Despite the snowfall, 57 persons gathered in the warmth of a Vermont church hall for a two-day training conference offered in February 2008. The conference on Community Conflict Transformation (CCT) attracted a diverse group of participants, with only a few coming from religious communities. Most attendees came from area social service agencies, the local court system, the area health-care system and business and nonprofit sectors. Why did this workshop, sponsored at an American Baptist church and endorsed by the area’s interfaith council, attract so many persons from differing, yet primarily secular contexts?

The answer lies in the transitional ministry under way at the First Baptist Church of Bennington, Vermont. Like many mainline Protestant congregations, First Baptist has suffered from a generation’s worth of membership decline. When a pastoral transition occurred in 2005, the congregation voted to begin a season of transitional ministry, prioritizing questions of their identity and mission. One outcome of this ongoing process is the realization that the congregation has lost touch with its town’s needs and challenges. With the help of the intentional interim minister and consultation with Dr. Ronald Carlson, National Ministries’ missional church strategist, First Baptist has been working on creative ways to reconnect with its missional context: Bennington itself!

For some U.S. citizens, Vermont conjures images of verdant mountains, great skiing, maple syrup and progressive social values. Nonetheless, there are enormous challenges as well for this small, less populated New England state. A town with socioeconomic challenges, Bennington deals with rural poverty, few jobs at sustainable incomes, the statewide affordable housing crisis and a high incidence of domestic violence. The CCT workshop created a great opportunity for the congregation to share its desire for change with Bennington while addressing a community- wide need.

The CCT participants learned foundational theories about conflict from National Ministries staff members, the Rev. Dwight Lundgren and the Rev. Aundreia Alexander. Persons applied these methods through small group discussion and role-plays. As the workshop progressed and trust rose among participants, frustrations and the desire for sustainable change were voiced. The participants grew in their understanding of “common ground” opportunities to bring change to their community.

Christopher Murphy, caseworker for the State of Vermont Department of Children and Families, came to the workshop wondering what he might learn. Reflecting afterward, he noted, “The training helped me reframe what I do, working with children living in poverty in homes with substance abuse issues and other challenges. One pitfall of my work is becoming jaded or cynical about the system and service providers. The training helped me remember that we are all in this together—every human being on this planet.” He notes that the methods help “provide a language for working with these kids.”

Wayne Kachmar, a high-tech research and development director who also serves as a trustee of the local hospital, finds this training helpful for his professional work and nonprofit leadership. The workshop helped Kachmar approach workplace issues that require him regularly “to interact with local, regional, and foreign colleagues who have different methods of communication and views.” As a trustee of the local hospital, the area’s largest employer, Kachmar finds “the [CCT] concepts and approaches useful, as I must sometimes mediate between management and board members over subjects that have at least two or more sides.”

First Baptist values its opportunity to provide help in the midst of a town struggling with conflict, socioeconomic challenges and community violence. After so many years of focusing on “internal” needs, First Baptist is better poised to relate to the pressing needs of its community. Providing a community-wide training may not have attracted many to the next Sunday’s worship, but the CCT workshop sent another message altogether. Churches reclaim their role within their community when they can be responsive to the missional needs around them.

The Rev. Jerrod H. Hugenot is the intentional interim minister of the First Baptist Church of Bennington, Vermont.