Every Church Needs a Little Conflict

Last week I attended a Church Conflict Resolution training event. About 20 of us gathered at the beautiful Table Rock Conference and Retreat Center near Pickens, South Carolina. Dr. George Bullard who is part of the Columbia Partnership and an expert on resolving church conflict was with us for two days. Dr. Bullard shared with us some pretty heavy stuff.

One of the things Dr. Bullard shared is that not all church conflict is unhealthy. Matter of fact, according to Dr. Bullard, every Church needs a little conflict and he gave seven reasons why:

1. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict do not have passion around their mission, purpose, and values.

2. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict do not have clear beliefs and core values.

3. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict are into an avoidance life style.

4. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict make shallow decisions that come from a group-think mentality.

5. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict do not have the opportunity to learn how to handle decision-making around complex issues, and thus handle transitional and unhealthy conflict when they are experienced.

6. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict do not learn how to keep conflict from escalating to an unhealthy intensity.

7. Congregations without a healthy intensity of conflict do not take risks because they are afraid it will create conflict it cannot handle.

What do you think..............

Voting on The Man of God

The church where I am a member this past Sunday had a recall vote on their pastor. Yes, there are a few churches around who still operate that way. Voting on the pastor is something I have given a good deal of thought to over the years. Here are some of my thoughts.

-Whoever came up with the idea of having the church decide by a secret ballot vote of the members on whether or not they want to keep their pastor came up with a very strange and cruel method.
-I can't find any Biblical foundation for such an idea. The only time the New Testament church voted on something was when the apostles cast lots to determine who would replace Judas. The lot fell to Matthias. Matthias was never heard from again. In due time God raised up His own man to replace Judas, the replacement was the Apostle Paul.
-Voting on keeping the Man of God. The Man of God who is the shepherd of the sheep, who prays, preaches, counsels, and helps direct you in the ways of God. The Man of of God who is God's anointed leader of the church. Then we want to turn it into a popularity contest as to how many people like him enough to keep him as pastor.
-From my experience when a church has a plan in place to have their members vote on keeping the pastor from time to time it creates an unsettled atmosphere within the church. Particularly unsettling around the time of the vote.
-Pastors are humans and have family. Can you imagine the stress having an entire congregation of members vote on the pastor puts not only on him but his entire family?
-Church is not the place for politics. We are people of God seeking the will and way of God. We find God's will and way by prayer, Bible study, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
-Voting never settles anything. People feel the say way after the vote as they did before the vote.
-Kids know it doesn't sound right. When our church announced a vote on the pastor two weeks before the vote was taken my grandson who is 11 years of age looked at me and said, "what is this about", you could see the look of something about this doesn't sound right in his eyes.
-The church has a mission to accomplish that is the greatest mission on earth. We should not be wasting our time 'voting on the Man of God'.

In case you are wondering the vote on our pastor came out very good. Oh yes, a few people voted no, now I suppose church folk who have nothing else better to do are trying to figure out who voted no. How ridiculous!!!!

I can't help but wonder what God thinks about such a strange way of doing things. What do you think. Please leave a comment.