The process of securing a congregation’s affiliation with ECAPC as a peace church can start with anyone in the church. If you have the vision, you are the place to start!

There is no single process which will fit every congregation, to say the obvious. Therefore, some initiative and creativity on your part is required.

Yet there are some basic ingredients, which include the following points.

LEADERSHIP
1. There should be a Working Group which initiates the process and nudges it along.
2. Pastors and the church board or council need to be informed and generally supportive of the process of study and discernment, even if they assign the nuts and bolts to others.

RESOURCES
1. The Peace Church Affirmation from ECAPC is the starting point and focus of the affiliation goal.
2. The Resolution from the ECAPC web site can be used to provide rationale for the Affirmation, as a discussion document in the study and discernment process.
3. The ECAPC Manual, “Following Jesus to Make Every Church A Peace Church” 160 pp
4. A wide range of study and action materials are available on the ECAPC website. The Working Group will need to acquaint itself with these, select those which will be used, print and distribute them. Of course many peace education materials are available through organizations, the internet, and publishers.

EDUCATION AND DISCERNMENT
An educational process which involves everyone who wants to be involved is essential.
Depending on where a church is in its history of awareness and commitment to gospel nonviolence, this may be brief, or it may be long and hard.
The leadership Working Group will need to discern together with the pastor(s)and council where the education and discernment will take place over a period of time. Some obvious venues for this are:
--Christian Education Hour, all ages
--Small groups
--Preaching
--Conferences and seminars external to the congregation


TIMELINE
The Working Group should put dates for start and completion of major steps in the process (appraising pastors and council, educational processes, development of a resolution, making a decision on the resolution). But flexibility is important. A good decision after 12 months is better than a bad one after 6 months.

DECISION
As a final step, the congregation uses its standard decision-making process to determine whether it will be identified as a peace church.