Piloting Faith: Creating brave spaces...

A Word for the Day...

Over the past few weeks, I have been interviewing national faith leaders for the Courageous Faith Online Summit that we are hosting in March. It's been a genuine honor to talk with these brilliant people about their vision for the kind of world we can shape together. They are thoughtful about their strategies, faithful in their spiritual deepening, and believe fiercely that our future doesn't work if we don't design a future that includes ALL of us.

Yesterday I had the privilege of interviewing Rev. Jennifer Bailey, the leader of the Faith Matters Network. She is one of those wonderful people who, not just through her words, but through her deep faith and rooted wisdom, reminds us that justice matters...and it's a long arc. Some of us are called to be bridge-builders, creating communities that are trustworthy and brave. That, she believes, is how we heal a broken world.

During the interview, she recalled the beautiful words of her colleague, Micky ScottBey Jones, written as an opening ritual for a collaborative project they launched in 2017 called "The People's Supper."

Together we will create brave space.
Because there is no such thing as a “safe space” —
We exist in the real world.
We all carry scars and we have all caused wounds.
In this space
We seek to turn down the volume of the outside world,
We amplify voices that fight to be heard elsewhere,
We call each other to more truth and love.
We have the right to start somewhere and continue to grow.
We have the responsibility to examine what we think we know.
We will not be perfect. This space will not be perfect.
It will not always be what we wish it to be.
But
It will be our brave space together, and
We will work on it side by side.

Amen.

- Rev. Cameron Trimble, author of Piloting Church: Helping Your Congregation Take Flight

Prayer for the Week

Lord God,

I give you thanks for the wise women and men, the ones who don’t take nonsense from anyone, the ones who know what needs to be done, the ones who understand that love is sometimes tough. May I, in my accumulating years, begin to recognize that I can become one too.

Amen.