Whenever I teach the Peacemaker Ministries’ Slippery Slope of Conflict: I try to remember Dave Edling’s and Ken Sande’s (repeated!) teaching to me and say something to the effect of: “The face of the church would change if Christians would follow one simple step when someone offends them: rather than talking about the other person, they go and (gently! humbly!) talk to the other person.” It’s so true. Many times, we can clear up a miscommunication, realize that we misunderstood or misinterpreted a situation, or simply be moved with compassion towards a person once we understand what he or she is going through. (“I had no idea you had just…

If you haven’t read Ken Sande’s book, The Peacemaker (or if you haven’t re-read it in awhile), I encourage you to do so! It is such a wonderful book. I re-read it last week and was tremendously blessed, challenged, and encouraged. Let me tempt you with a snippet: “When someone mistreats or opposes us, our instinctive reaction is to justify ourselves and do everything we can to get our way. This selfish attitude usually leads to impulsive decisions that only make matters worse.   The gospel of Jesus Christ provides the way out of this downward spiral. When we remember what Jesus did for us on the cross, our blinding…

“Sin causes us to be more concerned about our own welfare than anyone else’s. Such self-centeredness  destroys relationships and does great harm.” How People Change (by Lane & Tripp)  

Peacemaker Ministries is offering a free webinar with Chris Brauns (pastor and author of Unpacking Forgiveness and keynote speaker at the 2010 Peacemaker Conference—“Forgiveness”) this morning (9AM Mtn). You can read all of the details and click through to register here: Free Webinar on Forgiveness   Fred met Pastor Brauns yesterday at the Peacemaker offices and had a fun time connecting with him over their rural Illinois roots. (Not many people can make the claim to fame of living in—or even having HEARD OF—the school district where Fred went K-12. I think his graduating class had only 43 students! But that’s where Pastor Brauns’ church is located. Pretty fun.) Enjoy!…

Oh. Tears. Again. How quick I am to give in to resentment and bitterness when people attribute wrong motives to me; misjudge me; presume the worst about me. How would I respond if they didn’t just wrongfully accuse me? They convicted me and then put me in jail for 29 years? Oh oh oh. I pray that I would be like this man:   Wrongly Convicted Man Goes Free (HT: TakeYourVitaminZ)  

Just got back from a brisk walk with Lilikoi and WOW! Was I blessed and challenged by a Ligon Duncan sermon: “Loving Those Who Don’t Love You.” I truly wish that my Ipod/mp3 skills were better and I could figure out how to give you a link to the exact sermon—but the best I can do is direct you to a page of a zillion of his sermons and tell you that it’s number 26: First Pres Sermons I think I’m going to ask Fred to teach me how to load all of them onto my Ipod-thingamajig because I really want to continue to work through them. Thank God for…

The world’s cutest webmaster and blogger (my hubby Freddy B.) posted this at the Peacemaker Ministries blog and I just CHEERED as I read it: Quail Springs Church of Christ Heals Rift Through Mediation What a (painful! beautiful!) testimony of God’s grace at work in a congregation and a wonderfully gifted Christian conciliator.   Enjoy.  

I just re-read the study guide to the Peacemaker Ministries Leadership Opportunity and I want to encourage you again to consider purchasing this resource and introducing it to your church leadership. It really is a great distillation of some of the most important topics related to peacemaking and leadership. And even though the price might initially strike you as high—consider the cost of conflict in your congregation, and I bet you’ll quickly see that it’s a true bargain. (Not that I’m trying to sell you anything! I don’t get a commission. I’m sure no one at Peacemakers will even know I’ve mentioned this resource again. I just think it’s that…

If you have an interest in biblical peacemaking and would like to read a slightly different take on it from the “standard” Peacemaker Ministries model, I encourage you to click through and enjoy this series of articles posted on the The Francis Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development (www.ChurchLeadership.org): Cultivating Effective Biblical Solutions for Conflict Yes, I have to admit that the JD/MBA (and Presbyterian?)  in me still particularly enjoys the orderly way that engineer and fellow lawyer Ken Sande organizes the biblical principles over at Peacemakers. (Some of Dr. Krejcir’s articles in this series got a little rambly and my tiny brain just couldn’t keep track of 24+ points…

I awoke this morning thinking about some real-life situations in my real-life Christian community. And then I was encouraged by this Bonhoeffer quote (from Life Together): “Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a…