Nav Night Message: Conflict Resolution

On October 20 I had the opportunity to teach at Nav Night, the weekly fellowship meeting for the FSU Navigators. My topic was conflict resolution. It was cool to have a topic that was so practical, but rough because I didn’t want to come across like a know-it-all just out to criticize or fix people. Still, I’m glad I got to be the one to teach the subject. I’m in my eighth year with the FSU Navs and I’m not sure I can remember ever hearing a message on conflict resolution before.

I’m happy to tell you that you can listen to this message online by streaming it below. You can also listen to more messages by staff and student leaders on the FSU Navigators Podcast.

From my perspective the evening went quite well. I’ve been happy to find, after talking with a number of students, staff and alumni who were there, that what I said met many people right where they were at. In the end it turned out my one issue — an issue only I seem to think is a big deal — was time. I spoke for an hour! I didn’t have a watch on and the room has no clock. Going in I knew I had more material for this talk than I’d ever had when teaching at Nav Night previously, but while speaking I had no concept of how long I’d been up there. When I sat down I glanced at a friend’s watch and was stunned to see that it was 10 PM. Lesson learned: keep a close eye on the run time, both during prep and when teaching.

If you’re interested in studying the topic of conflict resolution further you should have a look at the books I used to help me prepare: The Peacemaker by Ken Sande and Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges.

I’ll be teaching at Nav Night again on November 3. This time I’ll be speaking about missions. Check out the FSU Navigators at our website, on Facebook and on Twitter.