QUOTE : When I was a new minister, I knew next to nothing about church power structures and politics. As a journalist in war zones, I’d seen terrible conflict, but that in no way prepared me for the hot button issues in a church, such as who sponsors the book sale or who gets the seminar room on Tuesday nights. Loving tolerance, I discovered, only went so far. Luckily, I met Sparlo Plessant at a ministers’ retreat and he agreed to mentor me. He taught me to be more pragmatic and strategic, to take disagreements less personally. And how to spot problems before they took hold.