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    How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church
    How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church
    How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church
    Ebook244 pages3 hours

    How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church

    By C. Christopher Smith

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    About this ebook

    In today's highly charged social and political environment, we often don't know how to talk well with others--especially with people whose backgrounds differ from our own. C. Christopher Smith, coauthor of the critically acclaimed and influential Slow Church, addresses why conversation has become such a challenge in the 21st century and argues that it is perhaps the most-needed spiritual practice of our individualistic age.

    Smith likens practicing conversation to the working of the human body. Bodies are wondrous symphonies of diverse, intricate parts striving for our health, and our health suffers when these parts fail to converse effectively. Likewise, 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.

    Smith shows how church communities can be training hubs where we learn to talk with and listen to one another with kindness and compassion. The book explores how churches can initiate and sustain conversation, offers advice for working through seasons of conflict, suggests spiritual practices and dispositions that can foster conversation, and features stories from several congregations that are learning to practice conversation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBaker Publishing Group
    Release dateApr 16, 2019
    ISBN9781493417056
    Author

    C. Christopher Smith

    C. Christopher Smith is editor of The Englewood Review of Books, and a member of the Englewood Christian Church community on the urban Near Eastside of Indianapolis.

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      How the Body of Christ Talks - C. Christopher Smith

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