Speaking at a national conference on church mediation Alastair McKay, Director of Bridge Builders, offered three challenges to the church in England and beyond. He says that the first challenge is to change the culture of how our churches think about and engage with conflict, and instead to build a culture of active peace-making in the Church. Second, is the challenge to promote and resource mediation as one way of dealing with conflict, because mediation offers a route through the tangled thickets that we can get caught up in. Third, is the challenge to be realistic about mediation, to recognise its limits, and to take a more systemic view of the conflicts that arise.

Just suppose our church were to hit a crisis. Imagine that some storm blows up over an important issue and we have a significant conflict on our hands. Perhaps it threatens to split the fellowship.

What would you do?

Here are 6 options:
A. Pray that God will sort things out
B. Tell the leader(s) to get a grip on things
C. Leave before things get even more painful
D. Call for others to resign or leave
E. Do what you can to calm things down
F. Suggest getting help from an impartial outsider

Press Release

Church conflicts keep hitting the headlines, in both the mainstream media, and the church press. Can the Church find better ways to deal with conflicts in its midst? What hope does mediation offer the Church for addressing conflict?

Thursday 6 July 2006, London Mennonite Centre

Invitation
Publicity Poster

PROGRAMME

2:00-2:30pm Cold refreshments

2:30-2:45 Welcome, introduction & opening worship: BB team

Alastair McKay 's welcome

Not a side issue
Why should churches be interested in the practice of conflict resolution? Well, put at its most basic, any body of people would be better off not being damaged by internal disputes, wouldn’t they? Even simple self-interest suggests that it’s worth trying to resolve conflict. But churches can go further than that.

Some reflections by Bridge Builders’ staff, May 2006

Bridge Builders has three staff members: Alastair McKay (Director), Colin Patterson (Assistant Director) and Charletta Erb (Trainer and Mediator, until July 2006). In this article, each of them offers a personal response to the question, “What is distinctive or different about conflict in churches, compared to other contexts?”

Alastair McKay:

I want to point to two things. First, I think the emotional dynamics and intensity can mark out church conflicts; and, second, I believe that there are unusual resources which can be drawn on in the midst of church conflicts.