The Forgiveness Lab

Here we explore the meaning and substance of forgiveness, making concrete applications to our lives, our relationships, our communities, and the world that God so loves. We risk immersing ourselves in dynamic gospel stories that will claim us and call forth our deepest expressions of confession, gratitude, generosity, and hope. We learn steps to forgiving someone else, and even more, are challenged to allow ourselves to be forgiven.

The material compassionately disarms “transactional” understandings of our relationship with God, as well as notions of the exclusivity of God’s realm. We welcome encounter with our God who opens futures that have seemed closed for so long, and who constantly “makes a way out of no way.” Exploring the realized experience of being forgiven is new territory for many of us.

The ramifications for this newly liberated life, one that expands grace, can be thrilling and daunting at the same time. Participants in this workshop should come expecting something new to happen!
Ours will be a constantly interactive and creative process. Equipped with wonder and reverence, we will enter holy space where learning can be enacted. Immersion in the gospels allows us to meet the scriptural stories with the real stories of our own lives.

Since forgiveness is always relational, the personal experience of liberation is inseparable from the wholeness of community and movements of social transformation.

If any or all of this sounds good to you, your group, your congregation, or community, let’s talk!

Forgiveness Preaching Lab

Be renewed in your preaching, engaging familiar scriptures through the life-giving lens of forgiveness. Explore the rich interface between the biblical texts and the “texts” of your community!

Where do you perceive God’s “giving” and the Spirit’s movement?
Who is being liberated?
What burdens are being lifted, enabling God’s people to rise to their full stature?
What obstacles are being removed, or better yet, transformed?
In what ways are God’s people being unbound to love more fully? What will that look like?
What are the dimensions of healing and empowerment being manifested in you as you prepare the message?

Pastoral Care Forgiveness Labs

Explore the transforming power of forgiveness in multiple dimensions of your ministry of pastoral care.

Forgiveness and the Spiritual Journey
Forgiveness with Those Who are Dying
Forgiveness with People in Grief and Loss
Forgiving the Unforgivable
Forgiveness and Our Families of Origin
Forgiveness in our Primary Relationships
Pastoral Forgiveness: Receiving it and Extending it to the People

Tending Wounds of the Soul Forgiveness Lab

Tending the soul wounds of war is a critical dimension of care in any community. Also referred to as “moral injuries,” these are wounds many veterans bear related to the experiences of war and military service: dehumanization; engaging in or witnessing the violation of one’s deepest principles and beliefs; killing; wounding; desecration; failing adequately to protect. They are also incurred through experiences of betrayal and in the moral disengagement of the community in whose name they have served.

Paradoxically, there is a hopefulness to these wounds, as they are signs of a fully engaged conscience and deep humanity. Veterans have often had to bear these wounds by themselves, their stories unacknowledged and their wounds untended for many years. This workshop will help equip pastors and faith communities to engage in ministries of healing and post-traumatic growth.

Community of Practice

Join a community of pastors and leaders in an environment of nurture, accompaniment, discernment, and praxis. The richness of The Forgiveness Lab will equip our work together.

Leadership Coaching

We specialize in liberating you from “stuckness,” resourcing you for fresh ministry experiences and effectiveness. Allow forgiveness to invigorate your leadership: removing obstacles to effectiveness; celebrating and engaging God’s gifts; stoking your imagination; and reframing your mission.

Workshops & Services