Brian Grimes is the Principal at Bayside Christian College in QLD. The College staff have recently completed the PeaceWise Everyday Peacemaking course and have also implemented the PeaceWiseKids program. It was wonderful to be able to hear Brian share about their peacemaking journey.
‘”Central to the heart of a Christian school is the Word of God as delivered through the Gospels. The challenge we face as people is living in a way that pleases God in a world in which Christian values are being tested, eroded and challenged in mainstream society. We live in a world in which we face conflict on a daily basis, and we are left to ask how do we respond to conflict? What terms of reference do we have to guide our thinking and actions?
The Bible offers us a wonderful way to approach and manage conflict and does so in a way that honours God from the very outset, asks us to reflect on our behaviour, before looking at others, and then looks to restore the damaged relationships.
The PeaceWise program was introduced at Bayside Christian College as we were seeking a way to deal with difficult matters, conflict and ways to manage the complexities of professional relationships and leadership development in a way that not only honoured God, but that which had a strong foundation in Biblical principles. The PeaceWise program provides a language to be created around behaviour and the choices we make, it helps us to recognise the behavioural choices that others make and help us understand the ways in which relationships can be restored.
As we are committed to developing a culture of peace in our College, it was important that the language we create and weave into our culture, is one that can be shared with students and their families. It is for this reason that we commenced the PeaceWiseKids program to help our young people understand the behavioural choices they have to them in every situation and the resultant impact these choices can have. It is our hope that the learning we take from this program will be woven into the fabric of our many families and will provide many benefits to our community in not only managing conflict but in hearing the Word of God.
The PeaceWise speakers are outstanding and their support in implementing the program at our College has been truly warm, engaging and supportive. We are very pleased to have PeaceWise join us on our special journey.” – Brian Grimes Principal, Bayside Christian College
If you are interested in finding out more about how you can partner with PeaceWise to build a journey of peace in your organisation, we would love to hear from you. You can find out more information here.