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Program Ideas: 20 Ideas for Promoting Peace
Consider the following idea suggestions as you plan ways to promote
peace in your family, congregation, school, neighborhood, community,
nation and the world. 1. Spend time in prayer. Pray for such things as peace education efforts in your faith community, peace in families, and guidance for local, national, and world leaders. 2. List the things you do each day or week that contribute to a peaceful family, community, and world. Make a second list, identifying things you would like to add to the list. Consider how and when you can implement each additional item. 3. Designate at least one Sunday each year as "Peace Sunday." Incorporate such things as drama, music, artwork, poetry, prayers, Bible study, small group discussions, large group presentations and so forth to highlight issues of nonviolence. Help all ages learn ways to live as peacemakers. 4. Implement study sessions to deepen knowledge of related ELCA social statements on peace, the death penalty, race and ethnicity, and economic justice. 5. Strengthen your commitment to peacemaking in all you do and say using Families Living the Pledge of Nonviolence, one free copy available from the ELCA at 800/638-3522. 6. Invite individuals and families to create a plan for peace to use at home, at school, in their neighborhood, in the congregation, and in places of work. Schedule several evaluation sessions for participants to discuss how their peace plans are working and how they need to be modified. 7. Plan a time for confession and reconciliation with those closest to you. Communicate the behaviors for which you are truly sorry and discuss with those closest to you how you might make amends. Be willing both to ask for forgiveness and extend forgiveness to others. 8. Practice weekly affirmations of those closest to you family, friends, church members, neighbors, co-workers, classmates and so forth. Words of encouragement, appreciation and love can go a long way to building people up and establishing and maintaining positive relationships. Discuss how words and actions can also be hurtful and ways to reduce these negative occurrences. 9. Look around your community to identify individuals and groups for whom issues of violence and personal safety, lack of acceptance and respect by the community and suffering are important. Plan and implement ways your community can help them address these issues in a way that results in peace and justice for everyone. 10. List the people in your life who have been models of a life of nonviolence. Describe the specific things they have taught you. How might you teach and model the same things to others? 11. Promote peace education and nonviolence programs in your congregation. Explore the program From Violence to Wholeness, by Pace e Bene. Contact Lutheran Peace Fellowship, 206/720-0313, e-mail to: lpf@ecunet.org or http://www.lutheranpeace.org for information. 12. Consider the impact of the toys, games, television, and material goods designed for children. Which ones promote peace and which ones promote violence? Make use of video programs for all ages from the Center for Media Literacy, e-mail cml@medialit.org, http://www.medialit.org, or 800/226-9494. 13. Advocate for community and national policies that build a culture of nonviolence. Use action alerts and briefing papers from the Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs, http://www.loga.org, e-mail to: logadc@elca.org, or 202/783-7501. 14. Support victims of domestic and civil violence. 15. Incorporate peace themes into existing programs for children and youth. 16. Plan retreats for youth focused on peace issues. Use Beyond Violence: Empowering Youth to Make a Difference and Youth in Peacemaking as resources for the retreat. Both are available from Augsburg Fortress, 800/328-4648. 17. Use the ELCA Decade Resource List (Websites) to help find resources to use with your peace education programs. 18. Encourage those in your setting to discuss the seven parts of the Pledge of Nonviolence, (/nonviolence/pledge.html) exploring how it would affirm the things they already do and how it would help them make changes in their lives. Encourage them to sign the Pledge when they are ready. 19. Design activities for all ages to help them image and describe what a culture of nonviolence would be like. 20. Gather together a group to study "For the Peace of the Whole World: Five Bible Studies on Just Peacemaking". Available from Augsburg Fortress, 800/328-4648.
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