Well, hello there! It’s been a long
time. In fact, the last article I posted on this blog was in July, 2013! I have
decided to start blogging again, and I would like to tell you why.
Many of
you know that I have a passion for peacemaking. I believe that it is
very important to resolve conflict, particularly in the church or among
believers, in a way that is pleasing to God. The Bible actually has a lot to
say about how we should deal with conflict in our Christian communities. It’s
like he knew that we were going to fight! Figure that, Christians fighting…
I
discovered the book, The Young Peacemaker
by Corlette Sande, at a homeschool convention in the 90's and went on to read Ken
Sande’s book, The Peacemaker, and my
eyes were opened! I had been going about this conflict thing all wrong. I would
like to say that from then on, all my conflicts were reconciled smoothly and I
did not initiate or exacerbate conflicts, but…, well more on that later…in
other articles most likely. It did, however, change my life and how I view
conflict, my role in conflict, and the people with whom I am in conflict. I
went on to take some training from Peacemakers Ministries, attend a couple of
their conferences, and incorporate the principles I was learning into my life,
family, and the various groups I was a part of. I even started and led a
peacemaking team at my church.
There
are other groups besides Peacemakers Ministries that teach Biblical peacemaking.
Ambassadors of Reconciliation grew out of Peacemakers, and until recently they
had a uniquely Lutheran focus. I was blessed to be allowed to attend their
basic conflict coaching and mediation training with the Lutheran Church
Missouri Synod Florida/Georgia District Circuit Visitors in May 2016, in
Charlotte, NC, my home town! And later that year, our district president asked
if I would serve as a District Reconciler for our district. Again, more of the
basic training with some special equipping for dealing with hearings and
appeals in the Synod. This past
February, I had the pleasure of helping my church host AoR's conflict coaching
and mediation training in Orlando. And finally, in April I was in St. Louis for
their advanced coaching and mediation training and conference. I will have lots to say about how those two events
have inspired me in subsequent posts, but my main point here is that it made me
realize that I need to write about what I am learning and experiencing in the
area of reconciliation – a word I plan to use as a substitute for peacemaking.
So,
that’s why I am back! In my next article, I will talk more about the
mountaintop experience my week in St. Louis was!
Peace!
Katie
