Topic: Fast Tracking AI Community Conversations
Trainer & Host: Peter Bowden
Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2026
Time: 1:00PM Easten
Duration: 90 Minutes with possible overtime
No Cost: Sponsored by the UU Growth Lab membership program
Registration: See end of this post
Many of the problems we're facing, from the loneliness epidemic and meaning crisis to the rise of authoritarianism and artificial intelligence's accelerating impacts, do not have simple fixes.
The result? We often get stuck, overwhelmed, and don't take action.
I think we, as Unitarian Universalists, can empower far more action across issues, with significant immediate congregational benefits, if we transcend the need to have the answers.
Instead, we need a practice.
How can we lead when we don't have the answers?
I think the solution isn't immediate answers and certainty, but our leading a process -- a practice! -- that builds relationships, hold space for exploring nuance & complexity, and unlocks possibilities.
I've noticed in myself that doing this, especially with complex topics like AI, feels risky because I am not an "expert" on these issues.
But then I remember, I'm an expert on the part that matters - holding the space for the conversations that matter - and so are many of you.
This is what we're working on this month in the UU Growth Lab, both in this live session and the training and resources that follow.
This live session via Zoom Meeting is dedicated to sharing and refining a model for hosting community conversations that:
- Draws on our congregation's strengths
- Requires NO additional resources
- Makes space for the conversations on the issues of our time
- Promotes meaningful connection between members, friends and their networks
- Creates conditions where possibility is unlocked! New friends, crowd sourcing wisdom, sparking ideas, building energy and momentum, self-organization, and more...
I think of this as a practice like our small group ministry programs, only designed for a larger circle.
This community conversations model, which will be shared and revised with feedback over time, is content agnostic.
In this session we'll use community conversation on Artificial Intelligence as our model event. But again, the event design is intended to be one that can be used for a wide range of topics.
Let's talk about artificial intelligence. AI is raising questions and issues faster than we can attend to them. Questions about work, relationships, meaning, purpose -- pretty much everything we care about is on the table.
If we don't engage in conversations on AI, the future will be shaped by the companies and people profiting from these technologies. We need trusted community spaces where we can explore these issues face-to-face together. Your congregation can be one of these space. This includes gatherings via Zoom.
During this session you'll get ready to use resources. From there, we'll adapt this together. Your responses, questions, and real-world experiences will shape the model.
I'll be running my own Zoom based AI Community Conversations using this template and gathering feedback from congregations that use it.
This is a model any community organization will be able to use: schools, nonprofits, libraries, etc...
My hope is that together we can help meet the moment, to use the UUA phrase, by embracing what I think is our greatest UU super power: facilitating meaningful conversations that build community and inspire action!
REGISTER FOR THIS LIVE SESSION
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