Conflict resolution center answers peace call, thanks NAD partners

The denomination's first Center for Conflict Resolution, housed at La Sierra University, conducted the training. The workshop included the church service and afternoon practice sessions led by three center trainers.  “In addition to being fun, the concluding exercise, showing how we are all connected and how any disconnection between each other affects our witness as a whole, was particularly meaningful,” said Victorville Pastor Raewyn Orlich who organized the presentations.

She added, “Without healthy ways of resolving conflict, we get stuck in destructive patterns of relating to one another. If we practice positive ways of engaging in conflict, we have something to offer our struggling communities."

The Victorville church is among more than 130 North American Division churches, academies, universities and colleges, conferences, and camps, as well as public schools, civic groups and nonprofits that have welcomed various types of conflict resolution training and education from the center since its inception in 2010. Programs include the internationally-acclaimed Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, or OBPP, operated through the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life at Clemson University.

Over the past six years the center’s activities included presentations, training and funding of the OBPP anti-bullying program implementation and materials for 81 schools in 17 regional Adventist conferences across seven union conferences; certification of conference personnel as OBPP trainers; and conflict resolution training for nearly 1000 individuals, including SDA camp personnel, Pathfinder leaders and congregational leadership. “Our conference has been working with the center for several years and our schools have committed to implementing a culture of kindness using the OBPP program,” said Coreen Hicks, associate superintendent of education in the Northern California Conference. She completed training in January and is now an OBPP anti-bullying program trainer. 

Following a six-year start-up period of raising awareness, the center is expanding its efforts and offering more training to specific groups, such as pastors, congregations, elders, deacons, women's fellowships, Pathfinder/Adventurer leaders, according to Richard Pershing and Ed Motschiedler, the center's director and associate director, respectively.  One example is the center's work with Jim Redfield, a retired pastor in Northern California Conference who conducted the first training in October 2016 on adult bullying prevention at the Palo Cedro SDA Church.  “Left unchecked the combination of unresolved conflict and bullying behavior can threaten the very life of a church,” said Redfield.  

The center helps Adventist institutions fulfill the General Conference Executive Committee’s Seventh-day Adventist Call for Peace issued in the wake of 9/11. The directive called on Adventist schools to teach, and all Adventist pastors to preach, conflict resolution worldwide.  The full text of the Call for Peace is available on the NAD website.

Robert E. Coy, recently retired vice chairman and president of the lay-Adventist foundation, Versacare, Inc. suggested that Versacare’s focus in supporting the center was to insure the youth of the church receive every opportunity to become the leaders of the future.  “Life at best for many of our young people is troubled with conflict and bullying, and we realized the importance of providing training in loving and caring for each other in our schools and churches. This includes role model training for adults in being able to address their own disagreements or differences with similar approaches. We believe the center has made impressive progress in assisting individuals, schools and churches across the NAD on the pathway for a happier life journey.”

Versacare began developing the center with the La Sierra’s Zapara School of Business in 2008, first testing conflict resolution training, then adding the OBPP anti-bullying program in 2012. The center recently published a message of thanks to Versacare and the NAD schools, churches and other organizations who have collaborated with it in forwarding the Call for Peace. "We are thrilled to have more and more organizations inviting us to assist them in making their own Adventist contribution to the Call for Peace," said Pershing. 

The center’s full Report of Thanks can be accessed at this link: https://lasierra.edu/conflict-resolution/adventist-peacemaking/

The list of CCR partners include the following Pacific Union Conference organizations:

Northern California Conference

• Adventist Christian School of Red Bluff
• Adventist Christian School of Yuba City
• Bayside SDA Christian School
• Chico Oaks Adventist School
• Echo Ridge Christian School
• Lodi SDA Elementary School
• Manteca Adventist Christian School
• Paradise Adventist Academy
• Pine Hills Adventist Academy
• Redwood Adventist Academy
• Rio Lindo Adventist Academy
• Ukiah Junior Academy
• Westlake SDA School
• Leoni Meadows Adventist Camp
• Palo Cedro Adventist Church
• Northern California Conference Camp meeting

Central California Conference

• Miramonte SDA Christian School
• Sierra View Junior Academy 
• Southern California Conference
• Glendale Adventist Academy
• West Covina Hills Adventist School
• Vallejo Drive Seventh day Adventist Church

Southeastern California Conference

• La Sierra Academy
• Loma Linda Academy
• Orangewood Academy
• Redlands Academy
• San Diego Academy
• Corona Church
• La Sierra University Church
• Victorville Church
• SECC Teacher meetings

 Arizona Conference

• Thunderbird Academy