David Ostler
THUR, JAN, 13 2022 | 7:30-9:00 pm MST
What would it take to heal the divides in our homes, churches, and country? Can specific skills and practices help get us there?
GATHERING VIA ZOOM
Thanks to Jana Spangler for continuing to host us via Zoom. Below is some helpful info for being part of a Zoom convo. Also below is the Zoom link. This is an open group. You are welcome to invite and share with others. If you are not on my email list then either join at the bottom of this site’s home page or text or call me at 801-695-5036.
THE CONVERSATION:
We live in an almost hopelessly divided world. It affects our families, church community and our country as a whole. It seems like it is getting worse and causing damage to everything we love. There are really important topics that we can’t even talk about without fighting. Many of us retreat to our bubbles of like minded people or retreat from any sort of controversy, hoping it somehow gets better.
What are the practical skills that we need to develop to talk about the important issues and how do we develop and use them with those around us?
Explore with David a simple and proven practice that he has been researching, experimenting with, and investing in, that can help us bridge these divides.
ABOUT DAVID
David and his wife Rachelle have six adult children and 5 (soon to be 6) grandchildren. They raised their family in New Hampshire, Utah, Minnesota and London and now live in Northern Virginia.
As a young man, David served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Southern Japan. He loved his mission and still loves everything Japanese. David has a Bachelor of University Studies in Quantitative Methods from the University of Utah and a Masters of Business Administration from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College. He retired in 2012 from a career centered in executive management of bioinformatics and evidence based medicine businesses.
While living in New Hampshire, David served as a bishop and stake president. After retirement, he and his wife served as mission president in the Freetown Sierra Leone Mission in West Africa. They were released during the Ebola epidemic which ravaged West Africa. They also served as Director of the Hill Cumorah Visitor Center and Historic Sites in Palmyra New York.
In July of 2019 Greg Kofford Books published David’s book Bridges: Ministering to Those Who Question.The book was built from research he conducted among Latter-Days Saints who had doubts or were not engaged with the church and those leaders who had stewardship over them. The narratives between the two were very different as to the reasons for the members questions or lack of engagement. Or how best leaders/parents/family members should respond to those who doubt. The following month Think Again-Faith Again had David lead a powerful and healing conversation on the topic. You can learn more about prior and ongoing bridge work that David has been and is doing at his Bridges website.
EXPLORE BEFORE WE MEET:
- Think Again, Adam Grant: Interview about the book Book—Think Again
- How to Have Impossible Conversations, Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay Free pdf of book Purchase book
- How to Heal Our Divides: A Practical Guide, Brian Allain, Brian D. McLaren, Diana Butler Bass, Parker J. Palmer, Frank A. Thomas, Michael W. Waters, Shane Claiborne, Makoto Fujimura, Amy Julia Becker, Adam Thomas Website and book
- Bridges
- Click on the Zoom link above.
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ZOOM ETIQUETTE:
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