(Reprinted from LMPC Newsletter, Fall, 2000)

"Practical, practical, practical -- helpful instruments and tools for mediation." "Great immersion experience." "Absolutely a must for any church... every church."  "The best and most thorough model for mediation with individuals and congregations that I have experienced in more than three decades of ordained ministry."

These comments were shared by participants in LMPC's Mediation Skills Training Institute for Church Leaders. Each of them came from a judicatory leader -- Terry Finlay, Anglican Diocese of Toronto, Phil Carver, Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church, Carol Parr, Lake Michigan Presbytery, and a Lutheran Bishop.

The trend continues this year of judicatory support for training mediators to serve at both the judicatory and congregational levels. LMPC's Mediation Skills Training Institute for Church Leaders has become a recognized resource to districts, conferences, presbyteries, synods, and dioceses of various denominations that seek to equip themselves to better respond to conflict within churches.

"Conflict in the church is a reality," says the Rev. H. "Shorty" Brown, Synod of the Great Lakes, Reformed Church in America. "The Lombard Mennonite Peace Center brings a process to conflict in the church which is constructive, healing, and preventative."

A key component of the LMPC model is the emphasis on healing strategies which help people  in a conflict move beyond the typical pattern of blaming and shaming. Instead, disputants gain insight into a family systems understanding of conflict whereby the deeper roots of the anxiety are recognized and all parties are helped to self-examination and mutual confession.

More recently judicatories and entire denominations have invited LMPC to present the Mediation Skills Training Institute as an in-house event designed specifically to equip a large group of mediators to serve their churches. In fall of 2000 an institute is being hosted by the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ. The Reformed Church in America has invited LMPC to present an institute in January, 2001, with the intent of training sixty church leaders.

LMPC is open to receiving invitations from judicatory and denominational offices interested in hosting an institute in their region.  Judicatories can also send representatives to attend one of the upcoming institutes being coordinated directly by LMPC in a variety of locations across the country, in the coming year.

We believe that the Mediation Skills Training Institute for Church Leaders will continue to serve as a key resource for both congregational and judicatory mediation teams as they seek to serve Christ's church as agents of healing and hope.