Her name was Ruth, and it was early, 1992.  My family and I had not long relocated from the Gold Coast in Queensland to commence pastoral service at the Dungog Baptist Church, situated in the Newcastle Hunter District of NSW.

One afternoon I noticed a basket full of assorted fruit resting on the rear landing of the manse. Aided by investigative skills, gained from my time of service as a police officer, it wasn’t long before I had a ‘culprit’ (Ruth Connors) in mind. So, off I went to the kindhearted culprit’s home to express my gratitude for her thoughtful-generous love. What took place next was a shocking revelation!

Ruth was not a widow, as I understood her to be. When the front door of Ruth’s home opened to me a tall man, with a long grey-white beard, looked down at me and growled… “Yes, can I help you?”  I was in shock! Who was this man? Did I have the wrong address? I introduced myself and explained the purpose of my being there. He responded with, “I’m John, Ruth’s husband!” Country hospitality prevented John from telling me to ‘get lost’. Within minutes, John had me seated at his kitchen table and served me with a hot brew of country tea, and a slice of cake that Ruth had cooked. Ruth was a great cook! (She wasn’t at home.)

Using every relational building skill at my disposal, a warm and respectful relationship between John and me was born that day. Our first spontaneous meeting led to numerous, regular fellowship times at his home. It wasn’t long before John’s mask came off, revealing the reason why he hadn’t accompanied his wife to church services and activities. John was a believer! But what caused him to withdraw from the church scene?

John openly shared of a conflict that had surfaced between him and several elders of his previous church… a conflict that remained unresolved for over 20 years! I was dumbfounded to know that such an ‘easy to resolve’ incident could side-line a mature-age believer from ‘God’s fold’ for so long. The situation before me required an approach that is similar to care-frontation. As I was not an offender in this conflict, my approach to helping John was that of peacemaking… helping to make peace between John and the elders of his former church.

Friends, our troubled world is in a critical, peace-deficient state and is in urgent need of peacemakers… believers, like you and me. Jesus says, “God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God” (Matt. 5:9 NLT).

This wonderful story of John Connors doesn’t end here. The concluding Part 2 of ‘Positions Vacant: Peacemakers’ will come to you next week.