Why “Grassroots Christian Peacebuilding?”
There are many ways to go about international development work, Christian ministry and peacebuilding. Why are we so captivated by grassroots Christian peacebuilding?
Seek Peace works in the space of Positive Peace. This diverse sector brings together many different actors. Beyond the larger bodies like the UN, international charities or donor governments, this sector is made up of many small, grassroots religious organisations and missions who derive motivation to work for peace in their communities from their faith. Christianity in particular has a long history associated with alms, charity and missions.
We are passionate about supporting these small but mighty organisations!
These ministries are deeply rooted in their local communities and through the trust they have built are better positioned to address local needs. But most significant of all, these ministries are an expression of the local Church and witness to the tenets of His Kingdom (see Matthew 5-7).
Despite their importance to local peace, these ministries are all too easy to overlook and write-off. As a result they can be under-resourced and their peacebuilding work can become hard to sustain. This is despite the growing body of research (which echoes what His Word has already told us) that says locally-led, bottom-up peacebuilding is more effective at sustaining local peace than many other approaches.
The people involved in these ministries are motivated to build local peace in witness to their Christian faith. Peacebuilding has strong points of connection to the biblical themes of liberation and reconciliation and offers a pathway for ministries and local churches to grapple with how they participate in community life and position their evangelistic witness to contribute to sustained peace, in the name of Jesus.
These local religious institutions rarely have budgets for evaluation and program improvement, or access to the shared knowledge of the wider sector. This is why we work with grassroots peacebuilding efforts that are motivated by the gospel, the witness of Jesus, the ministry of reconciliation and the testimony of liberation and freedom in following Christ's example.
Seek Peace: following Jesus towards paths of peace
