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New program to help churches transform conflict
January/February, 2002
The Massachusetts Conference is offering a new conflict transformation program designed not only to help improve communication within churches, but also to deepen it.
Opportunities for an introduction to Walking in the Way:
Clergy Colloquy: Creating Common Ground
• Tuesday, Feb. 12, 9 AM to 3 PM
• United Congregational Church, Worcester
• Contact Susan Dickerman at 508-875-5233 or at dickermans@macucc.org.Communicating the Gospel in the 21st Century
• Saturday, March 2, 9 AM to 4:15 PM
• Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• Contact Tiffany Vail at 508-875-5233 or vailt@macucc.org.Walking in the Way has been developed by two local church pastors, Karen Nell Smith and Beverly Prestwood-Taylor, in conjunction with the Commission for Leadership Development.
Through the program, local churches can hire trained facilitators to help them transform conflict by developing new methods for communication within the church.
The program combines corporate conflict management techniques with the spiritual concept of shalom.
Prestwood-Taylor said the main idea of Walking in the Way is that, when approaching a decision or problem, church members focus not on individual opinions on how best to proceed, but on what Christ calls them to do.
“Our experience with this approach is that churches are so relieved to be invited to move beyond their own personal issues and to be engaged in a bigger vision. They’re so relieved when you give them a way to allow the conflict transformation to also be spiritual formation, she said.
“When churches go through the process, the plan and the hope is that it won’t be just about listening to one another better, but about feeling the presence of Christ more fully.”
Prestwood-Taylor and Smith work with Conference Area Ministers, who refer churches to the program when they think it may be needed or beneficial.
“This all started because we have so many churches growing and trying new things, and this kind of change often brings conflict,” said Susan Dickerman, Associate Conference Minister for Leadership Development.
Prestwood-Taylor and Smith trained facilitators in the Connecticut Conference last year for a similar program.
Prestwood-Taylor, co-pastor of the United Church of Ware, has served as a pastor for 20 years. Her father was also a pastor, so she has seen how destructive conflict in churches can be.
Several years ago, she began studying the concept of shalom, which is about being in relationship with one another not in spite of our differences, but in celebration of them. She then took a course in conflict resolution at Hartford Seminary, and saw a connection.
Beverly Prestwood-Taylor (above, standing), one of the Massachusetts Conference pastors who developed Walking in the Way, has taught Suitcase Seminars on pastor-parish relations for several years. Karen Nell Smith, pastor of the Congregational Church of Christ in Leominister, came to the pastorate after years working in conflict management in a corporate environment.
It was her desire to incorporate faith into conflict resolution that brought her to Andover Newton Theological School and into the ordained ministry.
“Beverly and I met about a year or so ago, and discovered we had been following a similar but different path,” Smith said. “And what we have now is really something quite amazing.”
Smith stresses that Walking in the Way facilitators are not consultants – they won’t come to a church and make recommendations on how they should resolve disagreements. Instead, she said, they will train congregational leaders in conflict transformation skills, so that those leaders are empowered to work through whatever conflict may arise in the future.
Program fees vary according to what is needed. Options available to churches range from an on-site introductory coaching session for churches that are not having difficulties to mediation to a multi-session transformation program for churches in the midst of a difficult conflict.
For more information, call 508-757-2483 or email choresis@aol.com.
