Friday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
Presented by: Rocky Tyler
In his book Cross-Cultural Conflict, Duane Elmer identifies unity as the key to fulfilling the Great Commission, citing Jesus’s “unity prayer” in John 17 and noting that “Our ability to resolve conflict, thus preserving unity, is directly related to people’s coming to Christ.” As mission organizations become more ethnically diverse, our perspective on conflict becomes increasingly important. We must realize that our enemy wants us to fear conflict because conflict avoidance is the pathway to assimilation, which yields uniformity (the counterfeit of unity).
But what happens if we actually welcome conflict? This session will explore four specific organizational climates, and five skills of conflict competence that build a climate of inclusion and open the door to Biblical shalom – the dynamic unity that makes God visible and attracts the lost. What the underworld doesn’t want us to know is that shalom is not the absence of conflict, but rather the presence of constructive conflict.
Primary Audience: Caretakers of organizational culture, especially human resource professionals and senior leaders