Tag: Conversations
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Conversation Catalyst or Conversation Coward?
Usually I write poems or long blogs to express my thoughts. This time I drew a picture. The point of the picture—if it’s not obvious—is that I think we are at a critical moment in the world when we can choose to be #ConversationCatalysts and foster a #CollaborativeCulture or we can be #ConversationCowards and devolve…
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A Call to Restore the Balance
A bird flapping with one wing is grounded and spins in a circle going nowhere fast. – The Way
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Save the Future With Your Present Conversations
If you are part of a community of folks as small as your family or as large as a megachurch and you aren’t challenging yourselves in your conversations your communications are the equivalent of standing water. And elementary science tells us what happens to standing water. The conversations that we participate in are supposed to…
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A Conversation Among Equals: The Importance of De-ranking Conversations
The fact is that, whether we intend them to or not, most of our conversations happen in frameworks that are upheld by socially accepted ranking systems. And, when conversations happen in a context where someone holds a perceived “higher ranking”, it is virtually impossible to have the conversations we need to move our society forward…
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Questioning Injustice
Roderick Walker’s Lyft driver was pulled over and yet, according to reports, he was beaten and had a knee pressed on his neck when asked for his ID. Some people will ask the question, “Why didn’t he just give his ID?” The answer is that he had the right to ask and refuse since he…
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State of Confusion 2020
Sometimes I feel actual physical discomfort when I think about the decisions that are before our world over the next generation or so. I’m the type of person who will choose to try and see where other people are coming from almost to the degree of great emotional risk. I have listened to people of…
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We Met. We Talked. Now What?
Can one conversation fundamentally change who you are and how you are in the world? I think so. And that’s precisely why I think so many of us fear authentic conversation. But hopefully this fear is waning. We Met. One day I had an encounter with a woman who struggled with an addiction to crack…
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The Benefits of Prophet Sharing
Someone recently told me that something I said in a sermon was prophetic. I didn’t have a chance to ask them what they meant by it so I don’t really know how they were using the word. In my experience of the word, people typically use it in one of two ways–either they use it…
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Speaking of Difference
Recently I did an interview on a local radio show that highlights experiences of being a person of color in Boulder County. The show is called PoCo in BoCo and is co-hosted by Tracey Jones and Nikhil Mankekar also of Boulder County. In the show we talk about what people must consider when entering in…
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Raise Your Voice: Healing Society Through Conversational Risks
Living in Colorado, I see a lot of people taking extreme risks and pushing themselves to their physical limits. At least in the Boulder area, it is a way of life for many people. If I drive up the canyon, I see people taking risks on a rock face. They get a hold on a…
The Roofless Church 