by: Thomas Hammond and Steve Wilkes 2/4/2009
Conflict can start at any moment in any church. A disagreement over the color of carpet, program schedule, or a committee’s role can result in a dispute that reaches biblical proportions.
A 2004 Christianity Today survey of pastors revealed the top six sources of conflict as:
Control Issues…………....85 percent
Vision/Direction………....64 percent
Leadership Changes......43 percent
Pastor’s Style…………....39 percent
Financial………………....33 percent
Theological/Doctrine…..23 percent
Sadly, conflict is a common occurrence in congregations of every denomination across America. It happens to traditional, blended and contemporary churches for a variety of reasons, with the capacity to reach extreme levels of intensity.
In a recent national survey of more than 14,000 congregations, 75 percent reported some level of conflict in the past five years. While the conflict experienced in each of these churches might have varied greatly, it was still significant enough for church leaders to remember it, even after five years.
Leadership losses
A minister friend of mine (Steve) was pastor of a thriving church in Arkansas. The church used "ministry-evangelism" to help people and to win them to Christ. The church doubled. They started a daughter church nearby. Then, lay people rose up against the pastor, and he resigned. For a while, he helped the new church, but today he is not in full-time ministry. This is a great brother who was wounded by conflict—after church growth—and today he is working in the secular world.
I'm afraid his story is common. A church grows, conflict occurs, and preachers and lay people are hurt deeply. I can sometimes spot the "walking wounded" when they visit our seminary after graduating several years earlier. They, too, are victims. Some members leave their churches disillusioned, while others lose trust in church leadership and become less faithful in their attendance and service. These casualties may find it difficult to become personally involved in another church for fear of another disaster.
Ministers are leaving the ministry and their pulpits in record numbers. An estimated 1,500 pastors (all denominations) leave their positions each month.
Churches struggle within their fellowship to regain a sense of stability and harmony. Leadership must cope with a damaged reputation, possibly in the church, but certainly in the community. There is also the unavoidable reality that they are not fulfilling their purpose for existing.
How does conflict affect evangelism?
Several years ago, I (Thomas) began serving as interim pastor with a church that recently had forced their pastor to resign. During the first meeting with church leaders, I asked to see their numbers for the past several years. Needless to say, they were not good. Money...down, attendance...down, baptisms...you guessed it, down as well. One significant fact about this church is that they were located in the second-fastest-growing county in America. In the middle of a population explosion, they were in a terrible freefall.
As I looked closer at the numbers, I noticed the chart did not go straight down. In fact, there were several high peaks over the years. After questioning one of the lay leaders about the reasons for the decline after the growth, he pointed to each and embarrassingly admitted that the growth stopped because of "fights." He was even able to recall what the different "fights" were about. While these "fights" left emotional scars across the congregation, they also served as a deterrent.
To say it plainly, conflict stops evangelism. Any momentum a church might be experiencing through outreach almost always comes to a screeching halt at the slightest hint of a brouhaha. In Acts 6:1, we find the early church still exploding with growth. However, we know that the church stopped evangelizing when conflict arose because of one word in verse seven—"then." Verse seven says, "Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem."
So between verse one, "the number of disciples was multiplying," and verse seven, "the number of the disciples multiplied greatly," a conflict "arose."
Why do conflicts stop evangelism?
There are many reasons why the disease of conflict prevents a church from growing. C. Peter Wagner identified a classic growth problem. He called it the "Pioneer vs. Homesteader Conflict." The pioneers are the people in the church who have been there for many years. The homesteaders are the newcomers who have joined the church within the last few years. When the homesteaders begin to grow because the church is growing, the pioneers often feel threatened. They know that soon they will be outnumbered and lose control. Thus, some of the pioneers cause trouble in the church, causing the growth to slow down or stop.
A conflict also diverts the focus of church members from the fields of harvest to discovering who is on whose side. The energy that is needed for ministry, missions, and witnessing is siphoned from the body and spent on forming battle lines. Communication breaks down and critical decisions are made in secret, causing mistrust and alienation. The unity of the fellowship is broken into factions of "us" and "them" and prevents anyone from inviting a lost person to a ministry event or Bible study. Morale plummets with staff members and lay leaders as evangelistic events are canceled or poorly attended. The hope of impacting the community with the gospel in the future fades as word of the fight begins to seep into the community. It is hard to save a drowning man if everyone holding a life preserver is arguing so loudly they cannot hear his cry.
