Peacemaking

I’m reading a book these days (thanks to Glenn Goode the regional director of our association) called ‘The Peace Making Pastor: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Church Conflict’ by Alfred Poirier. As I’ve walked by glancing at the cover numerous times over the last several weeks prior to diving into it, I have not been highly motivated to pick it up and get started. The Lord has spared our church a lot of conflict. Don’t get me wrong, it is not that we are without conflict entirely but we have enjoyed great unity over the years by in large; something I continually thank the Lord for.

However, now that I’ve read a couple of chapters, I’m hooked. When we think of church conflict, we often think of it on a larger scale, but that isn’t the main focus of Poirier’s work. On page 34 he writes, “… the more typical kinds of conflict that consume a pastor’s time (and which this book particularly addresses) are the run-of-the-mill personal affairs, which Jesus is addressing when he tells us to first get the plank out of our own eye… These are conflicts caused by personal sin that surface in family and marriage disputes, strained friendships, or business/employment conflicts involving church members.”

This makes the book intensely practical so that it’s hard to imagine anything more pertinent. And what’s more, the author grounds his teaching and practice of peacemaking in the solid rock of the gospel. Let me share a few choice excerpts with you:

“The gospel is the engine that drives the train of reconciliation. Unresolved conflicts between Christians have less to do with people being skillful than with them being sinful… peacemaking can be embraced because Christ is the incarnate Peacemaker… He is the first and only true Peacemaker… failure to train our people and our leaders as peacemakers is a failure in Christology, for peacemaking is Christology… Peacemaking is all about Jesus Christ… The gospel of Jesus is the message of peacemaking… God’s cosmic work of reconciling all things in heaven and on earth to Himself is through the person and work of Christ. In Christ, God reconciles all things to Himself…”

Not only is he shedding some new light on my calling as a pastor but he is also helping me to see this whole subject of conflict resolution (peacemaking) in a whole new light as well. Exciting!