This workshop equips organizational leaders and their teams with the context and tools needed for building a reconciling community. Anchored in a biblical vision of reconciliation, and including an exploration of race in America and its impact on our society, this workshop equips your team with the shared knowledge needed to understand the role of a reconciling community, the shared language to compassionately and effectively talk about the issues involved, and the tools to develop a shared vision for reconciliation that will shape your organization’s path forward.
Pillars of a Reconciling Community is led by two Arrabon facilitators and uses group interaction and personal reflection to unpack the Five Key Components for a Reconciling Community in the context of your community:
1. Define what a reconciling community is and how it operates.
2. Assess how your community currently embodies the key features of a reconciling community.
3. Discuss the potential effects of not operating as a reconciling community.
4. Compose a list of reasons why the call to become a reconciling community is important for your organization.
1. Analyze what has shaped our perceptions of reconciliation (particularly in relation to race)
2. Define reconciliation from a biblical standpoint
3. Examine where you may tend to lean towards false forms of reconciliation
4. Discern the top strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats around building Reconciliation as Spiritual Formation as your foundation
In this session, we will:
1. Ground our understanding of culture through Scripture and helpful definitions
2. Construct a list of cultural norms within your organization
3. Assess how your cultural norms impact your ability to be a reconciling community
In this session, we will:
1. Consider how the imago dei impacts our ability to empathize with the lives and experience of others.
2. Consider how aspects of our identity and formation impact the way we interpret our American racial landscape.
3. Explore key moments in American history around race and culture.
4. Define important terminology around race and our racial history.
5. Discuss why common language is important in the life of a reconciling community.
In this session, we will:
1. Identify barriers to positive cross-cultural interactions and collaborative opportunities
2. Discuss the importance of both serving and being served
3. Evaluate the four models of cross-cultural engagement and how they are operating within your context
In this session, we will:
1. Discuss the importance of imagination in the life of a reconciling community
2. Ground culture-making in a theology of creativity
3. Design a vision for your impact as a reconciling community
4. Review takeaways from this course and consider some next steps
Arrabon workshops cultivate a space for reconciliation and transformation by grounding our content in Scripture, prayer practices, and trauma-informed principles of engagement.
