Peacemaking
Peacemaking, including conflict resolution, reconciliation, restorative justice, and community transformation, has always been an integral part of the education students receive at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary. Recently, ABTS is taking peacemaking beyond the classroom setting. By adapting our expertise to equip churches and organizations, we are able to foster a culture of peace, reconciliation, and unity within the body, while continuously looking for ways to improve our knowledge and understanding of peacemaking and reconciliation.
Peacemaking focuses on developing contextual theories and tools for the Arab Church so that it can respond to the needs of its community in an effective and impactful manner. The journey began with a collaborative team of 13 Evangelical leaders in Lebanon from 9 different denominations who spent over 3 years in analyzing life experiences to generate theories of peacemaking and reconciliation. These theories resulted in workshops covering several topics related to inner peace, personal peacemaking, and more:
Peacemaking focuses on developing contextual theories and tools for the Arab Church so that it can respond to the needs of its community in an effective and impactful manner. The journey began with a collaborative team of 13 Evangelical leaders in Lebanon from 9 different denominations who spent over 3 years in analyzing life experiences to generate theories of peacemaking and reconciliation. These theories resulted in workshops covering several topics related to inner peace, personal peacemaking, and more:
1- Inner Peace: living abundant life in Christ
- - Dealing healthily with current situations
- - Dealing with fear, anxiety, unforgiveness, anger, insecurity, and other factors
- - Dealing with trauma and past experiences
- - Dealing with weaknesses, flaws, and limitations
2- Personal Peacemaking: building a healthy culture of love and unity
- - Principles of conflict resolution
- - Principles for preserving peace in the church
3- Coaching, Mediation, and Arbitration: equipping leaders to manage conflict in a transformational manner
- - Based on Matthew 18
4- Community Peacemaking: empowering the church to become a peacemaking agent in the community
- - Church being a prophetic and dynamic voice in the community, breaking barriers
- - Church ministry with marginalized groups
5- Family Peacemaking: towards healthier families through biblical communication and reconciliation
- - Conflict resolution and peacemaking among spouses
- - Conflict resolution and peacemaking between parents and children