Patrick Mason, Chad Ford and Katie Searle: "Preserving Love in Faith Transition"
Join Patrick and Chad at Restore on Friday to talk about how to navigate faith transitions and then dive deeper with Patrick, Chad and Katie in a four-hour workshop at REPAIR in October
Faith transitions can be some of the most tender and challenging moments in a family’s life. They are rarely just intellectual decisions—they carry with them layers of emotion, identity, community, and belonging. When someone we love begins to question or leave behind deeply held beliefs, it can feel like the ground shifts beneath our feet. For some, it brings grief, even fear of losing not only faith but also family bonds. For others, it brings freedom, authenticity, and hope.
What makes these moments especially complex is that they affect more than the individual—they ripple outward into marriages, parent-child relationships, extended families, and faith communities. Too often, those ripples turn into waves of misunderstanding, distance, or even estrangement.
And yet—there is another way. Faith transitions don’t have to mean fractured families. They can, with care and intention, become opportunities for deeper love and connection. They can teach us how to honor differences while holding fast to what matters most. They teach us how to do conflict better and how to share contested ground.
That’s what this workshop is about. Whether you are navigating your own transition or walking alongside someone in theirs, this space is designed to help you:
Understand what faith transitions are and why they happen.
Explore the grief, loss, and new growth they bring.
Learn skills for listening, nurturing relationship and community, and creating psychological safety in relationships.
Discover practical ways to preserve what matters most—love.
Guided by facilitators who have lived on all sides of the experience—as scholars, as parents, and as those who have walked their own transitions—we’ll share stories, tools, and practices that transform conflict into connection.
Where You Can Join Us
Restore Conference — Friday, September 26
Time: 1:30–2:15 pm
Location: Sorenson Center, Ragan Theater, Utah Valley University
Chad Ford and Patrick Mason will share a short 45-minute presentation on the challenges and opportunities of faith transitions, with an emphasis on some practical skills on how families can stay rooted in love.
To get 50% off tickets to Restore, use the code: Scholarship-50
Full Workshop at REPAIR — Saturday, October 25
Time: 2:00–6:00 pm
Location: Provo Marriott & Conference Center
This four-hour workshop led by Patrick Mason, Chad Ford and Katie Searle combines research, scripture, lived experience, and hands-on practice.
Workshop Flow
1. Welcome & Framing the Space
Creating a safe, respectful environment.
Introducing the theme of belonging: Is belonging experienced differently inside vs. outside faith communities? How can it be cultivated across difference?
2. Understanding Faith Transitions: Research & Realities
Exploring research, scripture, and personal stories of transition.
Small group reflection.
3. Family Dynamics & Connection Across Difference
Common responses in families: fear, grief, support, estrangement.
Exploring times when love felt conditional on belief vs. when it transcended belief.
Exercises that help teach us how to have supportive vs. defensive family conversations.
4. Skills & Tools for Staying Connected
Practical tools: active listening, validation without agreement, asking connecting questions, pausing before reacting, naming shared values.
Role Play practice in triads.
Emphasis on creating environments of trust and openness.
5. Holding Space & Honoring Each Path
Reflection on grief and loss in faith transition—lost community, rituals, or certainty—and also the potential for new values and growth.
Writing a personal “love-first” commitment statement.
Pair sharing.
6. Integration & Closing
Sharing key takeaways and commitments.
Offering resources for continued support.
What You’ll Leave With
Practical skills for navigating faith transitions with compassion.
A renewed sense of belonging that doesn’t depend on agreement.
A love-first commitment to strengthen family relationships.
Hope that connection can endure even through difference.
Who We Are
CHAD FORD is an international conflict mediator, facilitator, and peace educator.
While most people know him for his work at ESPN, being a basketball analyst and writer was actually his side-gig for most of the last two decades. Chad’s peacebuilding work is what defines him.
Chad served as the Director of the David O. McKay Center for Intercultural Understanding at BYU-Hawaii. for nearly twenty years where he created a major and certificate program in intercultural peacebuilding.
In 2024, Chad left his position at BYU-Hawaii to join the faculty at Utah State University. Chad is serving a joint appointment with the Religious Studies department and the Heravi Peace Institute. Chad teaches courses in Religion, Violence and Peace; Bridging Religious Differences; Introduction to Peacebuilding; and Transformative Mediation.
Chad’s work has frequently taken him out of the classroom and into conflict zones around the world — The Middle East, Ireland, Cyprus, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Oceania, China and throughout the United States — as both a mediator and a facilitator. Chad has served as a speaker and conflict facilitator for numerous organizations — working with governments, NGOs and corporations like Nike and the US Olympic team. He’s been able to combine his expertise on both sports and conflict by serving as an executive board member of the non-profit peacebuilding organization PeacePlayers.
His first book, Dangerous Love, weaves Chad’s experiences into a deeply personal step-by-step exploration of how we transform fear and conflict. His second book, 70x7, draws on Chad’s experiences as a Christian peacebuilder to show us how Jesus’s path of practicing 70×7 has the power to repair relationships by transforming destructive conflict into constructive peace.
Chad has his own substack newsletter called the Waymaker (which is different from this newsletter) if you want to follow his latest writing, podcasts and events.
PATRICK Q. MASON is a devout Christian peacemaker who combines intimate knowledge of Christian theology and history with the practical skills of a peacemaker.
Patrick holds the Leonard J. Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University. He has written or edited several books, including Restoration: God’s Call to the 21st Century World; Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict and Planted.
He was a Fulbright Scholar in Romania in 2015 and is a past president of the Mormon History Association. Patrick is frequently consulted by the national and international media on stories related to Mormon culture and history. He teaches courses on Mormonism, American religious history, and religion, violence, and peacebuilding.
KATIE SEARLE has deep experience in branding, publishing, event planning, and grant writing. But it is her beautiful soul and peacemaking that drives her.
After graduating with a degree in Intercultural Peacebuilding from BYU-Hawaii, Katie leapt into the world of publishing, co-founding Kinfolk Magazine in 2010. The magazine and its family of publications (The Kinfolk Table and The Kinfolk Home) became one of the most influential lifestyle titles in print and media within a few short years. In 2013, Katie co-founded Ouur Media, a lifestyle publisher and agency creating print and digital media for young creatives.
As Katie’s professional career in media evolved, she kept her finger on the pulse of some of her first loves—human rights, conflict resolution and peace building. She became a certified mediator, philanthropic consultant and grant writer, working on behalf of survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, families experiencing homelessness, youth aging out of foster care, and adults with developmental disabilities.
I have a loved one who would definitely be interested in this but is out of the country on this date. Is there any other way he and his wife could take this workshop at another time?