The Peacemaking Pastor | Alfred Poirier

Alfred Poirier. The Peacemaking Pastor: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Church Conflict. Baker, 2006. 320 pp.

Christ is the reason many enter the pastorate. Conflict is the reason many leave. . . . Many young pastors enter their calling naïvely, believing that orthodox preaching, well-ordered worship, and a sufficient number of different venues for discipleship will be all they need to grow their members in faith and their church in numbers. Once in the pastorate, however, the reality of conflict and an inability to respond to it in a wise, godly, and gospel manner soon cripple both their effectiveness as pastors and their church’s witness. . . .

The past thirty years have witnessed increasing endeavors toward mediating disputes outside the civil courts, or what is sometimes known as alternative dispute resolution (ADR). . . .

During this same period Christians have established their own dispute resolution groups. These ministries have sought to address the issue of conflict from a decidedly Christian perspective and methodology. Such groups as the Alban Institute, the Conflict Transformation Program at Eastern Mennonite University, and Peacemaker Ministries . . . are potential resources for seminaries and Bible colleges to utilize in their training of pastors.

Written materials from a Christian perspective range from broad-based treatments of conflict resolution (e.g., Leading Your Church through Conflict and Reconciliation: 30 Strategies to Transform Your Ministry, edited by Marshall Shelley) to those focused on pertinent issues in peacemaking (e.g., Helping Angry People, by Glenn Taylor and Rod Wilson). However, even these works on Christian conflict resolution evidence deficiencies in the theory and practice of conflict resolution in the following ways.

First, they approach conflict resolution principally through the adoption of mere pragmatic responses. . . . Acquiring the right skills (such as communication and listening skills) and utilizing the right methods (such as interest-based negotiation) achieve at best only a modicum of change. In my experience, real change comes in people’s attitudes toward conflict and reconciliation through a renewed vision of the gospel of Jesus Christ. . . . Unresolved conflicts between Christians have less to do with people being skillful than with them being sinful. And that is where the pastor comes in, for Christ has ordained us to be preachers of the gospel of peace—a gospel that alone can uproot the sins of bitterness, envy, pride, and covetousness.

Second, contemporary Christian conflict theory is deficient in reckoning with the God-ward dimensions of conflict. When discussing anger, revenge, offense, lying, and other emotions and behaviors that characterize conflicts, Christian conflict theory rarely frames these matters in terms of the sinful heart’s opposition to God. Consequently, it overlooks the deep and rich biblical theme about human motivation, such as idolatry, lusts, and cravings. When it does treat matters of the human heart and the whys and wherefores of human nature, it typically appeals to psychological models that are less than biblical.

It is evident, then, that there is still a need for greater development of Christian conflict resolution theory and practice that is biblically rooted and theologically integrated within the larger corpus of Christian thought and teaching.

Third, current models for peacemaking (both secular and Christian) share a common shaping influence that is insufficient for peacemaking in the local church-the law-court model. The church, however, needs a more ecclesiastically tailored paradigm on which to build its peacemaking practices. . . .

This model is not . . . without its deficiencies. Law-court model mediation tends to focus on immediate problem solving rather than looking deeper at personal issues, feelings, and relationships. It frames the matters in dispute mostly in terms of offenses and injustices and interprets outcomes merely in terms of restitution that needs to be made. But it fails to address the matters of the heart, such as anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, and unrepentance that fuel conflict. . . .

The law-court model also directs the mediation process toward issue settlement rather than aiming at the reconciliation of relationships. Coupled with this objective is reliance upon the outside expert (also known as the “hired mediator”) who comes in, mediates a dispute, and then leaves. Thus this process overlooks the ongoing help and assistance so necessary in reconciling and building long-term relationships. To put it more vividly, current conflict resolution practice looks more like four hours in the emergency room than a month of home recuperation therapy.

What is still needed, then, is conflict resolution theory developed for and practiced in the context of the local church. We need a model that rests upon the uniqueness of the church of Jesus Christ. Christian conflict theory must be theologically rooted and ecclesiastically integrated.

Yet the greatest hindrance to pastoral peacemaking are three hidden assumptions we make about it.

First, too often pastors view peacemaking as only a tool of ministry rather than a habit of being. Instead of being ministers of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:19-20), we confine peacemaking to special crisis situations within the church. This flawed assumption blinds us to the multidimensional and even cosmic character of the ministry of reconciliation. Since God reconciled all things in heaven and on earth to himself through the death of his Son on the cross (Col. 1:19-20), then we who are the children of God are redeemed to be reconcilers.

Second, we tend to assume that peacemaking is meant to be merely corrective and not something constructive. Yet the ministry of reconciliation God gives us is chiefly to build Christ’s people to be peacemakers and his church to be a culture of peace.

Finally, for too long, we have tended to view peacemaking through the lens of various ideologies rather than through the lens of Scripture. We have failed to explore what it means that God has given pastors “the message of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19) and that we are Christ’s ambassadors of reconciliation. . . .

As a church we must learn to view parties to a dispute not simply as individuals with competing interests. We must see them as who they are: brothers and sisters in the body of Christ who are caught in the rebellion and bondage of sin, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and called to love and serve one another in the community bounded by gospel, sacrament, and discipline.

Taken from pp. 9-15 of The Peacemaking Pastor by Alfred Poirier. Used by permission of Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2007. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without written permission from Baker Publishing Group. Visit http://www.BakerPublishingGroup.com

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