We’re excited to announce that the first lesson of the study The Leadership Opportunity is now available for free to study online at Peacemaker University!

To get to the lesson for free just go here.

If you’re interested, you can view the trailer for the study:

The Leadership Opportunity from Peacemaker Ministries on Vimeo.

I liked the image of hospitality Tim Laniak gave in his most recent email. (Tim and his book “While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks” are featured in our resource for church leaders–The Leadership Opportunity.) Doesn’t it give a fresh meaning to the words of the shepherd psalm, “He prepares a table before me…”?

Hospitality among desert tribes in the Middle East is legendary. In a moment you can be transformed from anxious stranger to honored guest. After a simple greeting of “peace” you step across the threshold of a goat-hair tent and become a virtual member of your Bedouin host’s family. The desert welcome continues with a handshake, a gesture to sit near the smoking fire, and an offer of tea. No business is transacted until hospitality has been extended and received. Regardless of the visit’s purpose, you will first settle into the relationship. The conversation, like the endless cups of tea, expresses a transparent and almost embarrassing effort to serve their new friends. What most outsiders often don’t fully realize is that being a guest in a Bedouin tent carries an unspoken guarantee that your needs will be met. The refreshments before you are only a symbolic token of this guarantee.

God is pictured as a shepherd host in Psalm 23. In the hostile desert he “prepares a table before me” (v. 5). Throughout Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness God daily prepared such a table. The bread that he served up each day was the “bread of angels” (Ps. 78:19-25). But Israel’s host knew that his people needed more than physical bread. “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna…to teach you that people do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deut. 8:3 TNIV). The Good Shepherd was a host whose physical provision was an appetizer for spiritual sustenance.

As an accompanying article to their recent interview of Ken Sande, Leadership Journal also published this first-hand account of a church that went through a messy conflict and the role Peacemaker Ministries played in helping them work through it.  A little teaser:

“Oh, you’re from the fireworks church?” people would say, smiling, to members of Court Street Church. The congregation was known throughout the community for its big July Fourth celebration, including a parade, watermelon cutting, seed-spitting contest, and Roman candles. But it wasn’t long before the fireworks weren’t only overhead; they soon moved into the board room and eventually into the sanctuary. Fireworks church, indeed.

Read the entire story of how the “fireworks church” became the peacemaking church.

A nice little interview of Ken Sande recently appeared in Leadership Journal, and is worth the read. Not that it’s always easy reading–Ken calls church leaders to account in several areas: approachability, accountability, pride, succession planning, and other critical aspects of leadership. Here’s one example of the counsel Ken gives related to conflicts over “theological” issues:  

Often conflicts are pitched as theological—differences over doctrine, which can lead to impassioned disagreements in a church and charges of heresy. How do you counsel leaders in that scenario?

Number one, pray for humility. It’s so easy to become very proud. People should remember how much their own understanding has changed over the years. We are always growing; always learning. Things we believed passionately years ago may not be the same as today. So maybe there is an issue that I’m wrong about today. Humility is vital.

Number two, realize that the only way to carry on a meaningful discussion is in the context of relationship. So preserving the relationship is crucial. It means listening, being kind, being forbearing, even if the other person is wrong and being offensive. Consider some important questions: How do I approach a brother on a very important doctoral issue and yet still treat him with love, respect, and humility? What do I owe a person just because he’s made in God’s image? And if he’s a believer, he has also been redeemed. I owe him a great deal in our engagement.

The controversy between John Wesley and George Whitefield has been an example to me. They had strong theological disagreements. But I saw one letter that Whitefield wrote to Wesley at the end of his life, earnestly trying to persuade him. Yet in the midst of it, he kept addressing him as “my dear brother.” You see them both valuing and preserving the relationship and not just winning the argument.

(And note: many of the themes Ken addresses in the article are covered more thoroughly in our resource for church leaders, The Leadership Opportunity: Living Out the Gospel where Conflict & Leadership Intersect.)

This is my latest contribution to BuildingChurchLeaders.com:

Many church leaders are not naturally good peacemakers. Because of our fallen nature, we tend to respond to conflict either as people-pleasers or controllers.

