Going Further with "How to Have Difficult Conversations"

Our last God on Tap on having difficult conversations with family members and friends (and each other) was one of our biggest and best gatherings ever. Thanks to everyone that came out and special thanks to Carly Cubit for facilitating our conversation and giving us practical tools to have these important conversations at home.

Many people wanted us to continue this conversation and open it up to more people, and that is just what we are going to do at our next God on Tap.

First, Carly Cubit is returning to facilitate our discussion and share additional practical tools.

Second, we have secured a larger gathering space—the newly opened large upstairs room at Gypsy Blue in Ambler (the former Finn McCools and Wyndam Hotel, 34 E Butler Ave, Ambler). The upstairs at Gypsy Blue can accommodate larger groups more comfortably and has its own bar, bartender, and comfortable seating. This should be better and more conducive to conversation than squeezing in knee-to-knee and having people listen in from the hallway.

When you arrive at Gypsy Blue, the hostess will direct you upstairs. Come up straight away. The upstairs bar will be open.

In addition to the regular on-street parking in Ambler, the Cavalier Drive municipal parking lot is conveniently located to Gypsy Blue. (No need to feed the meters after 6pm.)

The following was the description of last month’s gathering. We will try to take it further and deeper on Wednesday. I really hope to see you then. Feel free to invite friends.

We are living in polarizing times and many people are finding it difficult to have conversations with family and friends with differing political, religious, or cultural points of view. It is really tough. Relationships are being strained and tested. But we know that if we are to bring more healing, understanding, and love into the world we need to be able to have difficult and courageous conversations.

Our special guest helps people do just that.

Carly Cubit

Carly is a small group facilitator and facilitation trainer, meaning that she brings people together to have radically-open conversations. She was trained and employed at a center at Penn State called World in Conversation: Center for Public Diplomacy, where she facilitated conversations on contentious social issues including race, gender, western-middle eastern relations, and climate change. She also developed the curriculum for three courses at Penn state in group facilitation. While her work was focused on local conversation between diverse groups, she eventually worked on a grant with NATO and facilitated virtual conversations between Afghan civilians and military cadets. She says she is still consistently challenged by tough conversations, especially with the people closest to her – and that’s just human!

God on Tap, we like to say, is about conversations at the intersection of life and faith. We believe in the power of conversation to learn, grow, and bring people together. This will give us more and better tools to have those conversations together and with the people in our lives.