Date
10-14-2026
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Doctor of Education in Christian Leadership (EdD)
Chair
Charis Rooks
Keywords
Conflict mediation, training curriculum, multicultural church leaders, transformative mediation, peacemakers, RESTORE
Disciplines
Education | Leadership Studies
Recommended Citation
Bumpers, Komie T., "Equipping Church Leaders As Mediators: Implementing and Evaluating Conflict Mediation Training in a Multicultural Church" (2026). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 8983.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/8983
Abstract
The social, political, ideological, and racial divides that lead to conflict and shape today's culture are the same issues that plague American evangelical churches. While faith traditions can bring people together, cultural issues can divide them. Despite the centrality of conflict in congregational life, many theological seminaries do not provide comprehensive conflict mediation training as a core component of pastoral and leadership formation, resulting in a deficit in preparedness. The purpose of this research was to develop, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive conflict mediation training program for multicultural church leaders that equips them to effectively navigate ongoing interpersonal, doctrinal, political, and culturally related conflicts within their congregations. While the program targeted a specific multicultural church, the training’s approach addressed a documented gap between the conflict mediation demands of pastors and church leaders and the limited training in conflict mediation provided by theological education pathways. The training initiative integrated theological imperatives with empirically grounded organizational leadership paradigms, cultural competencies, learning strategies, and practical mediation techniques to form a curriculum and training structure that equipped leaders to articulate, practice, and demonstrate mediation as a core aspect of their Christian leadership identity. The research introduces and outlines RESTORE, an inductive, literature-informed conflict mediation framework designed with the potential for broad applicability across diverse contexts. The original framework integrates a seven-step Pauline approach to conflict mediation with Bush and Folger’s transformative mediation theory. The training initiative was evaluated through a mixed-methods approach with pre- and post-training assessments, observational scoring rubrics, participant reflections, and interviews.
