Christian Mediation
This congregation-wide program is built upon a theological model. It establishes a safe pathway for identifying problems in a way that all church members can understand and readily engage. It encourages members to address little issues before they become unmanageable ones. Not only are resolvable tensions nipped in the bud, but personal relationships are deepened through meaningful communication and interaction.
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Afro-Centric Christian Mediation
Afro-centric Christian mediation resolves disputes with prayer, discernment, Biblical principles and creative problem solving. The Christian Mediation process embodies the ideal of community, love and equitable, non-adversarial conflict resolution. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy of peace and social justice continue to affect global socialization, the Afro-American Christian church must reclaim its position among community leadership.
Some of the program goals are:
• All church members will learn to address their problems before they become unmanageable.
• All church members will learn to resolve their tensions and develop more meaningful interpersonal relationships.
• Solutions for those who, for whatever reasons, feel they cannot approach other mediators, such as their pastor, lawyer, counselor, friend, professional mediator, or professional mediating agency.
• To bond African American churches, their communities and subsequently the global community.The Afro-Centric Christian Mediation Program benefits the entire church congregation by providing educational activities to enact the Afro-centric paradigm within church missions and goals.
The Afro-centric perspective is neither pro-African nor anti-white, but rather a recognition that those outside a culture can only sympathize, not empathize, with the members of that culture. Those who share a culture experience one another's lives, instead of just witnessing them.
Afro-centric organization is based on the philosophical orientation of harmony, spirituality and humanistic/people-oriented principles with basic administration elements that include support of all members, communal management style and people over profits. The organization is a function of the African Americans' attempt to survive with a damaged self-concept and enslaved mentality.
Students learn the basic Christian tools of conflict resolution. Campus Harmony, Inc., trains mediators to lay out the specific goals and realistic expectations of mediation as quickly and clearly as possible.
Training abandons the rigidity of "right vs. wrong" methods of mediation to focus on the fluidity of Christian concepts of mediation that can be applied to individual lives, styles and experiences.
Training recognizes that in some few cases, resolution cannot be yet reached. Thus, there are effective "fallback" strategies to:
• Prevent interpersonal conflict from taking root.
• Contain conflicts until they are resolved.
Program highlights include:
Life-long learning in Christian mediation.
Recognizing conflict as an opportunity for personal, congregational and community growth.
Training ministry leaders to serve as neutral, third party Christian mediators, not as judges or arbitrators.
Exploring the promotion of harmony, love and peace through creative mediation and problem solving.
Transforming adversaries into joint problem solvers for mutual benefit.
This course is ideal for:
Mediation and conflict resolution training which demands mediators to put aside judgment and forego prescription.
Listening skills and empathy.
Non-verbal communication skills, particularly in the control of gestures and facial expressions.
Leadership skills that can guide both sides to "win-win" negotiations.
Recognition and implementation of positive reinforcement.