We have Christian Conciliators on our team who are available to serve churches in increasingly unique seasons of transition. A Christian Conciliator is someone who has the training, certification, and experience to serve individuals and churches, either as a Conflict Coach, a Mediator, or an Arbitrator.

Conflict Conciliation - describes the overall process of assisting people and churches in resolving differences and conflicts in a biblical manner. Conciliation includes three steps or levels, which often overlap:

1. Conflict Coaching is guiding a person or group in applying the Bible’s teachings in response to their conflict, helping them better understand the underlying issues, and creating a plan to pursue the resolution of the conflicted issues and the restoration of conflicted relationship(s).

2. Conflict Mediation is a process by which a neutral mediator seeks to assist conflicted individuals or groups in arriving at their own voluntary and mutually satisfactory resolution of their conflicts by promoting constructive dialogue and encouraging a voluntary settlement of their differences.

3. Conflict Arbitration is a process in which conflicted individuals or groups agree to submit their disputed issues to a single arbitrator or a panel of arbitrators for a legally binding decision.

Services Offered - VitalChurch Ministry’s Christian Conciliators can assist churches in a variety of ways to address their needs in conflict:

• Peacemaking Training - offering seminars and workshops on the biblical principles of peacemaking and the practices of Christian conciliation to church staffs, governing boards, and congregations.

• Conflict Assessment - individual interviewing of the conflicted parties and preparation of a written assessment report outlining the issues at stake (substantive, interpersonal, and biblical) and making recommendations for a conciliation process.

• Conflict Coaching - multi-session coaching and counseling of the individual conflicted parties with the goal of securing their commitment to participate in a conciliation process and preparing and motivating them for that process.

• Conflict Mediation - facilitating a structured mediation process and serving as a neutral mediator in disputes between church staff members, board members, and other congregants.

• Conflict Arbitration - facilitating a structured arbitration process (following the ICC Rules of Procedure) for church conflicts in which mediation has been unsuccessful and a neutral, binding decision is needed.

Various levels of Conflict Conciliation - to assist churches in addressing their conflicts, such as:

• Serious conflicts within a church governing board, including cases of governance deadlock.

• Personnel conflicts involving church staff, including cases of staff discipline, moral failure, abuse, resignation, and termination.

• Conflicts between the lead/senior pastor and the governing board, including cases of deadlock, resignation, and termination.

• Serious congregational conflict, especially where the lead/senior pastor, pastoral staff, and/or governing board have lost their credibility with a significant portion of the congregation.

• Cases involving allegations of serious sin in the congregation including any kind of abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, spiritual).

Qualifications and Standards - We provide qualified Christian Conciliators who adhere to nationally-recognized standards for Christian Conciliation.

• We partner with Relational Wisdom 360 (rw360.org) and Ambassadors of Reconciliation (aorhope.org) to train staff members for Christian Conciliation ministry.

• We encourage our staff members who serve as Christian Conciliators to pursue national certification by the Institute for Christian Conciliation (ICC).

• We conduct our Christian Conciliation ministry according to the ICC Standards of Conduct for Christian Conciliators (aorhope.org/icc-soc).

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