People-pleasing leaders prefer to deny, minimize, or cover up conflict. They tend to pacify people by telling them what they want to hear, and often try to counsel others through a sermon rather than talking face to face. While these tactics may postpone confrontation for a while, unresolved issues usually build up over time. They can result in a steady exodus from the church and, eventually, devastating division.

Controlling leaders prefer to attack conflict (and people) head on. They tend to be quick to speak and slow to listen. They are often adept at behind-the-scenes political maneuvering. Instead of seeking understanding and gracious compromise, they frequently divide the church into polarized factions. Controlling leaders may suppress opposition for years, but many of them are suddenly swept away by a conflict they can no longer control.

Read the rest here.

Just a quick reminder to take advantage of two discounts that end this week:

1. The Peacemaker Conference (Sept 16-19, Washington, DC) – Conference rates go up on April 1,  so register soon to get the best price.
2. The Leadership Opportunity – The special introductory price of $149 ends on March 31st, so act quickly to save $40 on our newest resource for church leaders.  

I’ve had this post bookmarked for a while and am finally getting around to linking and commenting on it.  Ray Ortlund did a 4-part series last week on Four Marks of Spiritual Leaders.  I was particularly struck by part 2:

Christian leaders put away the detestable idols from their lives and their churches. It is not enough to add Jesus. We must also subtract our idols. As time goes by, so much accumulates and complicates. We cannot go on adding and adding. We must boldly subtract. This is repentance and reformation.

“Detestable idols” means “abhorrent, monstrous, disgusting idols.” Our hearts do not create nice idols. Oh, how we need the lovely One! How we need to see him so clearly and revere him so tenderly that we get tough on ourselves and throw the idols out!

Christian leaders have a nose for the stench of idolatry, and they confront it, as Asa did. It is not leadership to ignore the smell, perfume the smell. Some churches do. They make room for their idols of tradition, idols of superiority, idols of unconfessed sin, idols of cool. But anything that distracts from Jesus stinks. It stinks to God. It reeks with our arrogance and self-pity and whatever else diminishes Jesus in our experience. Christian leaders are deeply stirred by this. They become restless. They become desperate for the greater glory of Christ, desperate enough to magnify him at all costs.

Read the whole post here.

Hot off the press!  I just received a copy of the manual from our forthcoming resource “The Leadership Opportunity: Living Out the Gospel Where Conflict and Leadership Intersect.”  Flipping through the first few pages, this quote caught my eye.  It’s from Session 1, “True Leaders Must Be Peacemakers,” taught by Ken Sande:

When conflict breaks out and relationships are broken, it is not a time to come at each other with a bunch of “should’s,” or threats, or warnings. Instead, it is a time to come at people with the hope of the gospel of Christ.

Remember, the greatest conflict in the world was the estrangement of sinful mankind from the Creator of the universe. This conflict was resolved through the gospel, the good news that Jesus died and rose again to save us from our sins and reconcile us to God.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Christ], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. Colossians 1:19-22

The more we understand the gospel, the more willingly we will live it out, clothing ourselves with the character of Christ and imitating his reconciling love toward others in the midst of conflict. People who understand the gospel in its fullness tend to be eager and enthused to forgive others. People who do not value or understand the gospel tend to be slow to reconcile.

Follow this link to read a really cool story about a man who was under the most severe form of church discipline 14+ years ago, and who returned to the Lord recently.

A few quotes that I appreciated, that will hopefully whet your appetite:

“Why was it that the person Steve wanted help and trusted the most was the pastor who 14 years ago would not let his blatant sin go unaddressed?”

“How many pastors minister long enough to every see an excommunicated member restored in the same tenure?”

“It’s a love that does the hardest things and receives the sweetest expressions of reconciliation this side of heaven.”

“It was extraordinary grace on display as the Great Shepherd pursued and captured one that had strayed, fallen, and wallowed in the pit of emptiness.”

Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing – it’s such a sweet reminder of a pastor’s faithfulness to his sheep … and ultimately of our Great Shepherd’s unrelenting love for those he paid such a high price to redeem.