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Church Staff Conflicts
Commit to a
Positive Solution or Understanding
Jeremiah 2:13; Matthew 15:18-19; Luke
15:11-24; John 4:10; Romans 12:17-18; James 4:1-12:
If it is
your desire to destroy and split a church, then simply have no plan to
resolve staff disputes. Satan will just love you and your members will
be disillusioned and spread bitterness and spiritual distraction to
others. Of course, no one truly wants to do this, at least I hope not,
so we need to have a plan and atmosphere to prevent and deal with
conflicts in the upper management of the church, from the church staff,
secretaries, elders and various leaders.
The church staff may start off with a good
relationship, but if there is not the proper format for discussions and
communication, you will be laying out a landmine field that the whole
congregation will have to tread over. A landmine field filled with
distrust, blame, anger, bitterness, attacks and personal misconduct,
where the Fruits of the Spirit have fermented and become rotten. An
atmosphere of mistrust and tension will replace the true call of the
church and the purpose of what we are supposed to be about. I have
consulted and been to many such churches over the years, and it is a sad
pathetic sight to see preachers arguing and staff meetings full of
contempt and tension.
But there are simple steps to prevent this
pathetic mess from ever happening.
First,
there must be a clear agreement on key theological grounds, if not, a
retreat where the Bible is opened and the senior minister goes over the
areas of dispute for Biblical recognition. Preachers must never try to
divide and distract the church from its mission, especially in
personality matters.
Second,
open communication is a must. Each staff member should be able to go to
each other and share their feelings and concerns without any reprisal,
but with a listening ear. If a staff person refuses to agree with such a
policy, they must seek employment elsewhere. Open communication is a
tall sign of a healthy church. Closed communication channels are sure
signs that say, “Land Mines Ahead.” Thus, everyone is too busy watching
their steps to accomplish anything of significance for our Lord. Each
member of the staff should and must be comfortable to express himself or
herself in a clear, healthy way so that confrontation is accepted and
expected.
Third,
and most importantly, the staff team must be in prayer with and for each
other. Staff meetings should begin and end in prayer and be in
significant time before our holy God in prayer. This will hone the
relationship with each other and with God. The result will be cultivated
leadership by modeling our Lord, where defensiveness falls aside and
misunderstandings are quickly cleared up by the unity in Christ.
The senior staff person/people should be
aware of the signs of potential conflict and quickly deal with it. Such
signs as avoidance and withdrawal, contempt and over negative criticism,
competition, defensiveness, blame, over accommodation, and
collaboration. The head of staff needs to be in continual prayer and
possess wisdom and discernment to exercise mediation, or should farm out
staff conflicts to a third outside party, perhaps a preacher from
another church in the same denomination.
Preachers are walking
targets of all kinds of attacks, from fellow preachers, from church
members, and from Satan. So having a system to deal with conflict will
alleviate 99% of it! Our fight is against the enemy of the ages, our
fight is against the self-precepts that cloud our relationship with
Christ, and our fight is not against each other. Yet Satan is happiest
when we do fight with one another!
So are you going to make Satan happy or will
you do as you are called to do by Christ Himself?
Preventing Conflict: Jeremiah 2:13; John
4:10
Satan Thrives on Conflict: Romans 8:12-14;
James 4:7-8
Principle Scripter to
How to Understand, Solve, and Prevent Conflict:
Genesis 4; Psalm 37:4; Proverbs 3:4-6; 18:13; Matthew 5:9; 7:5;
15:18-20; 18: 15-20; Luke 6:27-36; 19:1-9; Romans 8:28-29; 1 Corinthians
6:1-8; 10:31-11:1; 13; Galatians 5; Ephesians 4:22-32; 5:1; Philippians
2:3-6; 4:2-9; Colossians 1:17-20; 3:12-17 James 4:1-3; 1 John 14:15
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