Practicing Holy Conversation

Our Lenten learning this year is less a study and more a practice. We are learning TO DO something during our Wednesday evening gatherings that is difficult, awkward, and uncomfortable. We are practicing how to have holy conversations about difficult topics.

Lent is 40 days of wilderness WITH Jesus and with each other. The wilderness is not easy, so this season invites us to sit in the wrestling and less pristine aspects of our life and faith. As Minneola’s spiritual leader, I ask this community to spend time in the discomfort of our faith knowing that soon Easter will arrive with its brass, lilies and alleluias and many of the shadows lingering on the periphery of our lives will be forgotten. Lent is a holy season to sit in the dustiness of life and not turn away from the hard truths of being a disciple of Christ.

So yes, on Wednesday nights I am asking our community to come together, face a partner you might know intimately or never met and talk about tough faith, life and death topics. This will be awkward, this will be difficult, you will not want to do this, but hold tight to the truth that no one is grading you and there is no “right” way. These conversations, due to time, relationships and trust will not be as deep as they might be with a trusted friend, but that doesn’t mean they don’t matter.  

It matters that we, as a faith community, provide an opportunity for all of us to practice holy conversation. A conversation that begins with an open heart to the other and ends with trusting Christ and the Spirit to connect us even when we fundamentally disagree. If we cannot do this in the church, where can we? How will we, or our young people, learn to have these conversations in other realms of life if we don’t even dare do it here?

Minneola, come as you can. Trust each other, yourself and most especially God. And when you need to pause or back away, know there is more than enough grace for that as well.

We make the road by walking…together,

Pr. Hannah