Taught by our plenary speaker
Spend time in church circles in this country and you’ll soon encounter a disarming truth. Nearly every congregation, regardless of denomination, has witnessed an uptick in “deaths of despair”. That is, deaths where the cause was related to substance abuse or self-harm. Despite our many material comforts, we are an increasingly despondent population. Where does this despair come from, how does it express itself, and what resources might we in the church draw upon to address it? In this workshop we’ll explore, with abundant compassion, what ‘hope for the hopeless’ actually looks like.
FACILITATOR: David Zahl is the founder and director of Mockingbird Ministries, editor-in-chief of the Mockingbird website (www.mbird.com), and co-host of both The Mockingcast and The Brothers Zahl podcasts. He and his family live in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he also serves on the staff of Christ Episcopal Church. Zahl is the author of Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What To Do About It and Low Anthropology: The Unlikely Key to a Gracious View of Others (and Yourself). His latest book, The Big Relief: The Urgency of Grace for a Worn-Out World came out in April 2025 from Brazos Press. His writing has been featured in The Washington Post, Plough, Christianity Today, and The Guardian, among other venues.
Event Timeslots (1)
Session One (9:45–11:15 AM)
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