TSOTTC - book notes - A Person of Peace

A slight break in the postings from this book. I would like to stop for a second to think about this term 'person of peace' that the authors talk about. The context for this term Chapter 4, titled "The Shape of the Missional Church," or what the missional church really looks like.

Missiologists like Charles Brock and George Patterson suggest that finding a 'person of peace' is central to a healthy church-planting process. But few churches start this way. Many churches spend significant parts of their budget on advertising. Finding a person of peace and basing our ministry there seems like a less effective method in the short-term. But in the long term, a church-planting project that emerges out of the local, indigenous leaders will be much richer and more effective.

They use two examples in terms of talking about this person of peace.
1 - Jesus in Luke 10, sending out the party of 72 disciples. "If a man of peace is there..."
2 - Paul, in Acts 18, focusing on Priscilla and Aquila.

"People of peace are key people who are spiritually open, have good reputations, and have influence in the community. When they become believers, they then share their faith confidently with their networks of friendship and start new home-based churches."

This is a new idea to me, and a nice surprise. I have heard about most of the ideas in this book via Perspectives. This book seems to take it to the next level, taking those ideas about cross cultural ministry and integrating them into the life of a community of faith. But this idea, this was totally new to me. Good to think about.

It also reminds me of an idea I heard at the Orlando Regional Origins conference - that we should be focusing on reaching leaders and not just followers. And that we need to be a leader to reach other leaders.

Can you think of a few 'people of peace' in some of your contexts? How about work, school, where you live?
What about reaching leaders? Can you list a few leaders in those contexts too?
Does it seem to you, like it does to me, that there is probably a natural intersection in people of peace and leaders? Maybe, maybe not...