Faithful Peacebuilding: Why Peacebuilding Work Is the Gospel in Action
by Bryan Carey
At first glance, the work of Peace Catalyst International can seem puzzling. We build friendships across divides, step into difficult conflicts, critique the church’s entanglements with power, and insist that following Jesus means engaging in the messy, public, political work of peacebuilding. Some Christians look at this and wonder:
Why so much self-criticism? Doesn’t that just tear down the church?
Isn’t this getting too political? Shouldn’t the church focus on spiritual things?
And most importantly: how does this kind of peacebuilding relate to evangelism and the gospel?
These are fair questions. They reflect deep instincts many of us have inherited about what the church is for and what faithfulness looks like. But if we are serious about following Jesus, we need to ask whether those instincts are leading us closer to him, or whether they’re keeping us from seeing the fullness of his mission.
In what follows, I want to walk through these questions—not to dismiss them, but to show why they are exactly the kinds of questions the gospel compels us to wrestle with. Along the way, I hope you’ll see that peacebuilding is not a distraction from the church’s calling, but central to faithfully living it out.
1. Why so much self-criticism? Doesn’t that undermine the church?
This is perhaps the question I hear most often. To many, it looks like peacebuilders spend a lot of time pointing out what the church has done wrong: aligning with empire, baptizing violence, ignoring injustice, or silencing dissenting voices. Isn’t that counterproductive? Shouldn’t we be convincing people that the church is good, that they should want to join?
But notice the assumption under this question: that the church’s primary goal is to sell itself. That our job is to polish up our image, convince others that we have the answers, and defend ourselves from critique.
Jesus never once called his disciples to be salespeople for the institution. He called them to be faithful—to him, to God’s reign, to the way of shalom/eirene.
Faithfulness requires truth-telling. And truth-telling requires self-examination.
This is exactly what the prophets did. They didn’t flatter Israel with easy reassurances (that’s what false prophets did when they aligned with the political leaders). They called the people to repentance, naming the ways they had strayed from God’s purposes, not to tear them down but to bring them back to life. Jesus followed in their footsteps—confronting the religious establishment of his day and exposing the ways religion had been co-opted by power.
That’s not anti-church. That’s the most faithful, church-renewing thing anyone can do.
We cannot heal what we refuse to name.
We cannot reconcile if we will not confess and repent.
This is why PCI engages in critique—not to dismantle the church, but to free it. As Jesus said, “those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” The same is true for the church. When we let go of our defensiveness, our need to appear perfect, our triumphalistic illusions, we discover the freedom to follow Jesus more honestly and more fully.
Some accuse this kind of truth-telling of “stirring up conflict.” But let’s be clear: the conflict already exists. It’s the unhealed wound beneath the surface. Pretending it isn’t there doesn’t bring peace—it festers harm. Peacebuilding begins with bringing wounds into the light. That is not stirring up conflict; that is creating the conditions for healing.
Self-criticism is not betrayal. It is discipleship. It is the way the church becomes what it is called to be: a people of truth, justice, and holistic peace.
2. Aren’t peacebuilders getting too political?
The second concern I often hear about Christian peacebuilding is just as common: Isn’t all this focus on power, justice, and peacebuilding too political? Shouldn’t Christians focus on spiritual things?
Notice the assumption: that “spiritual” and “political” are two separate realms. That the gospel is about my inner life or my eternal destiny, while politics is about this-worldly power struggles.
That’s not the gospel Jesus preached.
Jesus announced the arrival of God’s kingdom—God’s reign—“on earth as it is in heaven.” That is profoundly this-worldly, and profoundly political. To say “Jesus is Lord” was to declare that Caesar is not. To embody Jesus’ peace was to resist the false peace of Rome, the so-called Pax Romana built on domination and violence.
Of course, political engagement as we know it is so often corrupt, self-serving, and aligned with various powers-that-be. That’s why so many Christians feel disillusioned. They’re right to be suspicious of the way the church has often played politics: baptizing empire, aligning with parties, defending the status quo.
But the solution is not withdrawal. The solution is a different kind of politics—the politics of the kingdom of God.
This is not about endorsing a party or swapping sides from one to another (though sometimes it might involve that about specific policies). It’s about embodying a public faith that refuses to be co-opted by any party, because it is loyal first and foremost to Jesus and his way of justice and healing.
