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Author and speaker Rozella Haydée White refers to relationships that can hold space for change as “revolutionary relationships.” In Love Big: The Power of Revolutionary Relationships to Heal the World, she argues that not only do revolutionary relationships “change the people for the better,” but they “have the power to push people outside of the confines of private relationships in ways that have public implications.” These relationships are holy because they are rooted in God’s own revolutionary relationship – the Trinity.

White points out that revolutionary relationships don’t just require vulnerability and risk. To be truly revolutionary, they also need forgiveness, grace, diversity and accountability. When we practice grace, this gives vulnerability a soft place to land. When we believe the best about others and ourselves, taking risks becomes infinitely easier. When we trust in God’s forgiveness of us as a model for how we might practice forgiveness of others, we learn to love all of God’s broken people. When we let diversity point us to relationships, we care for people who aren’t like us, not just racially and ethnically, but diverse in “thought, economic background, identity, orientation, religious affiliation, geographic location or education attainment.”

This message is excerpted from the Bible study “Where two or more are gathered: Flourishing in relationships” by Brooke Petersen in the June/July/August 2025 Gather magazine.