Steering Your Way Through the Storm: Leadership in Times of Conflict…
four-day training program that takes a unique approach to understanding and responding to conflict. Basic skills, theory and theology of conflict transformation while inviting participants to engage their hearts, minds and bodies in the process, opening the way to personal transformation. (click here for brochure)
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Covenantal Dialogue: Leading Your Congregation to Transformation and Healing
A four-day intensive workshop in which participants learn and practice dialogue skills as they engage in dialogue on controversial topics including those relative to church vitality, renewal and growth. (click here for brochure)
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Walking in the Way of Peace: Conflict transformation training, facilitation and assistance for communities of faith.
A unique collaboration among experienced facilitators and consultants who are committed to offering services to congregations. (to learn more click here)
The Conflict transformation is an approach that is concerned not only with solving specific problems, but also with understanding the deeper underlying issues that contribute to and exacerbate the conflict. Learning, healing and the rebuilding of relationships are its focus. The criterion for its success are not primarily the management or resolution of the specific issues at hand, but rather that the parties to the conflict have positively changed and grown.
Best known as the creators of the “Walking in the Way of Peace” program of conflict transformation for congregations, Institute founders Beverly Prestwood-Taylor and Karen Nell Smith have identified five essential factors which, when present act together to create an environment in which conflict transformation and healing can occur. They include:
- An agreed upon process to provide a simple path for dialogue and a commonly understood framework to follow;
- An understanding of the theory and dynamics of conflict and healing to invite differentiation and create a context;
- A commitment to a set of ground rules to guide interaction, creating a space safe enough in which to make oneself vulnerable and to honestly confront the reality of difference and disagreement;
- The practice of basic communication skills including deep listening, validation, and dialogue; and
- Opportunity for shared reflection to give meaning to and grounding the experience in core values and beliefs through images, stories, prayer, meditation, reflection on sacred texts, music, ritual and tradition.
The Institute offers a variety of conflict transformation and training programs and services to communities of faith and other organizations as they move through turmoil or transition, including:
