What is a Confessional Community?

Vision for Confessional Communities at the Center for Being Known:

Create a transformative space where members can tell their stories more truly to become more fully known.

We do this by:

Fostering an environment where members feel seen soothed, safe, and secure
Listening, attuning, and containing each other’s stories with heartfelt responses
Embracing vulnerability
Growing in receptivity to love from others
Practicing repair after rupture

People in every walk of life are longing to be known. The work of being known is not just a handful of good ideas, nor is it for any one of us to do alone. Rather, it is about joining our Creator in living an abundant life—but one that must be lived together with people who are vulnerably practicing loving well.

Where the rupture of shame has sought to disintegrate a person or a system, the repair and restoration that our work brings can be realized, transforming what was once broken into beautiful, creative endeavors. We agree that every gathering is that of the body of Christ, in the presence, guidance, and power of the Holy Spirit, and that our interactions are embodied acts of prayer.

We have experienced becoming authentically known through deep relationships within our Confessional Communities, thereby appreciating a closer connection with God and others. We hope you’ll come join us.

What can I expect?

Come co-create a Confessional Community with 5-8 others.
Come willing to tell your story using the Storytelling Liturgy: Structured storytelling sessions allow members to share and reflect on personal experiences in a supportive setting.
Come willing to grow: As you move from “talking about” to “being with,” participants learn how to provide an attuned, integrated, emotion-based response. Regular emotional and spiritual practices such as guided meditations, prayer, and emotional check-ins enhance personal and communal well-being, allowing members to be fully present with one another.
Come willing to be known, each telling our stories more truly: By engaging deeply with structured reflection questions from Curt Thompson’s Soul of Desire and utilizing related resources to engage one another's stories, members experience a deeper sense of being known.
Come with an openness to navigating real-time rupture and repair: This means making a commitment not to leave the room and utilize the story liturgy as a model for repair.
Come to change challenges into opportunities: Unexpected challenges of deep interpersonal relationships provide opportunities for growth and deeper community bonding.
Come willing to be transformed: Members often experience becoming authentically known through deep relationships, cultivating a closer connection with God. Members feel seen, soothed, safe, and secure, contributing to profound spiritual and emotional growth.

What would be expected of me?

Confidentiality: What happens inside the group stays in the group. Members are asked to strictly guard the confidentiality of personal stories while interactions within the group remain confidential thus reinforcing trust and safety.
Conduct: Members are asked to keep communications outside the group to a minimum, such as for scheduling and other administrative tasks. Communication between only a few members outside the group can be disruptive to the group’s cohesion and growth. If a member feels dysregulated in response to the liturgy, they are encouraged to share that with the group or to bring that into the group as a story to be told.
Commitment:
- Members are expected to commit to the community weekly for a minimum of 24 weeks to ensure relationship stability and continuity. More than two consecutive absences and/or more than four absences total can hinder the continuity of story-telling and relational development of the group. Inconsistent participation would merit group discussion for continued involvement or choosing to engage in the liturgy of departure.
- Confessional Communities meet for 90-minute gatherings that begin and end on time.
- Members are expected to have engaged with at least three of the following resources, either by reading, listening, or both: Anatomy of the Soul, The Soul of Shame, The Soul of Desire and The Deepest Place, or any season of the Being Known Podcast, including specifically Season 7 which focuses on Confessional Communities. Having grasped these materials ensures that participants are adequately prepared and actively applying foundational principles to their personal and community interactions.
- Behavioral Guardrails - possessed by community members
  - Ability to regulate affect: Managing the range of emotions from numbness to panic, reflecting both physiological states and emotional experiences. Remaining within a moderate arousal state, enhancing presence, attentiveness, and relational connections. This skill is crucial for being fully present in your community, navigating stresses, and maintaining resilience as you are impacted by one another's stories as well as your own.
  - Commitment to flourishing (absence of self-harm intentions).
  - Absence of actively disintegrating addictions.
  - Demonstration of self (and other) curiosity instead of condemnation.
  - Willingness to commit to and submit to the Confessional Community process.
  - If leaving the Confessional Community becomes necessary, members are encouraged to provide as much advance notice as possible. At least one week in advance provides the members with the opportunity to engage the liturgy of departure for the person leaving.

What’s next?

Cohort 4 begins in January 2025 and continues through June 2025.
All Confessional Community participants are CBK members. Join CBK here.
Each Confessional Community has two co-facilitators who “protect” the space (not direct it) for the group as active participants. Email contactus@thecbk.org if you are interested in completing a Facilitator Candidate Survey Application.
Most Confessional Communities meet via Zoom, with the hope of more in-person groups as CBK grows.

Please sign up here to be in a Confessional Community!

Confessional Communities at the Center for Being Known are peer facilitated support groups and are not group therapy. Would you prefer to be in a therapist-led group instead? Contact New Story Behavioral Health.

Sign-up Here