The Shared Values Exploration and Engagement worksheet is a resource from our Building Regular Interfaith Dialogue through Generous Engagement (BRIDGE) series focused on training campus professionals on interfaith cooperation. This worksheet assists students, faculty, and staff, in both curricular and co-curricular spaces, in discussing and finding shared values amongst the diverse religious, spiritual, and secular ideologies and their practices. Tailoring a common team building icebreaker, BINGO, this worksheet asks community members to reflect on their worldview, “a guiding life philosophy, which may be based on a particular religious tradition, spiritual orientation, nonreligious perspective, or some combination of these” (Rockenbach and Mayhew, 2014*) and find shared values amongst the participants in the session.
Building relationships across lines of religious difference can be difficult, for a variety of reasons including the lack of content expertise and the practice of outwardly articulating this aspect of one’s life; however, as student and academic affair professionals one needs to deepen this area of knowledge and seek to understand the various religious, spiritual, and secular traditions that are present in one’s community and the influence these worldviews have on students, work, campus, and society.
Regardless of the level of discomfort or novelty in participating in interfaith dialogue it is necessary. This worksheet is intentionally crafted to assist in engaging worldview diversity and finding shared values within them.
*Rockenbach, A. B., & Mayhew, M. J. (2014). The campus spiritual climate: Predictors of satisfaction among students with diverse worldviews. Journal of College Student Development, 55(1), 41-62.
