Respectful Conversations are one of MCC's proven tools through which congregations, campuses and municipalities grow in love of enemy, love of neighbor and peacemaking skills. Through structured, facilitated dialogue communities experiencing conflict can heal and move forward. Other leaders, who want to help people in their communities to be better at managing conflict before it becomes polarizing, will hold a Respectful Conversation as a skills training.
Sometimes a leader may be reluctant to hold a Respectful Conversation because some topics feel too partisan or divisive. They may feel it's like opening a Pandora's Box. Why stir up settled dust or risk introducing a topic that might cause people to remember old divisions?
For leaders who want to make peace in 2026, but avoid a topic like "the election," we have a solution: A Respectful Conversation about Shared and Shattered Truths in Minnesota.
This topic is one of more to come that we designed in partnership with Democracy 2076, a BIPOC-led pro-democracy organization which released groundbreaking futures research. Working with experts they identified 17 different "spectra" of polarization that don't yet fit neatly into our red-or-blue boxes, naming tensions that are divisive, and promise to become even moreso, but which don't reinforce already oppositional group identities.
By combining Democracy 2076's latest research with Minnesota Council of Church's award-winning methodology we have a tool for "peacebuilding in advance," a way to help you build the scaffolding of behaviors and attitudes that will shape a more peaceful future for all of us.
Learn more about the research and our partnership in this video, featuring Ade Salami of Democracy 2076 and Rev. Jerad Morey of MCC.