my "books of the year"

I'm reading two critical books simultaneously that are so, so good together.  Reconcile by John Paul Lederach, and Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking when Stakes are High by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, and Switzler.  Do you ever read high impact books that cause you to want to order a whole case and hand them out to friends and family so that you all might engage them together?  That's where I'm at with these.  They are the "current books of the year" for me.  I have much to learn and practice through them.  Admittedly, my deficiencies loom large in these texts.

Reconcile:  Embracing and growing through conflict, learning to turn toward and love, even sacrifice, for those we consider "other"  and "enemy".  Learning how to better wrestle with self, other, and God through conflict in order to move toward peace making.

Crucial Conversations:  Conversations that happen where emotions run strong, stakes are high, and opinions different.  Our defaults when conversations turn crucial are usually one of two responses:  silence (avoid, withdraw from sharing "meaning into the pool ", shut down) or violence (forcing meaning into the pool, attacking, punishing).  This book gives tools and skills to create safety for dialogue so that we can all give and receive in hard-to-go-to conversations.

I'm heading to the Christian Community Development Association's National Conference in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina next week.  One thing I love about CCDA is that it is centered in the reconciliation found in Jesus Christ and invites a great big diverse group of believers and thinkers to worship Him in oneness and dialogue about living out and sharing our faith in this world.  CCDA doesn't shy away from approaching crucial conversations...conversations on race, immigration, homosexuality, privilege and power, to name just a few.  I'm praying for these crucial conversations this week. Maybe I should take cases of these books to distribute at the conference.  Better yet, maybe I should focus on how I can practice some of the skills found in these books.