Conference Recordings

Recent #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements, and high-profile abuse cases, have made power imbalance and abuse a hot topic. Christian Conciliators need to know how to navigate these serious issues. The culture demands a victim-centric approach to abuse allegations (including mandatory investigations, public exposure, and worldly justice). In contrast, this workshop aims to educate Christians Conciliators with a biblical perspective of power and abuse issues, while encouraging them to maintain a Christ-centric and trauma-informed approach to biblical peacemaking that offers hope for redemption for both victim and offender. Permission and license by Peacemaker Ministries to record this content. Visit www.peacemakerministries.org for more information.

This workshop presents an alternative model for opening the first joint session in mediation. The presenter shifted to using this model a couple of decades ago, finding that it can more effectively focus the parties on each other’s “story” than the typical beginning of GOSPEL framework. The goal of this model is to invite listening to understand and appreciating the impacts of the circumstances - one might say it is a structured storytelling. A unique aspect of this alternative model is the use of music early in the process to worship together before launching into dialogue. We will further discuss the opportunities for incorporating music into the conciliation process.

Anger. We see it all the time, but few people understand it. We see it as a means of power and control. Does it really give us control or does it control us? How does God talk to us about anger in His Word? Should we be feeling righteous indignation at the state of our world? What do you do when anger is part of conflict or when it shows up in a mediation? What does it mean to be a man or woman of peace?

Someone learned that you know something about helping people in conflict. What do you do? How do you evaluate the situation? What do you ask them about? Where should your focus be? What paperwork, if any, do I need to put in place? This workshop will help all who agree to assist their church or ministry by serving those in conflict. While we won’t discuss the details of intake and case administration, this time will give you the important basics we all need to keep in mind.

In this workshop we will review some basic biblical principles of how we can respond to
persons who are struggling spiritually and emotionally due to circumstances that have caused
some form of crisis or difficult circumstances in their lives. In the same way that there are
basic steps we can follow when providing physical first aid, we will consider basic biblical
steps to follow in providing soul care first aid. These steps will be shared in a format that is widely applicable and easy to remember.