That said, I believe that many people do want to have tough conversations they just need a tool to help them. It isn’t helpful to force anyone into dialogue, and the truth is that some communities just aren’t ready. If minds are closed to tough topics, I am not sure what any leader can do. Brave churches thrive in the messy encounters that bring our faith to action. When George Floyd was murdered in May 2020, I had church leaders call me to ask, “When are we going to march?” In baby steps, the Brave Church experience gave us courage not only to talk about tough topics but to do something about them. I heard folks wanting to plan special events for Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. I heard folks voicing concerns about high school students in our community dealing with mental illness. To my delight, in the months that followed, I heard prayer requests during Sunday worship services shift from being solely about physical conditions. The lasting gifts of our Brave Church conversations were that we saw each other all over again - and that in seeing each other, we knew we had work to do to make our congregation more welcoming to those with experiences of both private and public pain. We kept talking, even through moments when experiences of attempted suicide were shared or heteronormative stereotypes were called out. No one walked out in the middle of a session.
No church splits happened because of being a Brave Church group.
And I want you to know that we all lived! We talked about infertility and miscarriage. With these rules as a starting point, I created a curriculum that guided our church to begin to stretch our brave muscles that material later became the book “Brave Church.”įor seven weeks, we talked. Those without a minority perspective must do their own work and not rely on others to do it for them. I would emphasize the importance in these conversations of not singling out individuals in a group who have had a particular experience and not asking a marginalized group to bear the weight of teaching. Use “I” instead of “you” statements, and do not accuse or attack.
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