What should Christians do in the face of conflict, divisiveness, and fragmentation?
We stay. We abide. We embrace.
We do not run away from conflict…but we need meaningful tools and skills to help us practice conflict in healthy ways.
We stay together and practice resurrection within the truth that we are all different and have very different opinions and perspectives about our world, which is not always easy, convenient, or comfortable.
We abide within God’s vision of the church as a place of hope and healing, which is often incredibly difficult to do in a world that is confusing, hurting, and full of defensiveness and aggression.
We embrace beloved community and koinonia in solidarity with those around us as we follow our heartbreak into the heartbeat of God.
Difficult Conversations Can Be Scary
There is a lot of conflict in our world and in our churches, and the Faith & Deliberation Initiative is here to offer trainings to equip our formation leadership in the diocese so they feel empowered to facilitate difficult conversations.
Good conversations don’t just happen, even though we often believe they do. Good conversations take preparation, solid skill sets, a good and trusted process for our deliberation, and a lot of listening.
As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13, communication is definitely a spiritual practice! Anything less than generous and compassionate communication is just noise like a banging gong.
Too often, we tend to view “those people over there” who do not agree with us as the enemy, but Jesus teaches us that there are no enemies. There are only neighbors!
So, it is our responsibility to learn and to practice healthy and helpful ways of getting to know our neighbors, and that is exactly what the Faith & Deliberation Initiative is here to do in partnership with all EDOT Formation Leadership.
All of the talking points in this TedTalk parallel our own Christian teachings. The insights in the video are all directly reflective of Jesus’s and Paul’s teachings.
We do not judge. We do not demonize. We do not dehumanize. We come to see the world through our neighbor’s eyes by loving our neighbor as ourselves and putting ourselves in their shoes. We resist “us” versus “them” narratives. We resist dualistic, either/or thinking, and we take a posture of building and bridging. We do not take a posture of defensiveness, confusion, or polarization, which is the posture of a destroyer (the spirit identified in the New Testament as the spirit of diabalo: to throw things apart in opposite directions; to tear apart).
A Builder Mindset
The Four C’s of a Builder Mindset are: compassion, curiosity, creativity, and courage. These are also fundamental practices of Christianity.
Jesus was a builder, and Paul was a builder because he formed his life into the shape of Jesus. We must do the same. We must become builders.
Sometimes they built things that needed to be built, re-built, or re-imagined. Sometimes they bridged differing and divisive perspectives through compassion, clarity, and healthy peacebuilding. Sometimes they blocked things that needed to be blocked, but they did not hide in bunkers. They did not bludgeon people with their ideas or beliefs. They did not create barriers, and they did not destroy communities.
Instead, they put their hope in a God of faithfulness, and they believed that every human being can turn away from hate…and into love. That is precisely the radical vision of Paul. Every human being can be transformed into a Christ of love…a bridge builder of love.
