Managing Conflict in the Local Church

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• Oeuvres de Mathieu Auguste Geffroy (French Edition).
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• Church Fights: Managing Conflict in the Local Church: Speed Leas: theranchhands.com: Books;
• How should conflict in the church be handled?;
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Acts 15, however, is the record of a struggle to deal with discontinuity in the midst of continuity. It was an earnest and intense effort to sort out that which was changing from that which should not change.

Growth in grace and in knowledge does not occur quickly for everyone. Therefore, pastors in troubled churches must model permission-giving, and then teach others to adopt that element of the mind of Christ also. The payoff comes in observing growth and maturity in those who are brought along by Christ who otherwise would not have shown any development see Phil. Six principles of Christian permission-giving, which allows people to develop at their own rate of internal agility, may be summarized as follows:. Not doing so only saps the energy for ministry and postpones the day of departure from that field.

It is true that some church lay leadership groups are not quick to seek out the right kind of help, and it is also true that the right kind of help is not always easily found. The right way to convince reluctant leadership groups to seek outside help is to image for them what Level Three and successively intense and escalating conflicts will do to the church group.

Direction: The Pastor's Role in Managing Church Conflict

Beyond that, the busy pastor, active in general ministry, should refuse to engage in their own private conflict interventions. The right kind of outside help is help provided by professionals who are not emotionally connected to the outcome of the conflict.

Such help could range anywhere from a local pastoral colleague to Christian Legal Society interventionists to one of several nationally known church conflict specialists. In any case, however, there must be equal commitment to truth, soul care, objectivity, and fair play. Both the pastor and the polarized groups in the church should equally submit themselves to care, so that the whole work of God might move forward again.

In any case they must be helped to change according to their own readiness and willingness, and in keeping with their own personality profile and stage of development in life McDowell, Fowler. If they are not ready, the church must wait until they are, and they in turn must allow the church to move forward as God leads the church. In such cases persons may be reassigned to places of service where they can be more fully utilized and fulfilled, without butting their heads against the walls of change to their spiritual destruction.

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This kind of renegotiation requires strong—and sensitive—pastors. They must be sure that the wagon can bear the freight of such reassignment, and that diffusing potentially explosive situations can happen gradually enough so that more is not lost than gained. Diffusing conflict in a rigid church system is really not much different than doing so in a dysfunctional family system, except that it takes longer and is far more complex. The same can be done in a church system, with the result that the performance of the church greatly increases.

But it takes longer, calls for more concentrated conflict management skills, and far more energy than is demanded in circumstances involving smaller groups of people. In a troubled church, one must take the initial stance that no one is wrong and no one is right. Rather, each individual possesses a sliver of truth, which is often mistaken for the whole truth.

Whatever role one plays in encountering conflict in the church, it must be undertaken with a great degree of sanctified professionalism and human dignity. One must know what he is about, and where the resolution project is to go before he starts. Once one is in the midst of the whirlwind, there is no turning back. In addition, one must be careful to become neither the victim nor the victimizer. It is also easy for a pastor—or interventionist—to hasten too quickly into the fray, thus becoming the victimizer of those who in reality seek healing, although they know not how to get it.

Pastors encountering Level Two conflict can benefit greatly by developing around them a support group which can help them process the myriad frustrations and complex feelings with which they will be assaulted. Interventionists called in from the outside would profit to consult with former pastors, former lay leaders, district ministers, and others who can provide both insight and support.

Above all, it is paramount that only one doctor leads the team. He may call for additional consultative support, but no one else unilaterally should do so. It is also useful to share this insight about feelings with people involved in the conflict. To do so is better than merely to encourage them to bridle their feelings. In order to understand the feelings of conflict, and finally to direct them as Christ would teach us, requires that we learn the difference between having emotions, expressing emotions, reporting emotions, and being unnecessarily victimized by the bad effects of emotions.

Closely connected to the erratic way in which emotions work in the midst of conflict are issues of power, control, and feelings of being overwhelmed. As the feelings of the pseuche are integrated with the eternal spirit and corporeal body in a practical as well as a theological manner, we will begin to experience in new dimension the holistic salvation that is offered to us by God. Then, indeed, our churches will become whole, and will more fully live out the purpose of salvation to which we are called.

Thomas Pastor Carey dreaded the monthly church council meetings. In practicing and teaching good listening, the following techniques are helpful: Reduce fear in the other person by legitimizing their right to be heard, and by receiving what they say as validly being their view of things. Practice the art of active listening, by affirming the statements and feelings of the speaker as being their own, and by giving them permission to be vulnerable in the presence of another without being victimized for it.

Do not give the sense of taking sides with or against the speaker, but rather seek clarification both for yourself and for the speaker. In dealing with two people, the three steps can be presented, or outlined on a marker board or piece of paper, and the pair can be coached through one or two practice sessions of the technique. In dealing with a small group of people, the steps can, again, be presented by lecture and illustration. People can be paired off for practice sessions, using issues and questions prepared by the pastor-teacher. In dealing with a conflicted group, the pastor or process leader can watch for natural pauses in the conversation, and then ask R-R-C questions of the group.

Ways of implementation include: Teaching people how to let an initial wave of emotion pass without imputing grave sin to the occasion.

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Helping people understand that feelings are not bad; only bad behavior is bad. Sin is not in the initial thought, it is in the extension of the thought to malicious words and deeds. Show that the Apostle Paul generally followed that rule, and then extended it by making critical statements only in constructive and positive ways. Showing people that in the biblical narrative, collaboration was many times more useful than confrontation in resolving differences Thomas, This, however, requires that one follow up with teaching on how collaboration works.

Six principles of Christian permission-giving, which allows people to develop at their own rate of internal agility, may be summarized as follows: Give life permission to be the way it is, until Christ changes it. Be who you are—responsibly. Let others be who they are—caringly. Care about your sister or brother—appropriately. Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian: Adult Development and Christian Faith. Harper and Row, A valuable tool for understanding and managing conflict in church. Read more Read less. Customers who bought this item also bought. Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1.

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The Pastor's Role in Managing Church Conflict

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There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. The authors believe that conflict, if rightly managed, can be an opportunity for a church's growth and development. Here they take up the practical realities of managing conflict in the local church.

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When conflict is present, a first step should be to determine whether or not the church will try to manage the conflict, and if so, whether or not to call in an "outsider"--one who is not directly involved in the conflict--for help. The role of the "outsider" or referee is described in great detail. Various methods for dealing with the conflict, as well as methods of gathering and analyzing information are discussed.

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