In this instructive book, Hugh Halverstadt advocates a Christian vision of shalom for an ethical process of conflict management. He shows how respectfulness, assertiveness, accountability, and a focus on the larger common good should all serve as Christian behavioral standards. The book is ideal for addressing ministries, church systems, and other nonprofit organizations in conflict.

Churches thrive on communication; they are stifled by conflict. Renowned Christian educator Kenneth O. Gangel joins his colleague Samuel L. Canine to bring good news to the church - communication skills can be learned and conflict can be managed. The church need no longer hide conflict nor excuse itself for poor communication, but can instead acknowledge where it has problems and seek transformation. The authors offer scriptural strategies for overcoming conflict and for building trust in relationships - even relationships among deacons or between deacons and pastors. Drawing from recent studies in the social sciences, Gangel and Canine show the church how to manage strife and foster dialogue so that the church can flourish. Chapter titles include Learning To Listen, Power in Conflict Management, Negotiation and Bargaining in Conflict Management, Organizational Causes of Conflict, Coalitions in Conflict Management, Managing Conflict Destructively or Constructively, Stress: Cause And Cure, and The Workaholic Syndrome. This book is a valuable resource for training church leaders. It is also an important resource for those who are already pastors, for whom the issues are daily realities and not just academic theory. Through its use in churches and seminaries, the book is designed to lead God's church through its conflicts to renewed vigor in ministry and growth.

This instructive, useful book, which can be used as a model for addressing ministries, church systems, and other non-profit organizations in conflict, offers ways of constraining those who act as antagonists and ways of collaborating with opponents.

This important resource provides a set of practical tools--based on Christian principles, psychological theory, and research on African-American religious culture--that will help churches move beyond disputes and disagreements to harmony and heartfelt amens.

This, then, is not just a book about conflict; it is also a book about caring. It is a book that explains why conflict develops, often among some of the finest people and in some of the best churches. What may be unique is that the book also suggests how conflict and caring interact. Caring is not only advocated, but described within various types of conflict. This is not an easy task. We often don't know of an appropriate expression of caring in a particular conflict.