Do you tend to avoid conflict, or view conflict in the church as something negative or destructive? In this article, Alastair McKay, Executive Director of Bridge Builders, offers some keys that can help unlock a different understanding of conflict. He sets out an approach which can enable leaders to engage with conflict as a source of creativity and transformation in the life of the church.
How does the church handle conflict in its midst, and what challenges need to be faced if conflict is to be handled constructively? Alastair McKay, Executive Director of Bridge Builders, explores these questions through a literature review conducted in 2009.
Should churches be interested in the practice of conflict resolution, especially if it means simply copying secular professionals? In this article, Colin Patterson, Assistant Director of Bridge Builders, argues that resolving conflict can never be optional for followers of Jesus.
What is distinctive or different about conflict in churches, compared with other contexts? In this article, you can read three personal responses. Each comes from a member of the Bridge Builders' staff team in 2006: Alastair McKay, Colin Patterson and Charletta Erb.
How many churches are equipped to respond well in a crisis? In this article, aimed at ordinary church members, Colin Patterson, Assistant Director of Bridge Builders, looks at the way Christians typically respond.
How do we think theologically about the work of conflict transformation? This article by Mark Thiessen Nation, a former Director of the London Mennonite Centre, explores this issue by reference to the thought of Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder. Thiessen Nation believes it is important to develop a theology for, rather than a theology of, conflict transformation. He looks at the centrality of Jesus, the place of the Church and Christian community, clarity about the nature of sin, and the question of effectiveness and God’s sovereignty.
Speaking in 2007 at a national conference on church mediation, Alastair McKay, Executive Director of Bridge Builders, offered three challenges to the church in England and beyond. This article is an edited version of his presentation.
