Reflections on Peace During Current Conflict
by Terry Brensinger, April 2003

The Grantham Church is fundamentally a peace church, although our congregation is diverse and open to conversation and debate. Our commitment to peacemaking is expressed in both our denominational core values as well as in our own congregation’s purpose and vision statements. During such a stressful time, its important for me to state succinctly what this means to me:

We believe that, when a person decides to follow Jesus, he or she undergoes a radical transformation and in fact switches citizenship. We move from one kingdom to another, from the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God. This means that, as followers of Jesus, we are first and foremost Christians, secondarily members of the world community, and only thirdly citizens of any particular earthly kingdom, be it the United States or any other nation.

We believe that the church -- the body of Christ -- is given the primary responsibility for building the kingdom of God on earth. Israel’s offspring, so to speak, is the Church, not the United States or any other government. We must be very careful, therefore, in equating the work of a particular government with the work of God in the world. This is not to say that God cannot or does not work through the nations of the world; of course he can and does. It does mean, however, that neither the United States nor any other earthly nation should be seen as God’s chosen people.

We are not anti-government, and we believe that governments serve a God-ordained purpose. We further believe that there are appropriate ways for us to show our support to whatever government we find ourselves under. It is important, however, that we recognize that our calling as followers of Jesus sometimes requires us to live our lives in ways that conflict with what our government asks us to do. Once again, we are followers of Jesus first.

We believe that one of the primary and fundamental roles to which we as followers of Jesus are called is to be peacemakers in the world. We are called to use our resources and creative energies—our imaginations—to help the people of the world envision new ways of relating to each other. For people who do not yet follow Jesus, violence and aggression and war are commonplace. If someone hits me, I hit him back. If one nation offends another, we settle it on the battlefield. That is the way life is. The people of the world can hardly think any other way. That is precisely where the church comes in. We are to be an imagination for the world. We are to live our lives in such a way that the people of the world, perhaps for the first time, see alternatives to violence, hatred and war.

We believe that our calling to be peacemakers affects every area of our lives and requires creative action. Peacemaking involves so much more than our attitudes towards war. It involves the way we relate to our spouses and children. It affects the way we do business—the way we teach, supervise our employees, run the church board, and on and on. Peacemaking is all-embracing, and it is pro-active. Peacemaking does not allow one to sit on the sidelines while the world marches by. Instead, it calls us to love and care in the name of Jesus, to intercede, mediate, feed, and clothe.

May God help us to live for him during these admittedly difficult days.

Terry Brensinger
Senior Pastor, Grantham Church