Rebecca Henderson

“Conversation has not been a magical solution to bring us to one-mindedness or to solve all our conflicts. Today, we still do not agree on all the questions that we have asked over the years, but we do agree on more things and have a much deeper sense of trust that God is guiding us and will continue to work in our midst.” (p. 13, The Virtue of Dialogue)

Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to review a few titles for both the print and online versions of The Englewood Review of Books. Today I’m posting a review here on my own site as part of a blog tour for Englewood’s editor C. Christopher Smith’s new e-book The Virtue of Dialogue (Patheos Press), which is available for purchase for your Kindle or Nook.

A substantial portion of the book is the telling of the story of Englewood Christian Church in Indiana, where Smith and his family are members. I love a good story, and this one is well told. Smith traces the history of the church from its beginnings in the late 19th century to present day, weaving in the ups and downs of the congregation’s past, including how it went from a mega-church to less than 200 in attendance within a few decades. The main focus of the story is how both the church and the Englewood neighborhood itself have begun to flourish again and how the church’s “Sunday Night Conversations” played an important role in the recent neighborhood changes.

From the title of the book, I wasn’t convinced before reading it that this wouldn’t be yet another call for churches to have small groups where people can interact with one another and be participants rather than consumers. An important message, but one I’ve heard many times in recent years. That’s not what this book is about.

Through the story’s narrative, Smith tells how the members of Englewood Christian Church as a whole began meeting every Sunday night to talk to one another about their core beliefs and how healing and growth came as they worked at listening to one another instead of tearing one another down. Those same principles of talking and listening (which is what a dialogue or conversation is, right?) soon transferred to how they interacted with their neighbors, and the church became an active participant and leader in the community to keep gentrification from changing Englewood. And lest you think that all they do at Englewood is sit around and talk, I was excited to read about all the things the church is doing in (or rather, with) their community through business and gardening and sustainable food initiatives and real estate.

The Virtue of Dialogue doesn’t give a program or outline for how your church can have the kinds of conversation that Englewood has. It isn’t a prescriptive method with a list of discussion questions that will guarantee your congregation has productive dialogue both within the walls of its building and with others in its community. Smith makes a point of saying more than once that what works for Englewood won’t necessarily work for every church in the same way and that each congregation needs to go through the messy process of stumbling through the early stages of growing in dialogue. That messy process is part of the whole point. We have to get beyond the mindset of efficiency and productivity and realize that not everything in our lives that is good and beneficial for growth can be measured in charts and graphs. Conversation takes time, it can’t be rushed or defined, it doesn’t always have a tangible outcome at the end of every gathering — and that is OK.