Jesus himself redefined power. When his disciples jockeyed for positions of authority, he told them plainly: “The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them… but it shall not be so among you.” The reign of God is not another version of power-over. It is power-with, rooted in service, solidarity, and self-giving love.
The cross is not just an act of private salvation. It is the public exposure of domination systems. It is the world’s power laid bare, and God’s alternative power revealed: the power of forgiveness, nonviolence, and resurrection.
So yes, peacebuilding is political—but in the way Jesus was political. Not by seeking control of the state, but by embodying an alternative community that confronts injustice and practices reconciliation; not by defending the powerful, but by standing with the poor, the stranger, the marginalized, and the excluded.
If the church is not political in this way, it is not following Jesus.
3. How does peacebuilding relate to evangelism and sharing the gospel?
This final question gets to the heart of things: Isn’t evangelism the most important task of the church? Shouldn’t we be focusing on saving souls and making converts, not on peacebuilding and justice?
The answer is simple: Peacebuilding is evangelism.
Wait, so does that mean that peacebuilding is a tool to evangelize people (i.e. get them to be Christian)? Emphatically, persistently no. Peacebuilding is evangelism - but the evangelism Jesus practiced is different from what the church has created it to be.
The problem is that we’ve shrunken “evangelism” down to something far less than the gospel. Too often, evangelism is presented as a kind of religious transaction: if you believe X, Y, and Z, then God will give you eternal life. It’s conditional, escapist, and often disconnected from real life here and now.
That’s not good news to people who are suffering. That’s not the good news of Jesus.
Jesus didn’t go around giving theological advice about how to get to heaven. He announced a reality breaking in: the reign of God, here and now. He proclaimed good news to the poor, freedom for the oppressed, healing for the broken. His gospel was an announcement, not advice: God is on the move. God is confronting what harms. God is healing what is broken.
That is good news to those who are hurting. It is bad news to rulers who benefit from harm. No wonder Jesus offended the powerful while attracting the brokenhearted.
When we engage in peacebuilding, we are embodying that gospel. We are proclaiming—through words and deeds—that God’s healing reign is breaking in. That looks like:
Healing our relationship with God, as we come to know God not as a distant judge but as a God of love who seeks healing, justice, and holistic flourishing for all people.
Healing our relationship with ourselves, as we discover wholeness, dignity, and freedom from shame.
Healing our relationships with others, as enemies become neighbors and communities fractured by conflict are restored.
Healing creation itself, as we join God’s purposes for the flourishing of all that God has made.
This is evangelism—announcing the healing, justice, and peace of God’s reign. That is good news, and then there is an invitation, not primarily to believe certain theological concepts, but to follow Jesus into this work of healing.
It’s important to be clear: the call of the gospel is not primarily to believe the right doctrines. It is to follow. Jesus didn’t say, “Think these ideas about me.” He said, “Come, follow me.” The difference between being a fan of Jesus and a follower of Jesus is the difference between an abstract faith and a living, embodied one.
When we share this good news, we are not inviting people into an institution or a transaction. We are inviting them into a way of life—the way of Jesus and his holistic and just peace.
This is why PCI does what it does. Our work of healing and justice is not an add-on to evangelism. It is peacebuilding. It is evangelism. It is the gospel in action.
Conclusion: The Call to Follow
So let’s return to the questions we began with.
Why so much self-criticism? Because repentance is the only way to renewal. Because the church cannot be faithful without telling the truth about itself.
Isn’t this too political? No—because Jesus himself was political, announcing God’s reign in the midst of the powers of this world. To follow him means living out a public faith that refuses domination and embodies relationship, fellowship, and solidarity.
What about evangelism? Peacebuilding is evangelism. It is the good news made visible—the announcement that God’s healing reign is breaking in, that Jesus is Lord, and that another way of life is possible.
This is the invitation of the gospel: not just to believe, but to follow. To join Jesus in God’s mission of healing, justice, and shalom/eirene.
That’s what PCI is about. That’s what every Christian is called to.
Not fans of Jesus, but followers.
Not defenders of an institution, but participants in God’s new creation.
Not a people who cling to power, but a people who collaborate with others for justice and peace.
This is the faithfulness to which Jesus calls us. This is the good news the world longs to see.
