Imagine if you…
...better understood the beliefs and backgrounds of your neighbors and loved ones, and could offer compassionate connection and boundaries.
...could be true to your convictions, without sacrificing or fracturing your key relationships.
...had the courage to redraw relationship lines to stay true to who you are, to operate with integrity, at home, work and church.
...knew how to deal with conflict and tension, speaking candidly and kindly and resolving issues quickly and fairly.
...felt equipped to share the intersections of faith and culture, without being a total jerk.
In a time of extremism, division, echo chambers and scandals, Love is the Resistance will help you gain the confidence and understanding you need to communicate and connect with others.
You will be challenged to stop avoiding necessary tension, and resolve your internal and external conflicts, so that you can experience greater peace and more meaningful relationships with others.
In this course you'll...
Learn how to spot echo chambers and successfully avoid them.
Discover the life giving power of scripture and community to primarily form your faith, rather than pundits, politicians and internet preachers.
Learn more about cultural issues through a biblical lens, and grow in your capacity to ask questions and think critically.
Better understand why the table at home and at church becomes a landmine of triggers, and you will be better equipped to engage.
Is this course for you?
Do You Want To...
- Respond well to negativity.
- Resolve conflicts you’ve been avoiding.
- Understand why others believe what they believe.
- Learn to disagree with others in a healthy way.
- Speak candidly and kindly about your convictions.
- Hold better boundaries and connections with others.
Or Would You Rather?
- Continue to avoid conflict and lack the communication tools to engage with others in a healthy way.
- Endure loneliness and heartache over lost relationships without ever really understanding why.
- Double down on dogmatic doctrine and pride, over theological wisdom and love.
- Continue to feed your mind and spirit with social media, political rhetoric and news, rather than community, connection and truth.
Lessons Included…
Why do we do what we do?
Why are we the way we are/do what we do? Learn the 3 areas that inform our personhood.
Learn how this formation impacts the way we think about and relate to others in our judgments, decisions and connections.
Language Matters
Better understand the times we are living in, and how we excuse and justify unacceptable behavior and lack of love.
Has cancel culture ever been right about anything?
Language matters. Discover how the language we hear, internalize and speak informs our behavior and impacts and/or impairs our judgment and connection with others.
Love Thy Neighbor
Think through the reasons we separate ourselves from others.
There is a case for love with no conditions which is different than love with no boundaries.
Journey with the heretical good Samaritan and discover the spiritual practice of enemy love
What It Takes To Change Our Mind
When we change our mind, loss is part of the process. Losing an old idea, identity or even a loved one, happens when we move from “groupthink” to autonomous decision making.
When our worlds collide with others, our upbringing - what we “know” and know about ourselves, god and others - especially around race, class and gender, there is conflict. What do we do?
For Lack of Justice There Is Waste
The Netflix documentary, Biggest Little Farm, demonstrates what happens in creation when monocropping (one plant farms) destroys land and how polyculture (many crops, plants and animals) can restore it.
The healing of creation is an example for the church and there is a parallel of monoculture’s destruction of the church and how diversity can restore it.
Rich connection from every race, class and gender, is the path forward into the future.
When Conflict Calls
Hear the story of Las Mariposas, the Mirabel sisters.
From their example, learn the importance of integrity and faithfulness in your everyday life.
Gain critical practical tools for dealing with conflict
Woe to the Offender
Learn why we are wrong to bypass accountability.
Hear stories of public declarations of forgiveness—the West Nickel Mines School shooting and the Amish community’s response, Brandt Jean after the murder of his brother Botham Jean, the families of the Charleston Nine.
Better understand the dissonance between asking victims to forgive without asking offenders to make amends.
Stubborn Hope: The Ridiculous Audacity to Get Up Again
Why don’t we ask, what and who is downstream from our decisions?
Read the story of Ezekiel 34, and God’s instruction for clergy leadership and his warning for the body of believers. Internalize the love God has for us individually and for us as a whole.
Know the necessity of hope and internalize the sheer, ridiculous audacity to get up again.
The Book Club Kit also includes
- Workbook
- Reflective Questions
- Personal Growth Affirmations
- 8 Video Teachings
- Discussion Guide
- Hospitality Guide
Or choose to go deeper with these study options:
- Love Is the Resistance Book
- 8 Course videos
- Video Study Guide
Individual Study Kit
Included:
Book Club Kit
- Love Is the Resistance Book
- 8 Course Videos (20mins each)
+ Full Video Downloads - Video Study Guide
- Discussion Guide
- Hospitality Guide
- Monthly Group Leaders Zoom Meeting with Ashley
- Bonus Wallpapers
author of The Very Good Gospel and the forthcoming,
Fortune: How Race Broke My Family And The World—And How To Repair It All
Ashley Abercrombie's Love is Resistance brings a healing word to a world writhing in the throes of transition. Her prose will make you howl with laughter one minute and weep in the next. With the wit of a master storyteller and the care of a pastor, Abercrombie guides readers through a transformational journey they will never forget.