What is a journey conversation?
A journey conversation creates an occasion to explore life’s big questions in the company of others: What is sacred in my life? What’s my purpose? What difference can I make?
In a journey conversation participants are invited to slow down, turn off their electronic devices, and learn ways of listening within and listening to one another. Participants embark on a journey of mutual discovery as they share their stories and encourage one another to notice and name what they hold sacred in the midst of the struggles, contradictions, and ambiguities of their lives.
Sharing fundamental life stories helps participants see both the commonality in the midst of their diversity and the distinctive features of their common experiences.
Participants also engage in a journey of discernment as they learn how to ask contemplative questions that help each other notice and name where they find meaning and purpose in their lives.
Asking Journey Questions
| Conventional Questions | Contemplative Questions |
| What do I want to say? (ego) | What wants to be said? (soul) |
| Often seek to fix, save, analyze, or advise another | Seek to understand and learn more about another |
| Closed-ended questions (can you, have you, would you, is there, etc.) that can be answered “yes,” “no,” or in a few words | Open-ended questions that begin with: how, what, where, when or “in what ways …” |
| Elicit reactions | Evoke reflection |
| May or may not resonate with another’s experience | Resonate with another’s experience |
| Often guided by the language you use | Are guided by the language another uses |
| Restrict another’s arena of exploration | Expand another’s arena of exploration |
| Allow for the exchange of information | Encourage another to keep noticing, naming, and nurturing his or her awareness of God/sacred |