NAVIGATING DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS IN A COMPLEX WORLD

by RALPH ESTHERBY

Have you ever had a moment when you say to yourself, 'How am I meant to respond to that?'

It can happen in so many different contexts and the ever-changing world in which we live seems to bring this feeling to the foreground regularly. I know from speaking to Pastors and Chaplains all over the country that there is a growing sense of discomfort as we try to balance the unchanging message of Christ with a world that is challenging every norm and absolute.

This leads us often into difficult conversations and if they are not handled well, it can diminish our effectiveness and our connection with people who are desperately in need of support.

Jesus was comfortable in having difficult conversations – whether He was speaking to the woman at the well, or to people compromised by power and cornered by negative influence, or pharisees struggling with their narrow responses to the Law or even outsiders who were trying to find meaning and answers from a contrary world view – He was always willing and ready to respond.

The world in which we find ourselves is not necessarily more complex than the time of Christ, but it definitely has different complexities to deal with. Today we have to navigate discussions that were not even imagined a decade ago, add to that the pressures of social media and the potential of our responses being scrutinised and pilloried means that the stakes have never been higher.

Our desire is to:

• Help people find answers

• Keep communication lines open

• Bring relevance and support

• Maintain integrity and truth It’s not just what we say, but how we say it. Increasingly we are dealing with a community that has less and less awareness of scriptural and spiritual truth and more and more exposure to an ‘anything goes’ model of morals and ethics. In a world where everyone defines their ‘own truth’, people are desperately in need of direction and guidance. However, for many, Christianity is progressively defined by what they perceive us to be against rather than what we are for.

For the sake of all those we are trying to reach, we need to develop the art of speaking truth in love, seasoned with salt, delivered with kindness and grace.

Join the dicussion I invite you to join in this discussion of how we can go about achieving this – at our Chaplaincy Stream at National Conference in April.

Chaplaincy Australia is about supporting you to support others. This Professional Development opportunity will equip you with practical responses and tools to assist you when navigating the increasingly complex world in which we seek to minister the love and power of Christ. You will be provided with a framework for appropriate responses to conversations around Gender, Sexuality, Domestic & Family Violence, and Addictive behaviours.

RALPH ESTHERBY is the National Director and CEO of Chaplaincy Australia