In 1999, curiosity about new ways of thinking and connecting with people across the difference divide, drove Jim Henderson, Dave Richards, and Brian McLaren to start Off the Map. The word they dreamed up to describe that impulse was otherlyness — the practice of being unusually interested in others.

Ten years later, they ended the first iteration of Off the Map. Dave Richards started Capria, Brian McLaren’s orbit expanded through his writings and activism, and Jim Henderson continued the expedition to locate and meet people who were adept at crossing the difference divide.

In 2014, Henderson’s path crossed with Jim Hancock, who would eventually become a new Off the Map partner.

In 2016, Henderson and Hancock joined two other producers, Brian Boyle and Cara Highsmith, to create a feature-length documentary and book about the risky friendship between a rabbi, an imam, and an evangelical preacher in Peoria … which, of course, could only be called No Joke. It was in that process that they distilled and articulated what they came to call The 3Practices — the habitual behaviors of people who’ve become adept at crossing the difference divide in their families, friendships, workplaces, communities and schools.

The 3Practices

1. Being unusually interested in others

2. Staying in the room with difference

3. Not comparing their best with the other person’s worst

In 2018, Henderson and Hancock began creating a map to help more people find their way across the difference divide. The vehicle for that crossing is called 3Practice Circles — a group experience where ideological opponents gather, not to argue, debate, dialog, discuss, or even ageee … but to practice the 3Practices in a face-to-face setting (which is to say: Not on Facebook).

Brian McLaren joined Jim Henderson and Jim Hancock online to talk about 3Practice Circles: