Century, Relevant, and Sojourners. Smith lives on the urban Near Eastside of Indianapolis, Indiana, where he is a longtime member of Englewood Christian Church, a congregation that has been learning to talk together for over two decades.
Become a patron
Gravity Leadership is a community of leaders who are learning to lead like Jesus, live on mission, and make disciples in the post-Christendom world. If you’d like to connect more deeply and partner with us in our work, check out our Membership Community on Patreon.
You can partner with us for as little as $5 per month, and there are some pretty great perks involved if you support us at a higher level, including our patron-only Practitioner Podcast and monthly Learning Labs.
The Membership Community is a way for you to be more connected to others who share your values. It’s a way for you to be able to share what you’re learning and learn from others. It’s a way to be part of our work.
Get some training
And if you’d like to dive in “all the way” with us, check out Gravity Leadership Academy, our 10-month training intensive for Christian leaders who want to bring lasting transformation to their culture.
If you found this episode of the Gravity Leadership Podcast helpful, please let us know by leaving a rating and review on iTunes, or wherever you review podcasts. You can also contact us to ask a question or suggest a topic for a future episode.
Join our community
And fill out the form below to join the Gravity Leadership Community. You’ll get a curated list of interesting and edifying articles every week, plus FREE resources for leading like Jesus, living on mission, and making disciples.
Leave a Reply