B1 began, as many things do, as a conversation among friends. Several of us had been planning and conducting dialogues on LGBT inclusion in churches in West Michigan starting in 2007. What we now call B1 Catalyst for Inclusion was given impetus by the play “Seven Passages: The Stories of Gay Christians” in October 2007. We helped organize a pastoral leadership dialogue on the first day of the play. Afterwards, many people wanted to keep the conversation going through a system of very transformative workshops. As a result, several dialogue sessions and series have been developed and conducted over the past couple of years. A common element is “deep listening” to each other’s stories.

In the beginning, we called ourselves “Beyond 7 Passages.” A small nucleus expanded to become a larger and more diverse group, collaborating with many individuals and organizations. Later, it was decided that, while the spiritual component remains important, a broader focus was needed – working with community, educational and business organizations as well.

A grant was generously provided by the Grand Rapids Community Foundation (GRCF) to train our executive committee members in “best practices” of dialogue facilitation. To most fully leverage the use of these funds, the executive committee decided to offer professional training to the many people we’ve worked with as volunteer facilitators, collaborators and contributors to the B1 initiatives. That led to the day-long training workshop on June 8, 2010, with the goal of equipping a team of B1 Dialogue Facilitators to lead a proliferation of future B1 sessions and workshops.