Conflict management or resolution?
Managing conflict is only a part of a leader's responsibility. This job is not complete until there is resolution! This is exactly what "the twelve" did in Acts 6. They did not ignore the complaint, hoping it would go away, or label the widows as troublemakers. They asked the church in Jerusalem to choose men to deal with this task. What task was that? Was it just to oversee this distribution of food as many believe? No! The task was to deal with the conflict at hand—the conflict between the Jewish and Greek widows. Talk about an explosive issue! This has to be at the top of the list of problems which could keep the church from growing and making progress in other areas.
The leaders of the church in Acts worked together to carefully develop a plan and communicate it to the entire church. After sharing it with the church, "the saying pleased the whole multitude."
The Acts church chose seven leaders, and I believe they were the first deacons. They were good men, full of the Holy Spirit, and men with a good reputation. Much conflict in churches occurs because pastors and congregations fail to observe these biblical mandates. Someone who is not obviously full of the Spirit should never be selected to be a deacon. And the first task of a deacon should be to watch for and quietly handle any conflict.
A strong immune system
Having a strong immune system is essential in the fight against infection and disease. The body of Christ has an immune system as well—an essential part of controlling conflict. Its presence is evident in the first church in Acts. Though they experienced all types of conflict, they were continually used by God to accomplish amazing results.
A church’s immune system can be strengthened by each member enjoying a daily, healthy diet of the spiritual nutrients of the Word of God. They must spend sufficient time in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal any sin that needs to be confessed, and praying for God’s will to be accomplished in their life and church.
It is important for each member of the body to avoid all selfish attitudes and bad behavior. Focusing their attention and energy on the needs of others allows them to serve as a source of encouragement. Finally, every member needs to exercise his faith and gifts. This keeps everyone’s faith healthy and strong and helps insure that conflict does not destroy a church.
Adapted from an article originally published in the Spring 2008 issue of the Journal of Evangelism&Missions, published by the Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. Reprinted with permission from editor Steve Wilkes.
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Let me say upfront that I strongly support the virtues of truth, transparency and good governance in the church and especially more so since the church is the Body of Christ. However let me equally state upfront that I strongly feel that taking church matters into the public arena and worse still, reporting them to the authories bearing in mind that all these without any basis or evidence is definitely something I oppose since it only bring disrepute and shame to our Lord Jesus Christ - and those who do so cannot be doing God's will.
ReplyDeleteI would now like to also say that all these "problems/troubles" could have been potentially resolve if only the church leadership then had shown ... yes, you got it ... if they had only shown greater disclosure and engage members face-to-face instead of letting members known what they think members should know. In other words, the church leadership then simply kept members in the dark and worse, was reluctant to be more transparent and practise good governance. Is it any wonder then that members became frustrated, disillusioned and disheartened as the days went by? Further the leadership then instead of reaching out and finding grounds for reconciliation and healing, chose to instead drawn lines to differentiate "us" and "them"; "me" and "you".
The church leadership has the opportunity (which was always there from the beginning) to now show more transparency and begin to engage members directly. The church leadership must now share with members all and not just what they want members to know. After all the church belongs to all and everyone, regular worshippers included, are partners within the Body of Christ; partners in the work of the Gospel.
I strongly believe that the church leadership has begin to realise that the "us" and "them" attitude or the "me" and "you" position is slowly but surely disuniting and breaking up the church. And I believe or at least I sincerely hope that the church leadership is beginning to change to be more inclusive. The church leadership should now visibly and openly speak statements that unite instead of divide; talk to and engage members directly and in return members will share with them; provide the platform for meaningful engagement. After all, God speaks to all and not just to some.
I want to conclude with what I started - that truth, transparency and good governance is an imperative in the Body of Christ but definitely not in the way the so called "TTG" represents these values/virtues. But will the present church leadership now take the necessary path to bring about healing and restoration or continue to carry out "business as usual"? I certainly and pray that they will do the former since that is the only way God would want. I say this with certainty because the unity of the Body is God's will and anything done or not done which does not contribute to this unity is not God's will.