Leaders' Nook
conversations about the inner life

Conflict transformation
an interview with Troy Cady

One of the specialities you bring to the table as a trainer of church planters is conflict transformation. Tell us about that.
I'm keenly interested in conflict because it's always there. If we don't learn how to do it well, it can greatly hinder what God wants to do through us as kingdom people. In fact, it can bring our work to a grinding halt. While serving in Spain I said farewell to many fellow Christian workers who headed home discouraged. Nine times out of ten conflicts with their teammates were major players in their departure.

Ministry involves conflict. We can't do ministry without it. For a long time this came as a surprise to me, but now I realize it shouldn't. The gospel is a ministry of reconciliation. The battle for reconciliation is the essence of the gospel, and the battle starts with us.

I'm intrigued that you use the term conflict transformation rather than conflict resolution.
I actually stole the term from my teammate April Crull who did her masters thesis on conflict transformation. There's a push and a pull in the terminology. The push is that most of the conflicts we have are actually not resolvable. A lot of times our personalities and the ways we're wired simply give rise to tension.

Take for example the differing experiences of an extrovert and an introvert in a brainstorming session. We do a high-energy brainstorm and at the end we make a decision. The extrovert thinks on the fly and leaves feeling satisfied. The introvert might take a few weeks to come up with his ideas but the decision is already made. Where's the voice of the introvert in this? It's not fair! There's a conflict ready to happen. A lot of our conflicts (psychologists say 60-70%) are not resolvable. That's just the way it's going to be.

That's part of what makes the body of Christ the body of Christ. We will always live with the tension of our differences. The question to ask is not How can we get rid of conflict? but rather How can ...

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