Cultivating Nonviolence, Harvesting Peace

Updated version coming in 2023

How should Christians respond to violence?

Based on Jesus’s nonviolent witness, this 8-session program prepares participants to respond to personal and societal conflict with nonviolent action, in order to build meaningful and lasting peace in their communities, in our world, and in their lives.

Program Overview

Nonviolence is different from passivity. It is a way of life grounded in a deeply-held moral conviction. It is a strategy, a method of confronting conflict or oppression that seeks to honor life. This program equips participants to respond to conflict with persistence, discipline, and courage, in order to end oppression and establish peace that honors the human dignity of all parties.

Program Goals

Goals for Cultivating Nonviolence, Harvesting Peace include:

Facilitation

Two volunteer facilitators are needed for Cultivating Nonviolence, Harvesting Peace. JustFaith Ministries provides strong facilitation support.

Sessions

Cultivating Nonviolence, Harvesting Peace consists of eight 2½-hour sessions and an immersion experience.

Books/Resources

There is one book used in the Cultivating Nonviolence, Harvesting Peace program – available through our JustFaith Ministries Bookstore.

Program Promotion

A comprehensive set of program promotion materials are provided.

Cost

The registration fee for Cultivating Nonviolence, Harvesting Peace is $250 plus books/resources for participants.

JUST FAITH TESTIMONIALS

What They’re Saying

“I am excited to be a part of JustFaith Ministries’ module on nonviolence. Serving as a Maryknoll Lay Missioner with my wife and three daughters in a slum on the edge of Caracas, Venezuela, I learned about the power of nonviolent action from the women leaders of base Christian communities. In our ten years in the barrios, we witnessed their creativity, courage, and resilience. Like Dr. Martin Luther King, they discovered while living through the actual experience of protest against structures that offered them nothing but misery and death that nonviolence is more than the approved method for change; it is a commitment to a way of life and a light in the darkness. With nonviolence, we each can be a light today.”

“I remember vividly studying the “non-violent” methodology of Gandhi and MLK Jr in my college and graduate school years, especially in the midst of the Civil Rights and Peace Movements and being so impressed with its Christian principles from Jesus. Over the years we seem to have lost a sense of such principles as if from a by-gone, simpler, idealistic time. But, the older I get, the more I feel drawn to re-preaching/teaching such principles for living for the 21st Century. This program has been very reviving! Is it difficult? Yes! Is it practical? Yes! Do we need to live it in our global community? Absolutely! Our children and World are hungry for a Wisdom for Life in the midst of all the divisions of our time. Let’s make our World a better place for people, as God created us to be!”

“The institutional churches aren’t doing it. The government certainly isn’t doing it. No, the promotion of nonviolence as an authentic means of social change and as the desired spiritual stance of those who follow Jesus is left primarily to ordinary people like you and me. It’s up to us not to minimize or flinch from the horror of escalating violence in our time, but to practice and experiment with nonviolence and to articulate its truth. This module on nonviolence by JustFaith Ministries is a gift. Not only do we need help with personal nonviolence, we are desperate for wildly imaginative nonviolent alternatives to injustice and war.”

Register Your Group

Program Registration

$250

Program Includes:

Comprehensive materials and session guides
Facilitation guidance
Retreat and Immersion guidance
Adaptations for virtual groups
Direct access to program staff for support
12-month access to program materials

Books & Resources
for Group Participants

Participant books/resources are sold separately through our JustFaith Ministries Bookstore. The cost for the book used in Cultivating Nonviolence, Harvesting Peace is approximately $20/person. Note that there may be a small additional fee for an occasional video purchase.

In order to save shipping and the environment, JustFaith Ministries ships books to groups (not to individuals).

Have Other Questions?

Email us here

Cultivating Nonviolence, Harvesting Peace

How should Christians respond to violence?

Program Overview