Faith-Based Reconcilers: The Most Difficult Path
Those who are engaged in peace-building, reconciliation and conflict management processes know that the most difficult route to peace may be among people of faith. Ministers, pastors and clergy report that up to fifty percent of their time is spent dealing with conflict. They also admit that they have received no training in the skills of conflict management. Divinity degrees, pastoral conferences and clerical training have all assumed that conflict doesn’t occur among people of faith.
Those who work regularly with churches, synagogues and temples of every description know differently. Because transcendent values and eternal consequences may be at risk, religious- based conflict can be some of the most intransigent and unhealthy conflict we encounter. Wars are fought and relationships are sacrificed at the altar of religious differences. Professional conflict mangers are often called upon to assist when parties who share a common faith differ on matters of change, personnel and governance related to their faith orientation. Mediators, facilitators, trainers and system design specialists can all be helpful in faith-based conflict if they understand how it may differ from the “ordinary” commercial, legal or community-based dispute.
Lipscomb University Institute of Conflict Management (ICM) seeks to provide resources and opportunities to grow a community of peacemakers in religious conflict. The ICM “Reconcilers Summit” will convene July 26-28 to explore the depth and width of faith-based conflict. In a skills-based training session, the Reconciler’s Summit will bring together people of faith (pastors, elders, teachers and lay ministry leaders) to build a resource network for conflict managers to assist communities of faith in conflict. With help, these communities can reach outcomes which are less damaging than the ones we regularly read about on the front pages of our newspapers.
To know more about this first-of-a-kind training in Middle Tennessee visit: http://reconcilersummit.lipscomb.edu. Registration fees for this unique offering will be only $95 to cover the costs of materials, food and refreshments for the two and a half day session. If working in the midst of faith-based conflict is of interest to you, join with others from our region to explore how we can together make a difference and minimize conflict between people of faith and the institutions of which they are a part.
Reconciliation may be an ideal and sometimes unattainable, but people of faith believe that its pursuit is worth the energy and resources it takes to improve its likelihood. “Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the effective, efficient and respectful management of conflict.”
Larry W. Bridgesmith
