Biblical Peacemaking

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
(Romans 12:18)

Ministry and Mission is keen to assist our personnel and churches with Biblical peacemaking, and offers a range of ministries.

PeaceWise Training

In partnership with PeaceWise, we are able to present their personal peacemaking courses Everyday Peacemaking and Heart of Peacemaking at PCNSW churches.

PeaceWise describes these courses in this way:

Everyday Peacemaking
Tired of being buffeted by conflict around you? Wondering what God is doing when peace is absent? This first course will help you focus on what God is doing in your everyday relationships and help you be someone who makes peace rather than fakes it or breaks it!

Heart of Peacemaking
An improved ability to be a peacemaker and respond well to the challenge of conflict requires a deeper understanding of ourselves, our relationship with God and the deeper things which drive our responses to challenging situations.

The first course offers a Biblical picture of peacemaking, and provides a hopeful and practical framework for dealing with everyday conflicts. This is a great course for putting peacemaking on the map for your church, and provides common language and understanding for your church members as they grow in this space. The second course builds on the first, and goes deeper into the heart or core of our challenges. The M&M presenters also aim to include valuable Q&A and discussion time, so that these courses can be applied to our personal and PCNSW contexts. Please visit the PeaceWise website for detailed course descriptions.

M&M has offered this training across many churches and we would love to chat with you about running this event at your church.

[Coming Soon: M&M PeaceWise Training PDF]

Peacemaking Coaching

Bern is available to meet with our ministers and other leaders for personalised coaching. This can range from general preemptive discussion about peacemaking, to assisting a minister deal with conflict in his own life or church, to debriefing a past conflict situation.

This usually involves meeting regularly in person or over Zoom to explore the heart of Biblical and personal peacemaking, alongside practical skill building. It is an opportunity to move towards deeper and lasting change within these challenges which we all face.

Mediation

Though our current focus is on upstream ministries, M&M can sometimes assist with types of relational mediation. This would usually occur after exploration of best peacemaking options and careful discussion with relevant parties. Our usual form of mediation is a Guided Conversation, which has a flexible and pastoral style while preserving standard mediation guidelines, to allow for a safe and effective process. Guided Conversations always include a strong focus on coaching conflicted parties prior to bringing them together. M&M can also recommend other mediators where appropriate.

Other

M&M is also developing its own in-house training. Some of this is already in use for our new ministry graduates through Sustain post-college pastoral development programme, and for other speaking or training events. Stay tuned for more information about such resources, or have a chat with Bern to see what is available.

Everyday Mediation (PeaceWise)

PeaceWise has recently launched their Everyday Mediation course. This course teaches a Christian mediation framework for helping parties in everyday conflict, such as ministers who wish to assist two congregation members. This is an excellent and recommended resource for our ministers and leaders who wish to grow in this space. It is an opportunity to develop Biblical-based mediation principles and learn peacemaking skills at the local church level, without a need to pursue formal / professional level mediation training. For more information, please consult PeaceWise’s website here: Everyday Mediation

Please contact Bern Merchant at bmerchant@mm.pcnsw.org.au for more information or to discuss how M&M can assist you and your church with Biblical peacemaking.