Restorative Relationships

David asked me to post some information here about the restorative justice class that's being offered on Thursday nights. I told him I'd be glad to... mostly because I'm super excited about the class. This past Thursday night was fun; we had a wonderful turnout and lots of great discussion. See I think the thing is this: relationships are messy (Remember the scene in Frosty the Snowman where Professor Hinkle breaks the eggs all over the floor and says: "messy, messy, messy"? My favorite line in a Christmas movie ever!) So anyway, relationships aren't easy and they can get ever more difficult when conflict ensues or when opinions are diverse or when trust begins to erode. So when things begin to unravel (or crack on the floor), how do we handle the conflict? how do we restore the relationships? How do we rebuild trust? I believe there are some principles that can help to answer these questions. I don't think they are easy principles, but neither do I think we're alone in trying to work them out.

We will meet upstairs at Cafe 4 (sometimes in the library and sometimes in the conference room) from 6:30-8:00. Here's a basic overview of the 6 weeks:

October 7 Respect, Honor, Compassion: Seeing the Imago Dei in one another

October 14 Expectations and a Belief in Redeemability: Seeing beyond what IS to what can be

October 21 Needs: Seeing and addressing what’s going on

October 28 Solutions With: Working through conflict…together

November 4 Restitution: Apologies, forgiveness, and making things right

November 11 Community: Moving from me to we

Each week will be self-contained (more or less), focusing on a different principle of restorative justice and how that principle applies to our relationships. So, if you can't make them all, or if you missed last week, come anyway; you won't miss anything you can't catch up on.

I'd love to hear feedback and comments as well. Feel free to email me or post a comment here. Shalom y'all.