Let's make up! Recruit Chinese peace envoys and let us reconcile!

▲Jim Helfrich, a former lawyer and deputy dean of the School of Law, is currently the coordinator of the Peace Messenger Association.

It is not easy to get along with others, and Christians are no exception. When visiting churches, what we hear most often is interpersonal conflicts. Between church believers, between believers and pastors, between pastors of different churches; in families, between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers, mother-in-law, son-in-law, and sisters-in-law; colleagues, friends, business partners...it is full of all kinds of things. Conflict and contradiction. In serious cases, families are broken up, relatives and friends are at odds, churches are divided, and even lawsuits are filed. The Bible teaches us that when we love each other, it is always the way, but when things happen, it is not the "way".

When ideal meets reality

“If it is possible, as far as possible, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18)

“Be humble and gentle, patient with one another, bearing with one another in love, striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:2-3)

Since the Bible has given us many instructions on relationships, members of the body in Christ should live in harmony with each other. Although "love one another" appears at least fourteen times in the Bible, the more Christians get along with each other, the more friction they tend to experience. How to balance ideals and reality is very difficult. Sometimes I see incompatibility between brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues, or pastors and believers, and I don’t know what to do.

A few years ago, I accidentally read "Let's Make Reconciliation!" "The Peacemaker's Ways to Resolve Conflicts" (The Peacemaker), I was deeply moved and helped a lot. The book was then translated into Chinese and published by Feiying and Daosheng at the beginning of last year. Through many contacts with the author, I learned that the author, Brother Ken Sande, is a lawyer himself, and he also founded an organization that specializes in helping people reconcile - "Peacemaker Ministries" (Website: http:// www.peacemaker.net).

With men nothing is possible, but with God all things are possible

Is there really such a group of Christian lawyers who are committed to becoming peace messengers and doing their best to help people reconcile? This seems unbelievable!

And I really got to know this group of people. What they are busy with every day is not to litigate for others, but to try their best to help people restore their broken relationships. No matter how hopeless the relationship seems, they firmly believe"With men all things are impossible, but with God all things are possible" (see Matthew 19:26). Because of this, many problems that even the courts could not resolve were solved one by one through their application of biblical principles. Most importantly, even broken relationships were repaired.

This group of Christian lawyers not only work hard to help with reconciliation, but also actively train church pastors, co-workers, elders, leaders, counselors, marriage counselors, and caring ministries to use methods that are consistent with biblical teachings and combined with legal foundations. Teach, be the arbitrator, the conciliator. The cases directly arbitrated by them include some well-known companies, large and small churches, as well as the settlement of many family and family conflicts.

▲Jim Helfrich (back row, neutral) participated in the teaching of the Pennsylvania Cultural Practice Camp "Workshop" in August 2006. The picture shows the teachers and students.

Training "Chinese Peace Envoys"

The author has been in the corporate world for many years. In recent years, in addition to the engineering department, he has also been responsible for business management training. When formulating manager training courses every year, there must be a series of training on conflict resolution (Conflict Resolution). This is training that every manager at every level must undergo. This also inspired me to think that the church rarely provides training in this area to pastors, co-workers and believers.

After learning that the "Peace Messenger" training camp has gone deep into many churches, universities, and corporate circles, I hope it can also be held among the Chinese. However, since the course is quite weighty and the instructor is a strong expert in the legal profession and biblical counseling, the fees must not be cheap.

Last year, I made a special trip to visit the headquarters of the "Peace Messengers Association" and met with Brother Xie Kende, the founder and director-general of the association, and his colleagues to convey the vision of training "Chinese Peace Messengers". It has also been decided that starting from this year, a new series of "Peace Messenger Workshops" will be established in the Kingdom of God Resources and Culture Practice Camp [please see page 78 for details].

Regarding their willingness to open training courses among the Chinese, I know that God the Father has listened to my call. They agreed to my request and offered this course at a special discount based on the charging standards of the Kingdom of God Resource Camp (only 25% charged by the association), but the course could only be allowed to start if there were twenty-five students.

Ask God the Father to stir up your heart and be willing to be equipped to respond to Christ’s call and become the first batch of “Chinese Peace Messengers.” We also hope that all churches will encourage and support pastors, elders, and co-workers to participate, receive equipment, and work together to build a church family that is truly united in the Lord!