A Manifesto for Christian Ministry

Like most who call ministry a career, my hobby that came to a crossroads some time ago has now taken a definite turn in a definite direction. I’m glad. But it’s meant I’ve had to let go of some very precious things… it’s actually a process and I haven’t gotten to that point yet. You can relate.

Ever since I was abused during the first three years of my apprenticeship (1984 – 1986), I have made a solemn resolve to be an advocate. Many times I have been appreciated in this role, but not always. And I haven’t always unfolded the paper correctly, in the right ways or at the right times, but my heart has striven to be faithful.

My first career in what I always considered a defense role was in industrial health and safety – prevention and recovery from injuries and illnesses. I always felt it was crucial to my role to see where the risk was and to mitigate it. Everyone has the right to go home in one piece. Developed systems and processes, audited compliance, trained psychology and systems professionals, responded to industrial-scale emergencies, and investigated and analyzed incidents. I was trained to find the fault of the systems and strive to understand the human factors where there was loss. That made sense. Eradicate repeatable patterns by reducing the severity of loss events and the likelihood of their recurrence. Risk management in a nutshell.

The health and safety function had components of proactive for incident prevention – before things went wrong – and sensitivity for incident recovery, when things really went wrong.

My second career where I consider myself an advocate is as minister (broadly speaking) within the Christian environment (which now extends beyond the church) it also has a proactive and reactive approach.

The proactive approach is through the peacemaking ministry, PeaceWise. The item is through what I am learning and have learned through counseling practice and through my own negative relational experiences. The reactive is more where relationships become toxic, often beyond the reach of peace. The item involves abuse and trauma. Peacemaking requires reasonable minds that are prepared to venture into the idols of the heart to which we all bow. Both are needed in a concerted effort to restore the imbalances that occur due to and through conflict.

Now, this may stun you, but Christians don’t behave like they should, we behave like the sinners that we are. That creates problems that we need to address.

People often don’t realize they’ve done something wrong and think it’s all the other person’s fault. That is almost the norm. Through the principles of peacemaking, many can see their own contribution, and this empowers them to try to reconcile with the aggrieved party; to restore the balance that was once a characteristic of the relationship, or even to create a higher sense of balance, to mutual satisfaction.

Occasionally, however, no matter how much help is given, a person or persons cannot or will not see their fault at all. This polarizes the conflict and we enter the arena of abuse.

The proactive work is to equip Christians to negotiate conflict before they face it, so that they can have a restorative influence on their relationships. Reactive work is about helping those who have been hurt, traumatized, and scarred by what turns out to be a repairable or irreparable conflict. Here I recognize the right that everyone has to feel healed and to be at peace with life.

This ministerial manifesto describes what I do. I do what I do because we are all equal before God. However, whether by accident or design, people act as if they are more equal with God than with others.

In conflict we become unequal, and where relationships are unbalanced, life is wrong.

Christ came so that we could be reconciled to God through himself. In a manifesto of commitment to work towards the ends of “justice, fairness and equity, every good way” (Proverbs 2:9) for all, I continue that call again.