The Colossian Forum (TCF) works alongside a growing number of scholars, pastors, and philanthropists recognizing the destructive consequences of a divided society. In the Church, as in our broader culture, adding more arguments has only divided us further. Few people, if any, are won to the truth of the Gospel by another fight on social media. As community fabrics disintegrate and our best efforts return empty, we ask with increasing urgency: Where do we go from here?
Answers to this challenge require more than simple information. To heal the Church, we must make investments in “formation” by cultivating virtues like intellectual humility, courage, and patience, all grounded in a love of truth. When character is properly formed in this way, we are compelled to pursue our Christian confessions toward their proper ends: love of God and neighbor.
TCF has entered into this work by asking how faith communities in conflict can activate their faith commitments in ways leading to redemptive flourishing and reconciliation. Our response to that question, called The Colossian Way (TCW), is a Christian practice of conflict transformation that engages participants in exactly that calling. TCW positions conflicts in a framework of liturgy, oriented to worshipping God, to cultivate virtue precisely at the point of tension.
In this project we continue that work by:
1. Learning from and marketing to leading Christian colleges, universities, and denominational partners to determine their greatest needs surrounding conflict.
2. Broadening the impact of TCW on Christian institutions and communities by increasing the number and availability of TCW resources.
3. Training an additional 240 TCW leaders in-person, launching an online leader training platform to train 1,200 TCW leaders virtually, and offering curricular materials online for wider access.
4. Developing and deploying 4 new applications of TCW, including crisis-consulting services for Christian organizations.
