Biblical Dispute Resolution Policy

1. Purpose

This Biblical Dispute Resolution Policy (the "Policy") is a voluntary covenant path for people who want to address conflict in humility and good faith. Its aims are truth, repentance, justice, peace, and — where it is safe and appropriate — restored relationship.

This path is not a contest to prove who is right. It is a way of taking sin, harm, and broken trust seriously while refusing contempt, vengeance, and spectacle.

Grace Unworthy Ministries, LLC offers this Policy as a framework parties may choose. It is not a church court, not a substitute for civil authority, and not a bar to reporting crime or abuse.

2. Who May Use It and When

Either party to a dispute connected with a Grace Unworthy platform — including a Storyteller purchase governed by the Storyteller Purchase & Release Terms — may invite the other to use this Policy.

• Use is voluntary. Both parties must consent.
• Consent may be withdrawn if a party is unsafe, if the other party acts in bad faith, or if civil authorities must take the matter.
• This Policy does not replace law enforcement, licensing boards, child-protection agencies, or courts.
• Ordinary contract, delivery, and reputation disputes between believers may start here. Crime does not.

3. Safety Exceptions — When a Private Meeting Must Not Be the First Step

Matthew 18 describes a path for ordinary sin between people who can meet as peers. It does not require a private meeting as the first step when doing so would endanger someone or conceal serious wrongdoing.

Go to the appropriate authorities first, and do not begin with a private confrontation, if the matter involves any of the following:

• abuse, including spiritual, emotional, or physical abuse;
• child exploitation, grooming, or sexual harm involving a minor;
• domestic violence;
• credible threats of violence;
• stalking or targeted intimidation;
• serious fraud or large-scale financial deception;
• immediate danger to anyone;
• a reasonable fear that evidence will be destroyed, witnesses silenced, or a victim pressured into silence.

In those cases, protect people first. Pastoral conversation, if it happens at all, happens after civil authorities are engaged and only if it is safe.

4. Step 1: Prayer and Self-Examination

Before you speak to the other person, examine yourself. Ask whether your own log is larger than the speck you see (Matthew 7:3-5). Invite God to search you (Psalm 139:23-24). Count the other person as more significant than yourself, and look not only to your own interests (Philippians 2:3-4).

Self-examination is not self-blame for someone else's sin. It is a refusal to enter the conversation already certain you are the righteous party.

5. Step 2: Whether to Overlook

Some offenses can be covered in love. It is glory to overlook an offense (Proverbs 19:11). Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). Bear with one another and forgive (Colossians 3:13).

Do not overlook:

• abuse, exploitation, or ongoing coercion;
• harm to a child or a vulnerable person;
• fraud, theft, or a pattern of deception;
• a breach that, if left unnamed, will keep injuring others or the community;
• a wrong you cannot actually release without bitterness — overlooking is not stuffing.

6. Step 3: Private, Direct Conversation

If the matter should not be overlooked, and if section 3 does not apply, go to the person directly (Matthew 18:15). Speak to them, not first to an audience. State the facts as you understand them, the harm, and what you are asking.

A private conversation is for clarity and repentance, not for trapping the other person or collecting a performance of apology.

7. Step 4: Establishing Facts Fairly

Do not answer a matter before you hear it (Proverbs 18:13). The first to plead a case seems right, until another comes and examines him (Proverbs 18:17). Serious accusations require adequate testimony (Deuteronomy 19:15; 1 Timothy 5:19).

There is no presumption in favor of whoever speaks first, loudest, or with the most followers. There is also no presumption that a quiet person is innocent. Facts, documents, and consistent witness matter more than tone.

8. Step 5: Wise, Impartial Assistance

If a private conversation does not resolve the matter, take one or two others (Matthew 18:16). Plans fail for lack of counsel; with many counselors they succeed (Proverbs 15:22). The church is capable of judging ordinary disputes among believers (1 Corinthians 6:1-6). Restore one who is caught in a trespass with a spirit of gentleness, watching yourself (Galatians 6:1).

Witnesses and counselors are not recruited allies. They should be people with no stake in a faction, willing to hear both sides, and willing to say hard things to either party. Grace Unworthy, if asked to convene, participates on those terms (see section 12).

9. Step 6: Truthful Speech Without Destructive Anger

Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; human anger does not produce the righteousness of God (James 1:19-20). Put away falsehood and speak truth. Do not let the sun go down on a quarrel in a way that nurses it. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths (Ephesians 4:25-32). A gentle answer turns away wrath (Proverbs 15:1). Reckless words pierce like a sword (Proverbs 12:18).

Truth-telling is required. Rage, public shaming, and pile-ons are not the same thing as truth-telling.

10. Repentance, Forgiveness, and Restoration

These are three distinct things. Confusing them harms victims and cheapens repentance.

Repentance

Repentance names the wrong without excuse, accepts consequences, makes restitution where possible, and turns from the conduct. An apology that defends, minimizes, or transfers blame is not repentance.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a decision to release personal vengeance to God. It may be granted before trust returns. Forgiveness does not mean:

• consequences are removed;
• trust is restored;
• unsafe access is renewed;
• crime goes unreported;
• the injured person must remain in the relationship.

Restoration

Restoration of role, access, or public standing is a separate judgment. It requires evidence of change, the consent of those who were harmed where that is possible, and a sober view of risk. Some relationships and roles should not be restored.

11. Lawsuits Between Believers

Paul rebukes believers who drag ordinary disputes before unbelieving courts instead of suffering wrong or seeking judgment within the community (1 Corinthians 6:1-8). That warning applies to commercial and relational disputes that this Policy is designed to hold.

It does not apply to crime. Governing authorities are God's servants to punish wrongdoing (Romans 13:1-4). Paul himself appealed to Caesar when that was the just path (Acts 25:10-12). Ordinary contract disputes between parties who consent to this Policy should start here. Crime, abuse, and immediate danger go to the authorities.

12. How Grace Unworthy Participates

If both parties ask, Grace Unworthy Ministries, LLC may act as a convener or mediator: helping schedule a conversation, identifying impartial helpers, or holding a written summary of what was agreed.

• We are not a judge of legal liability between you and a Storyteller.
• Our participation is not an admission of fault and does not make us a party to your dispute.
• Convening or mediating does not waive arbitration under our Terms of Service or the Storyteller Agreement.
• We have no duty to defend, indemnify, or advocate for either party (see the Storyteller Purchase & Release Terms).

13. Relationship to Arbitration

A good-faith attempt under this Policy may satisfy the informal-resolution condition precedent in our Terms of Service (section 13.1) and the Storyteller Agreement (section 29.1), if both parties consented and actually engaged the process.

Unless the parties agree in writing to a longer period, either party may proceed to the next step in the applicable dispute clause — including a demand for arbitration — if 30 days have passed after a written invitation to use this Policy without consent, or 30 days after a consented process has ended without agreement.

Safety exceptions in section 3 are never delayed by this waiting period.

14. The Summary Balance

Pursue peace without sacrificing truth. Extend grace without abandoning justice. Cover what love can cover. Confront what love must not hide. Forgive without pretending restoration has occurred. Report what the law and the vulnerable require you to report. Do not use Scripture as a muzzle on a victim or as a shield for the unrepentant.