Category Archives: Peacemaking

Church Re-unites 24 Years After Split

March 30, 2020 – 12:16 pm

Church splits are common news. But congregations re-uniting after a full split? That’s a God story. In 1993, First Baptist Church of Ellisville, near St. Louis, Missouri, divided in two: 400 members left to start a new church, and 400 stayed behind. The new church, West County Community Church, built a building five miles down […]

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Forgiving a Killer: Tearful Courtroom

October 3, 2019 – 3:35 pm

An amazing thing occurred at the sentencing for former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger yesterday: the brother of the man she shot forgave her. Ms. Guyger was convicted of murder after she shot and killed Botham Jean in his apartment, mistakenly thinking he was an intruder in her apartment. During the sentencing hearing, the victim’s […]

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A Bid to Mediate Church Conflicts

June 10, 2019 – 3:36 pm

A very good article about mediating church conflicts was recently posted on mediate.com, “Referring Church Conflicts to Mediation.” The author, Wayne Plenert, uses the passage in Paul’s letter to the Philippians about the conflict between Euodia and Synteche to argue that there is a biblical basis for mediating church conflicts. In that passage (Philippians 4:2-3), […]

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Restorative Justice in Murder Cases

May 14, 2019 – 8:53 am

The CBS TV news program “60 Minutes” did a story Sunday May 12, called “The Most Unlikely Meeting,” about using restorative justice principles to bring together family members of murder victims face-to-face with the murderers. Interviews with both the family members and the convicted murderers demonstrate the power of this process. One murderer admits that […]

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Peacemaking Doesn’t Mean Passivity

May 6, 2019 – 9:25 am

“Peace is not just about the absence of conflict; it’s also about the presence of justice. Martin Luther King Jr. even distinguished between ‘the devil’s peace’ and God’s true peace. A counterfeit peace exists when people are pacified or distracted or so beat up and tired of fighting that all seems calm. But true peace […]

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