One of the richest experiences I have had over the past year has been watching a new video series that Focus on the Family produced with Ray Vander Laan. I have had the privilege of watching these both at work in staff devotions as well as at home with our small group. Entitled RVL Discipleship: The Study, it is some of the most inspiring and challenging teaching I have encountered in a long time. I cannot recommend it highly enough!

The theme that has stuck out to me is that disciples of Jesus are called to bring shalom to a world that is in chaos.

Our world today is full of conflict, from nations at war with one another to marriages and families caught up in interpersonal conflict. Pastors regularly call our Clergy Care Network to speak with our counsellors about navigating conflict in their church and ministry settings. Conflict takes a huge toll on our well-being: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We often feel helpless to change these situations; many of us would rather avoid dealing with conflict altogether and others have found that even trying to tackle it head-on does not produce the results we hoped.

So, how do we, as disciples of Jesus, bring shalom into our world? Shalom has a rich meaning in the Bible. It has been translated “peace,” but it does not just refer to the absence of conflict. It denotes a sense of completeness, a restoration of what was wrong. It is not just the cessation of fighting, but the full reconciliation of those in conflict. This video from the BibleProject gives a great, short glimpse of what peace/shalom means in the Bible.

Partnering with Jesus to restore shalom

This was (and remains) the entire, ultimate mission of Jesus: to bring peace to a world that was without peace, to repair the rupture that occurred when sin entered the world, to facilitate reconciliation between God and humans. In him, we individually can experience peace with God again. In him, marriages, families, churches, and nations can be healed and restored. This is the work he invites us to partner with him in accomplishing.

Peace is not sweeping the conflict under the carpet. Hard things need to be put on the table to bring lasting peace. We see globally that pacifying the stronger or most aggressive partner in a conflict does not bring peace. We see that relationships where one person wields power aggressively against another cannot achieve peace, whether that occurs in a marriage, a parent-child relationship, a pastor-board or pastor-congregation relationship, as well as others.

One of the things Vander Laan describes that was a new insight for me was the role of the patriarch in Biblical society. The term “patriarch” or “patriarchy” has largely come to have a negative connotation in our modern world. It smacks of wielding inappropriate authority that holds other people down. And rarely would someone find that this contributes to peace or well-being. In its worst incarnation, it is abuse. This is not at all the picture Vander Laan describes. He states that the patriarch was not so much the ruler of the community but the caretaker; the one tasked with bringing shalom to the household. Their responsibility was to seek the well-being of all.

Power and authority in the service of shalom

How different it would be in situations of conflict if someone was motivated to seek the well-being, the shalom of all. The Scripture asks, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (James 4:1) I submit that much conflict occurs because we are inclined to seek our own well-being rather than the well-being of others.

If we truly want to live in peace/shalom, we need to seek the well-being of all involved. In a marriage, what will bring shalom to not just the husband or the wife but to both and to their relationship? In the church, leaders need to consider the shalom of the whole community.

I believe that those who hold the most power hold the most responsibility to ensure that this happens. This is not the way of the world – out there, it is everyone for themselves. Not so in the Kingdom of God where we are called as disciples of Jesus to live as Jesus lived – pursuing the peace/shalom of the various institutions of the community: the family, the church, the government, the community itself. So, wherever you hold power, whether in your family, your church, your job, your places of influence, how can you seek the shalom of those you encounter?

It means living as Jesus did: “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:5-8)

Peace be with you!

Wendy Kittlitz, Former Senior Vice-President of Counselling