The past few weeks since we launched our first (in)courage book, Craving Connection: 30 Challenges for Real-Life Engagement, have been a breathtaking, busy, beautiful blur. Your response, your support, your excitement over this project have all blown us away. Friends, we have loved every single minute of sharing this book with you. And we aren’t ready to stop talking about connection and community — far from it!

Here at (in)courage, our heartbeat is that you will be encouraged by the stories we share and moved to share your own stories with your face-to-face, next-door, over-the-fence, see-you-in-the-carpool-line, work-in-the-next-cubicle communities. Each and every one of us does crave community, and this book is meant to serve as a resource as you engage with people you see in your everyday, real-life lives.

As much fun as we’re already having experiencing our first book with you, we wanted to do more than just talk about it. After all, that’s what Craving Connection is about! So for the next several weeks, you are invited to walk with us as we each dig deep, find our brave, and reach out to make those connections that just might blossom into true community.

For five weeks we are inviting you to join us in completing challenges described in Craving Connection. Starting next Tuesday, February 7, we will share an excerpt from a chapter in the book, as well as some discussion questions and the challenge for that week. We’ll ask you to complete the challenge by Friday. (And, friends, we are SO EXCITED to hear how it turns out for you! We know God is going to show up big time!!) To encourage you in your weekly challenge, the author of each week’s chapter will join us every Thursday for a conversation on social media (stay tuned for info on these chats on both Facebook  and Instagram.)

So . . . are you in yet?! Need more details? Okay, here you go:

5 Weeks of Craving Connection Challenges

Tuesday, February 7: A Grand Blueprint for Hospitality by Jen Schmidt (page 256)
Tuesday, February 14: I Can’t Even by Amanda White (page 86)
Tuesday, February 21: A Safe Harbor by Robin Dance  (page 120)
Tuesday, February 28: He Knows and He Is Near by Eryn Hall (page 22)
Tuesday, March 7: Longing for Loyalty by Erin Mohring (page 128)
Tuesday, March 14: Time to wrap up and talk about what’s next!

There’s no need to sign up or join a group or anything, though you may want to subscribe to emails from (in)courage to be sure you don’t miss any of the posts. Just join us here on the blog each Tuesday, carry out the challenge in your daily life during the week, catch a live chat with the authors each Thursday on Facebook, and know we’re here cheering you on!

Friends, we are so excited to walk through the next several weeks with you. We believe with all our hearts that we are better together — and that includes in our pursuit of deeper friendships and more authentic, more life-giving community. Let’s do this, together.

Let’s pray for God to prepare our hearts for a season of growth and blessing and connection. And let’s pray for a willingness to step outside our comfort zones and our past experiences, for a partner to do the reading and challenges with, for the connections that God is already orchestrating behind the scenes.

We’ll dive into the challenges right here next Tuesday. Will you join us?

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