bg真人

Transforming Congregational Conflict and Communication

An online short course

Taught by Betty Pries, PhD, CMed

Dates: April 23 鈥� June 3, 2025

Early registration deadline: April 2, 2025
Final registration deadline: April 16, 2025

Conflict in the congregation is one of the most difficult experiences pastors and lay leaders will encounter while in ministry. Conflict can destroy congregations. Done well, however, engaging differences can be a sign of vitality, energy and spiritual maturity. 

Drawing from biblical, theological, practical and spiritual sources, this course will explore the possibilities and pitfalls of courageously engaging in differences within congregational life and in building congregational cultures that nurture the tender balance between honesty and kindness and that generate faithfulness and joy.

Short course students are expected to read assigned materials and complete short assignments, writing in an online discussion forum. Students manage their own time to meet weekly assignment deadlines.

This online short course includes an optional video conference meeting with the instructor each week of the course. These meetings will be recorded for participants who aren鈥檛 able to attend.

Hear from Betty about this short course

Betty Pries specializes in providing mediation, training, facilitation, coaching and consulting services for businesses, not-for-profit organizations, governments and churches. She is a sessional faculty member at bg真人. 

Cost

  • Early registration: $300 US per course
  • Regular registration: $350 US per course
  • Anabaptist Short Course Bundle: $995 US total for four courses!*
  • Global South Scholarships are available. .
  • Participants should expect to pay for one or two textbooks.

* ‘Challenging Christian Nationalism’ and ‘Biblical Interpretation Across the Two Testaments‘ are not included in the Anabaptist Short Course Bundle.

Anabaptist Short Course Bundle discount!

Only $995 US total for four Anabaptist short courses. Register online and select the bundle price.

Learn more about the bundle

Short course details

How short courses work

Courses are offered online and last six weeks each. Short course students聽are expected to complete coursework on their own and post to an online forum weekly. Short courses also include optional, weekly, live video conversations with instructors. These conversations are recorded for class members who cannot attend.

Short courses explore topics like Anabaptist history, biblical study,聽spiritual and ethical issues, and more. These non-credit聽courses involve readings from textbooks and online articles and include written forum discussion. You won’t receive a grade, but readings and discussion are comparable to seminary-level work, and professors assume you have critical thinking skills and some previous academic study.

Online course requirements

You will need:

  • High speed internet access
  • Access to a computer with a web browser, a word processing program, and a PDF file reader (such as Adobe Reader)
  • An email account
  • Basic computer skills
  • One or two textbooks selected by the professor, available from a web source

Continuing Education Units (CEUs)

Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are available. Upon the completion of course requirements, you can earn 2.4 CEUs. However, no academic credit is awarded and these courses do not meet any requirements in the bg真人 Master of Divinity or Master of Arts programs of study.

Before you register

Online learning is not for everyone. To help evaluate your skills and abilities to benefit from an online course, please follow  provided by Washington Online. Question 5 asks about available time to devote to the course. Short courses require, on average, 5-10 hours per week rather than the 10-15 hours mentioned in the quiz. With this in mind, we encourage you to take the quiz and find out whether you are a good candidate for online learning.

Refunds

Before the early registration deadline, cancellations will be refunded, less US$50. After this date, cancellations will be granted credit, less US$50, toward a future short course within one year. Refund credits must be requested within one week of the beginning of the event.

Questions? Contact us!

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