We launched The (Re)union Project in 2024, bringing together a movement of Christians invested in the reconciling work of healing the church and cultivating unity. The first part of this work has been diagnostic. We have been doing theological archeology, exploring the layers of theological development and ecclesial history within the American church, especially evangelicalism, to understand our current crisis. Fractured along deeply entrenched lines of polarization, rising factions are moving further apart, not towards each other. Step one in this process has been to listen to diverse voices that can offer insight into our history and our present conflicts. This process of listening never ends, but it is essential, as we do this work, to also look forward to the following stages. What does the next decade for peacebuilding in the church look like?
We know no better guide for this process than Dr. John Paul Lederach. He has a lifetime of practical experience in peacebuilding and conflict transformation, as well as a role as a thought leader and teacher.
Several of his frameworks are shaping our vision for the next decade of peacebuilding. In Building Peace, Lederach urges peacemakers to shift from short-term conflict resolution to long-term conflict transformation. As much as we want to respond to and fix every crisis before us, lasting peace requires a different approach. He argues that true peacebuilding is a generational journey rooted in relationship, reconciliation, and imagination. So, if we want to be a generation that contributes to the church's healing, offering the world examples of unity that testify to Christ's work among us, we have to strike a balance between being reactive and reflective. Peacebuilding requires us to embrace a long-haul vision: one that is willing to sow seeds today that may not bear fruit for decades.
This commitment involves more than just strategic planning. In a recent podcast conversation, Lederach said, “My view of the whole field (of peacebuilding) is that we should understand ourselves as artists of change and not technocrats of some kind of learned system that we just push a button and turn the crank. It’s never that way. Organizing is a creative act, no matter where it happens. So, how do we imagine ourselves as artists? It’s like having this ability to stay a little more humble, a little more curious, listen to understand, but sit with people who are just a bit different. And you get a mix of yeast that can help other things grow, even if we don’t know when we start what that might be.”
Peacebuilding is more artistry than a technocratic strategy. It is intentional but highly relational, and following Christ's example, it is deeply incarnational.
Beginning with an Incarnational Posture
Our process of peacebuilding begins with living more like Jesus. At Ideos, we describe this life as the Way of Empathy. This incarnational life seeks to accompany others on their journey, dwelling with them, walking alongside them to listen and bear witness to God’s presence, and working together to embody kingdom living. We break this journey down into a framework of Cognitive Empathy (God’s work in us), Relational Empathy (God’s work among us), and Sacrificial Empathy (God’s work through us). Rather than a weakness or disease infecting the church (as has been suggested loudly and regularly in certain circles), empathy rooted in the love of Christ is a fruit of theosis and sanctification. It is the result of our union with Christ and connected life in the body of Christ.
The way of empathy aligns well with Lederach’s framework, providing tools to shape our leadership, spiritual formation, and community development. The way of empathy helps us learn to be relational artists, seeking to help new things grow, without controlling or coercing a particular set of outcomes. Unity, healing, and reconciliation are the fruit of the Spirit’s work within us. We can seek to be part of this work, but Jesus tells us we can no more predict or control it than the wind itself.
In Jesus’ ministry, we see the artistry and relational work that gave birth to a movement of transformation. Rather than organizing a rigid movement or leading a rebellion, Jesus journeyed with and among a broken people operating with a curiosity and humility that forever changed our understanding of God. The disciples’ three-year apprenticeship taught them to understand their own biases, develop a direct and personal connection with God, and learn to live in community with one another. After the Ascension, as their apprenticeship ended and the Spirit was among them, they had the difficult task of building a kingdom movement. They began to emulate Jesus' ministry and went into the world, making new disciples as they went.
Creating communities of peace in a hostile world was difficult. They faced deep opposition in Jerusalem from the same leaders who opposed Jesus. They operated in a world of military occupation and oppression. As they left Jerusalem, they had to learn a new set of cross-cultural skills that would allow them to understand the “other” and build community across deeply entrenched cultural barriers. If you told them at the beginning of this journey the costs it would require, the skills they would have to learn, and the changes that would take place in pursuit of the kingdom of God, surely they would have thought the journey too arduous or impossible. But Jesus called them out of their lives, out of the limits of their imaginations, out of their religiosity, to be ambassadors of reconciliation.
Our journey follows this same calling and model of Jesus.
A Framework for the Next Decade
What does our incarnational journey, learning to live the way of empathy, look like practically?
In The Moral Imagination, Lederach suggests that a 10-year framework for peacebuilding can look something like this:
1. Preparation & Relationship Building (Years 1–2)
Goal: Build trust and understand the deeper roots of conflict.
Engage local actors—especially those rooted in communities (middle-range and grassroots leaders).
Prioritize listening, storytelling, and mapping relationships and systems.
Identify the web of relationships, not just the issues.
2. Constructive Engagement & Capacity Building (Years 3–4)
Goal: Equip local leaders to engage constructively with conflict.
Provide training in conflict transformation and peacebuilding skills.
Create spaces for dialogue across divides (religious, ethnic, political, etc.).
Support local initiatives that reflect community ownership.
3. Institutionalizing Change & Networks of Support (Years 5–7)
Goal: Establish and sustain structures that promote peace.
Strengthen institutions (schools, churches, NGOs, local governance) to become agents of transformation.
Connect peacebuilders into networks of social capital for mutual learning and collaboration.
Foster economic and social development as part of the peace infrastructure.
4. Cultural Integration & Long-Term Visioning (Years 8–10)
Goal: Embed peacebuilding values into the cultural fabric of society.
Focus on "moral imagination"—the capacity to envision and live into a peaceful future.
Develop intergenerational efforts, including youth engagement.
Use art, ritual, and storytelling to solidify a culture of peace.
Using this as an artistic guide, rather than a rigid timeline, we can place ourselves and our work on the timeline and identify next steps.
For many of us, we are at the beginning. Our efforts in peacebuilding within the church can focus on listening to a wide range of voices, building relationships outside our regular theological circles, and learning from those who are ahead of us on this journey. In particular, we can search out voices that help us understand the prominent areas of conflict dividing us, such as economic injustice, racial divisions, the realities of exploitation and oppression within the church, cross-cultural engagement, the history of missiology, and community development. We enter this work with humility and openness, seeking a better understanding of ourselves and the lived experience of our Christian family.
The (Re)union Project is one avenue of exploration and listening, but there are so many others available. Listening to stories is a vital part of cultivating space for humility and awareness. (You can see examples of this in our documentary Dialogue Lab: America.) There are also excellent opportunities to receive direct training from experienced practitioners doing this work. Some of our incredible partners in The (Re)union Project would be helpful guides in this step. Check out the work of Wheaton College’s Center for Applied Christian Ethics, Fuller Seminary’s Brehm Center, Northern Seminary, Future of Faith, ProGrace, The Colossian Forum, ReconciliAsian, Arrabon, Embodied Faith, The Anastasis Center, and The Bible for Normal People.
Next week, we will offer part two, which will engage with Lederach’s Peacebuilding Pyramid and its application to the American Church.