Conversation As a Path to Transformation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We're getting ready to celebrate in April our 8-year anniversary of meeting as the "Emerging Church Discussion Group" (a.k.a. the Charlotte Emergent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conversation As a Path to Transformation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We're getting ready to celebrate in April our 8-year anniversary of meeting as the "Emerging Church Discussion Group" (a.k.a. the Charlotte Emergent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Emergent Village\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-20T11:55:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-02-20T02:51:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/106\/2012\/02\/58066_487826192485_723177485_5817402_4198098_n.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"209\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Knight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Knight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/\",\"name\":\"Conversation As a Path to Transformation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-20T11:55:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-02-20T02:51:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#\/schema\/person\/6d81cfd2aa1ade2c2eceeb9644082c74\"},\"description\":\"We're getting ready to celebrate in April our 8-year anniversary of meeting as the \\\"Emerging Church Discussion Group\\\" (a.k.a. the Charlotte Emergent\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Conversation As a Path to Transformation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/\",\"name\":\"Emergent Village\",\"description\":\"Voices of the Emergent Village Community\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#\/schema\/person\/6d81cfd2aa1ade2c2eceeb9644082c74\",\"name\":\"Steve Knight\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab9feacdb2b0859be805f23c37269d4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab9feacdb2b0859be805f23c37269d4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Steve Knight\"},\"description\":\"I'm the community architect for TransFORM Network, and I'm a co-pastor of Open Hearts Gathering in Gastonia, NC.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.knightopia.com\/blog\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/author\/steveknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Conversation As a Path to Transformation","description":"We're getting ready to celebrate in April our 8-year anniversary of meeting as the \"Emerging Church Discussion Group\" (a.k.a. the Charlotte Emergent","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Conversation As a Path to Transformation","og_description":"We're getting ready to celebrate in April our 8-year anniversary of meeting as the \"Emerging Church Discussion Group\" (a.k.a. the Charlotte Emergent","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/","og_site_name":"Emergent Village","article_published_time":"2012-02-20T11:55:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-02-20T02:51:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"209","height":"220","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/106\/2012\/02\/58066_487826192485_723177485_5817402_4198098_n.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Steve Knight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Steve Knight","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/","name":"Conversation As a Path to Transformation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-02-20T11:55:29+00:00","dateModified":"2012-02-20T02:51:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#\/schema\/person\/6d81cfd2aa1ade2c2eceeb9644082c74"},"description":"We're getting ready to celebrate in April our 8-year anniversary of meeting as the \"Emerging Church Discussion Group\" (a.k.a. the Charlotte Emergent","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Conversation As a Path to Transformation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/","name":"Emergent Village","description":"Voices of the Emergent Village Community","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#\/schema\/person\/6d81cfd2aa1ade2c2eceeb9644082c74","name":"Steve Knight","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab9feacdb2b0859be805f23c37269d4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab9feacdb2b0859be805f23c37269d4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Steve Knight"},"description":"I'm the community architect for TransFORM Network, and I'm a co-pastor of Open Hearts Gathering in Gastonia, NC.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.knightopia.com\/blog"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/author\/steveknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/358"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":957,"date":"2012-02-20T05:55:29","date_gmt":"2012-02-20T11:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/?p=957"},"modified":"2012-02-19T20:51:42","modified_gmt":"2012-02-20T02:51:42","slug":"conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2012\/02\/conversation-as-a-path-to-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversation As a Path to Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We\u2019re getting ready to celebrate in April our 8-year anniversary of meeting as the \u201cEmerging Church Discussion Group<\/a>\u201d (a.k.a. the Charlotte Emergent cohort). The group has changed a lot over the years, but one thing remains the same: There is still a need for a safe(r) space for theological conversation, because most churches do not create space for it.<\/p>\n

This is still true here in Charlotte (\u201cthe city of 1,000 churches\u201d), and I suspect it\u2019s true of the many cities where other Emergent cohorts<\/a> are continuing to meet and discuss ideas and ask questions. No matter what persuasion the church may be \u2014 liberal or conservative (or somewhere in-between \/ beyond) \u2014 the fact is most churches are not modeled on conversation or participation<\/a> but on coercion and capitulation.<\/p>\n

$\"The$ <\/a>But I\u2019m deeply encouraged by stories of faith communities like Englewood Christian Church<\/a> on the near east side of Indianapolis. Chris Smith is the editor of the church\u2019s Englewood Review of Books<\/a>, and he\u2019s the author of a new e-book that tells Englewood Christian Church\u2019s story of transformation, entitled The Virtue of Dialogue: Conversation as a Hopeful Practice of Church Communities<\/em><\/a> (2012, Patheos Press).<\/p>\n

More than just re-telling the story of how one church was transformed through theological discussion and dialogue, Chris helps the reader consider how to apply the practices of conversation in other existing church contexts. It\u2019s one more important method or path to transformation for churches that are stuck or declining to consider before turning out the lights or changing the church building into a discoteque<\/a>. <\/p>\n

$\"Chris$ I\u2019m excited to be interviewing Chris Smith tonight on Twitter for this month\u2019s (third Monday) #missionalchat<\/a>. We\u2019ll primarily be discussing the new e-book and the power of theological conversation, but we might slip in a little discussion of Slow Church<\/a>, as well. Please join us online tonight starting at 9pm ET!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"