Faithful Conversations in Difficult Spaces
I believe that how we walk the way of faith is of great importance for the church as a whole.
Difficult conversations are an unavoidable part of life—even Christian life. Any community that takes Scripture seriously and seeks to follow Jesus faithfully will eventually find itself wrestling with questions that do not have easy answers. The challenge is not whether these conversations will come, but how we will meet them.
As such, our practices with and beliefs about individuals in the church and who serve the church are worthy of deep and fearless personal, communal, biblical, and theological reflection.
I am teaching a ministry class this semester where we often find ourselves entering into difficult, or at the very least challenging, conversations. And so, the class has become very intentional about doing so thoughtfully. In fact, we often start class by returning to a shared mantra. This centering practice serves as a reminder of who we are as a people of God and why we have gathered. We name our shared commitments before we engage with our differences. And truth be told, that moment does not erase disagreement, but it does ground us in something deeper.
In this reflective process, we invite the Spirit to guide us in transformative engagement.
One of the commitments we name again and again is that every person in the room is trying to faithfully attend to Scripture. No one is approaching the text carelessly. And when we approach the conversation through this lens, hard conversations become possible. The tone shifts. The potential for defensiveness softens. We move from an adversarial posture to an open one—open to deep listening where each person tries to understand the other.
This posture is not new. In fact, it echoes one of the earliest and most consequential difficult conversations in the life of the church: the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.
This transformation requires that we engage, even when—or perhaps especially when—we feel personally critiqued or when we strongly disagree.
The early Christian community found itself divided over a deeply important question: must Gentile believers adopt Jewish law in order to fully belong to the people of God? This was not what one might consider a minor disagreement. It was in direct tension with identity, tradition, theology, and lived experience. Scripture mattered deeply to everyone involved, but they did not agree on how to interpret what faithfulness required.
What is striking about Acts 15, though, is not that disagreement existed, but how it was handled. The apostles and elders gathered to listen. Peter spoke of what he had witnessed God doing among the Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas shared stories of the Spirit at work beyond familiar boundaries. James returned to the Hebrew Scriptures, seeking to discern how God’s ancient promises were unfolding in new ways.
The conversation was rooted in a shared desire to follow God. And while the text tells us that they debated vigorously, it also shows us that they listened carefully. The outcome was not unanimity, but discernment shaped by humility and trust in the Spirit’s guidance.
Recently, I visited with a minister whose heart was heavy with the weight of division. His congregation was deeply fractured with tensions running high and relationships strained. He described a sense of helplessness, and it seemed as though the more he tried to address the conflicts, the more entrenched the divisions became. He was worried that before long, the brokenness would be irreparable. As we sat together, he asked the questions that any minister in his situation might ask: “What do I do? Where do I start? What if we can’t recover from this?”
While in that moment his questions may have been more rhetorical, the answer, I believe, begins in the small practices of faithful conversation. It begins by creating space for people to speak, be heard, and be reminded of their shared fidelity to Scripture, trusting wholeheartedly in one another’s pursuit of God’s word. It is the same posture that we are practicing in the classroom: slow to speak, quick to listen, and careful to honor the Spirit’s work among us.
Acts 15 is not a story of distant history; it is a blueprint for how the Spirit often works in communities marked by disagreement. The early church did not ignore tension or silence hard questions. They named them, wrestled with them, and, above all, committed to listening—to the Scripture, to each other, and to the Spirit guiding the conversation.
For that minister, and for all of us, the starting point is not to avoid the hard conversations but to cultivate a posture that values listening as much as speaking, understanding as much as persuading, and love as much as conviction. When this posture takes root in our own lives and the lives of our churches, it opens the door for a divided community to begin healing, for relationships to be restored, and for the Spirit to work in ways that only the Spirit can work.
The posture reflected in Acts 15 is the same posture that I encourage my ministry students to practice in our classroom. It is the one that I pray they will eventually bring into the churches they serve. And I wonder if this is the posture that we are currently longing for many of our own churches to pursue.
When we begin by trusting that others are earnestly seeking faithfulness, disagreement loses its power to divide. Instead, it becomes a meaningful part of our shared discernment. We are free to ask deeper questions, to listen more attentively, and to admit when our own understanding may be incomplete.
The reality is that this work is not easy. It hasn’t been easy in the classroom, and it isn’t easy in the church. It requires patience, humility, and a willingness to stay present when it would be simpler to disengage or even walk away altogether. Acts 15 reminds us that faithful conversation is sometimes uncomfortable, and yet, the Spirit is at work precisely in those moments.
We do not doubt each other’s belief in God—Father, Son, and Spirit.
We do not doubt each other’s commitment to the Lord’s church.
We do not doubt each other’s respect for the biblical text.
We do not doubt each other’s desire for people to come to know and follow Jesus.
We do not doubt each other’s hearts.[1]
Peace be with you,
Jennifer
1. Class mantra adapted from the work of Ron Bruner and Dana Kennamer.
