About the Book and Authors

Be a peacemaker in a world of conflict

The enormity of conflict, hatred, and injustice in our world can make peace seem a hopeless impossibility. But the reality of refugees fleeing war-torn homelands, the violence taking place on neighborhood streets, and the daily injustices in our personal lives can’t be ignored.

For everyday Christians wondering what they can do in the face of endless interpersonal, local, and international conflicts, Jon Huckins and Jer Swigart lead Christians into the hope-filled and intentional work of peacemaking.

Huckins and Swigart are cofounders of The Global Immersion Project, a peacemaking training organization that forms, equips, and mobilizes individuals and communities to enter into conflict to heal rather than to win. Both are deeply committed to peacemaking in the Middle East and in their local communities. Mending the Divides collects their wisdom and experience in a book that offers a very tangible set of peacemaking practices rooted in the life and teaching of Jesus. The book is filled with inspiring stories from their friends, mentors, and faith leaders who are living out these peacemaking practices and making a difference in the world.

Huckins and Swigart regularly write and speak on peacemaking and reconciliation, conflict transformation, Muslim-Christian relations, and living locally as global citizens. In Mending the Divides they address questions such as:

• How do you define peace? What does peace look like in a world of endless conflict?
• How can everyday Christians be peacemakers in large international conflicts? In local conflicts?
• You say that the work of peacemaking is a set of everyday practices that require intentionality, sacrifice, and creativity. What are those practices?
• What kind of situations have you used these peacemaking practices in? What happened as a result?
• How can Christians uncover biases and prejudices ingrained through our upbringing, brand of church, and preferred media sources in order to see the humanity, dignity, and image of God in everyone?
• What would be different in the world if North American Christians understood peacemaking as central to following Jesus?
• What’s your story with peacemaking? Why did you decide to start a peacemaking organization and to write a book teaching others what you have learned?
• What can faith leaders who want to engage local and global conflicts as a church or organization learn from this book? How can we train people in the way of peace?
• If in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus God waged a decisive peace, why do we still live in a world plagued by conflict?