Author: C. Christopher Smith
Date: 2025
Publisher: Englewood Press
"In an age dominated by deep social divides – between the political right and left; between rich and poor; between various racial and ethnic identities, between generations; and between educational backgrounds, to name just a few – how is it even possible that a church might have any shape at all beyond the nearly amorphous form taken by the loose network of her individual members?"
This is a key sentence early on in C. Christopher Smith's 2025 book, "The Virtue of Dialogue". Smith writes, not just about "spiritual formation", but about "congregational formation". This congregational formation is "messy because it requires the alignment of the desires of multiple people, not just one person."
Smith reminds us that "congregational formation occurs as we learn to be attentive to God’s presence in us and among us in the Holy Spirit."
The Virtue of Dialogue is the second book in a series, building on the conviction that conversation is the central practice of congregational formation. These books recount the earliest years of Englewood Christian Church’s journey of learning to grow together in conversation. Future books will address key facets of congregational formation, including how to read scripture together, how to think and talk about money in our congregations, and more.
Just like our physical bodies, our church body is healthiest when its members are paying careful attention to one another and learning to work together in spite of our differences.
This is so foreign to how our world, and sadly, how the church often functions. We prefer authoritative and autocratic leaders.
The evangelical world, since at least the days of Donald McGavran's "homogeneous unit principle" has become increasingly homogeneous, which means it has become increasingly segregated and isolated. This is reflected in the social-economic-political world we live in. But this is not the picture of the kingdom of God, where people from every tribe and tongue gather together before the throne of God.
Smith records the story of Englewood Christian Church
that includes how we were and continue to be changed by the process of talking together, and how these conversations have led to the tiniest ripples of transformative change in our neighborhood. We are broken people in the midst of a profoundly broken neighborhood, and conversation has not been a quick fix for any of our problems; yet, God continues to meet us in the middle of our conversations and slowly and patiently transforms us.
When people of our church community gather for conversation, they bring with them a wide, divergent array of theological, social, and political convictions, and deep emotional attachment to these convictions. In my experience, the longer a denominational entity has existed, the deeper these emotional attachments. And unless this is acknowledged, dialogue will be difficult.
In an important section, Smith writes:
The work we have chosen to do is real work we believe God has called us into as God transforms our neighborhood and causes it to flourish. Our businesses therefore allow us to initiate and sustain conversations with neighbors and others throughout the city about the efforts in which we all are collaborators.
The final chapter is a response to the many who would say that this story is an aberration or who would say, “My church could never do that!” Smith sketches a brief outline of why conversation is an essential practice for all churches.
Smith highlights two key characteristics of healthy congregational conversation.
First, our conversations must be Eucharistic, by which I mean not that they should be directly connected to our practice of this sacrament, but that we enter into conversation with the sort of radical self-denial that defined the life and death of Jesus and that we remember in the celebration of the Eucharist. It must be the Holy Spirit who speaks in our midst and guides our conversations. If we speak (or listen) out of our sinful nature, passions will be ignited and division will ensue. If we allow our selfish agendas to dominate our conversations (and particularly the “what’s in it for me?” mentality), we are setting ourselves up for power struggles and many other kinds of trouble.
Second, conversation should be open; anyone and everyone should be allowed to contribute. Open conversation in the church is rooted in the convictions that God has assembled us together in this place and that everyone God has assembled is a gift given for the maturing of Christ’s body.
In an appendix, Smith gives a set of conversational norms that help guide the conversations at Englewood Christian Church.
- We listen and speak with an attitude which reflects the fruit of the Spirit.
- We reflect the promise of Christ's presence among us and in each one of us.
- We practice empathy.
- We seek to understand above being understood.
- We encourage openness and truthfulness by resisting judgement.
- We respect the participation of others by keeping our comments brief.
- We look for opportunities to find common ground.
- We resist being defensive.
- We are not afraid of silence.
- We always pursue reconciliation with one another.
- We expect messiness.
- We make every effort to come prepared and on time.
This is a short, easy read. To put this into practice will be neither short or easy. The process or journey of learning to dialogue is long and difficult. This is an especially difficult journey for churches that are program based. The type of conversation and dialogue that Smith describes is counter cultural, both within our world, and within most faith communities. Our western, North American, CEO model of leadership, doesn't make room for this. This is kingdom work.
I highly recommend this for anyone in church leadership who wants to strengthen authentic community and see the kingdom of God impact the neighbourhood.
I received a copy to review from C. Christopher Smith and Englewood Books.
I was not required to write a positive review.
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