I was blessed to pastor two great churches. We had our issues, and I still remember something about church conflict—but it was usually temporary. Over the years since then, I’ve worked with many churches dealing with conflict.
10 Insights on Church Conflict
Here are some of my conclusions based on those experiences:
- Conflict is sometimes about issues, but it’s often about personalities and preferences. Some people are naturally cantankerous, and others have wrongly elevated their preferences to a priority.
- Some church members are tools of the devil. I don’t know how else to say this—the enemy creates division among the people of God, and he does it through people. Of course, no person who is the devil’s tool recognizes that fact—and everyone accused of such comes out fighting even more.
- Sometimes today’s present-tense conflict is the residue of yesterday’s past-tense issues. And, those past-tense issues could have taken place years ago—but they still have tentacles into the present. In one church I know, conflict that took place decades ago still colored the present tense.
- A track record of short-term pastorates is usually evidence of a problem with the people in the church more than it is a problem with pastors. There’s a reason pastors don’t stay long in a particular church—and it’s usually the same people who are a problem regardless who the pastor is. A power-hungry group will never be pleased with the pastor.
- On the other hand, some pastors are the cause of conflict. My experience is that the conflict issue is seldom theology—it’s usually poor leadership, unloving shepherding, or ungodly living. The pastor who is unwilling to consider his own role in conflict only exacerbates the problem.
- Conflict is not usually over tradition; it’s over traditionalism. Traditionalism becomes apparent when church members emphasize tradition as if it were the gospel. That, by the way, is nothing less than idolatry.
