wfn.org | Leaders seek alternative ways to deal with church conflicts

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

March 22, 2001 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.  10-71B{140}

By Rich Peck*

NASHVILLE, Tenn.  (UMNS) -- Twenty-six percent of churches are highly
conflicted, and one out of every 50 churches is sued each year.

Responding to those statistics, 130 United Methodists involved in the
constructive engagement of conflicts in churches and annual (regional)
conferences met here March 20-22 to sharpen their skills and to learn from
one another.

This was the first major event sponsored by a 1-year-old center for
mediation and conflict transformation named "JUSTPEACE."  The United
Methodist General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) founded the
center. The Evanston, Ill.,-based program was funded with a portion of $5.5
million repaid with interest on a GCFA loan to help settle litigation in a
1977 case against Pacific Homes, a group of United Methodist retirement
communities in California, Arizona and Hawaii.

"What a wonderful legacy to use money borne out of the worst conflict the
church has faced in many years to help people learn how to deal with
conflict differently," said GCFA attorney Mary K. Logan. After dealing with
a host of lawsuits and people who felt they had been betrayed by their
church, Logan said the center was created in order to find a better way to
deal with conflict in the church.  

Jerry Haas, director of the Academy for Spiritual Formation for the
Nashville-based Upper Room, told the group that he had just transferred into
the California-Pacific Annual Conference when the regional body called a
closed-door meeting in 1977 to discuss the case. "The church missed an
opportunity to engage in repentance for giving residents a painfully
fraudulent promise on which it could not deliver," Haas said. Pacific Homes
ran into financial difficulties primarily because it accepted lump-sum entry
fees for lifetime care and the residents outlived mortality projections. One
hundred and nine of the 2,000 residents sued the conference for $220
million. 

"We haven't been visionary enough," said the Rev. Tom Porter, executive
director of the JUSTPEACE Center. After years as a practicing attorney,
Porter said he is convinced that the current court system is not the way to
resolve conflict.

He suggested that any conflict-resolving process must:
·	enable participants work out their own resolution to the issues;
·	create reconciling relationships; and
·	allow participants to listen for understanding, speak the truth in
love, use imagination and practice forgiveness.

Porter, a United Methodist clergyman, suggested that neither civil nor
church court system accomplish any of these goals, He urged the group to
utilize other more productive conflict-resolution techniques.

Porter introduced the sacred circle, a technique that he said was first used
by the Navajos:

Gather participants in a circle with a candle or something to remind them of
God's presence at the center. A "circle steward" sets the tone of the
discussion by raising potential questions, setting guidelines and time
limits, and summarizing consensus.
A Bible or a "talking piece" is then passed around the circle. When
participants hold the Bible, they may speak or they may pass, but no one can
speak who is not holding the talking piece. All those in the circle
therefore know when they will get an opportunity to speak and they are
encouraged to: 
·	speak with respect;
·	speak only for themselves; 
·	be specific; 
·	listen with respect; and
·	stay in the circle until the end.

Another approach, known as "Appreciative Inquiry (AI)," was introduced by
Cynthia Sampson, president of Peace Discover Initiatives, a peace-building
program based in Arlington, Va. 

An author and former editor on foreign affairs for the Christian Science
Monitor, Sampson reported that basketball coaches who use film to point out
errors by players attain worse results than coaches who show films of the
great plays their players made on the court.  

To introduce the philosophy behind AI, she quoted psychologist Carl Jung who
said problems couldn't be solved but can be outgrown and replaced with new
and stronger life urges. She reviewed the steps outlined by David
Cooperrider at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve
University:
·	define the topic (for example, teamwork);
·	discover stories that show examples of teamwork within the
organization;
·	dream of a future organization based on the positive stories of
many; and
·	deliver the dream by taking specific actions.

Haas introduced spiritual discernment as a technique that has been used
since the 16th century. He offered stepping-stones in the process based on
Discerning God's Will Together by Chuck Olsen and Danny Morris:
·	frame the question;
·	ground the question by setting guiding principles based on the
unique gifts of the organization;
·	shed, or temporarily suspend, biases or personal prejudices about
the issue;
·	root the issue in a similar story found in Scripture or tradition;
·	listen to all members of the group and provide time for silence;
·	explore alternatives;
·	improve the suggested alternatives;
·	weigh the alternatives to find which one has "the shadow of God's
love";
·	close or begin again if the group has moved too far away from the
original question; and
·	rest the issue for a while (overnight if possible) to see what
deeper feelings rise to the surface.

Participants suggested that discernment may be used even within Robert's
Rules of Order by calling for the group to function as a "committee of the
whole" before returning to normal parliamentary procedures.

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*Peck, a free-lance writer, is a retired employee of the United Methodist
Publishing House.

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United Methodist News Service
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