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?” 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.

What if our view of sin is far too small? And what if it also misses the depth of Jesus’s confrontation with evil and his invitation to healing? Watch this conversation to explore how the Bible speaks about sin - not as personal wrongdoing, but also as something that entangles individuals and societies in patterns of harm… and how this all leads us to Christian peacebuilding.

“Deconstruction” has become a bit of a buzzword in Christian circles, but it is in fact not an exclusively “Christian” phenomenon. Deconstruction is a very normal and natural process of unlearning and relearning, which all people all over the world experience at one time or another to various degrees throughout their lives. It is a natural part of human development. As peacebuilders and as Christians, we should embrace this process as an opportunity to mature.

Christ at the Checkpoint was by far the most impactful conference I’ve ever attended. Nothing can compare to hearing from Palestinian Christians themselves at this particular moment of crisis. Even while these Palestinian Christian leaders affirmed their love for Jewish people and the depth of solidarity they feel from Jewish allies around the world, they spoke with authority and clarity to call western Christians to confront our own anti-Palestinian racism and the underlying Christian Zionism that results in harmful theological and political positions. So what can we do? Here are some resources.

In order to engage in authentic and meaningful multi-faith peacebuilding and spiritual conversations, we have to build and maintain trust, and that means living with integrity. What does that mean, and how do we practically do that? Here are some practical suggestions.

A few questions that we keep getting have to do with the relationship between peacebuilding and Christian witness. Is peacebuilding supposed to lead to witness? Does Christian witness simply not matter in light of so much division and conflict? What is Christian witness? Is it mainly about expressing religious convictions through our words? Or is it about serving as a living example of one’s faith? Read on to see our answers.

Previous times that I have been invited to speak with Christian groups in Northern Ireland, I had been invited to speak primarily about a theological foundation and vision for peace and peacebuilding. This time, the request was for a more practical: How do we do it? What perspectives and skills do we need to cultivate in order to work as peacebuilders in our everyday lives and communities? 

Together with our good friend and colleague Orhan Hadžagić, we’re hosting our first 6-week workshop series in September and October on conflict transformation. Learn more about it, and contact us to bring the workshops to your community.

At Peace Catalyst, we’re working to equip and mobilize Christians for collaborative peacebuilding across lines of difference. In light of today’s hyperdiversity, church decline, and polarization, the need for a holistic, healing-oriented framework at a popular level among local pastors and their congregations has never been greater. With a shalom-centered theological framework and PCI’s peacebuilding toolkits, congregations have the opportunity to both reconstruct their faith in ways that fit with their core faith priorities and values and to collaborate with their diverse neighbors on issues that affect all of society.