Conflict in the Church: The Uncomfortable Reality
When leaders have a disagreement with each other the best biblical course of action to pursue is reconciliation. However, as Acts 15 makes clear this does not always take place immediately (in some cases it never takes place). There are a variety of reasons for this. One of the main reasons is pride; both parties in the disagreement think that they are right. One of the unhappy realities of ministry is that we cannot fix everything in an instant; in fact, in some cases there are things that we can never fix. I believe that the Lord’s highest idea for his people is unity. This is what Jesus prayed for in John 17. It is also one of the major themes in Paul’s writings (and he was one of the parties involved in the conflict in Acts 15). However, when reconciliation does not take place it is better, as in this case, for the leaders to go their separate ways rather than to stay together and disagree. Parting ends the stalemate and the work of God can go on. Both Paul and Barnabas went on in ministry (Acts 15:39-41). Be prepared for conflicts with fellow ministers, as they will come, but do all that you can to diffuse them without compromising biblical principles.
Conflict Between Church Members
The apostle Paul had a lot of experience in dealing with disputes between church members. I believe that this type of conflict is more prevalent than the conflict between Christian leaders. This is at least in part, due to the fact that there are more people who can potentially be involved. There are more people in a church than there are leaders in the church. Support for the assertion that conflicts between church members are more prevalent than conflicts between leaders can be found in Paul’s letters. Read through his letters and you will find multiple texts where he is dealing with discord between believers. Some of his letters that deal with conflict between members of the congregation include: Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Philippians. It was a common problem and was widespread: and it still is! After 2,000 years of church history we still have the problem today. As the book of Ecclesiastes says, “there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccles.1:9b, NIV). If you desire to pastor a large church or contemplate a large ministry consider this: more people means more problems.
The New Testament affords us a wealth of material related to this kind of conflict but I would like us to focus our attention on the church in Corinth. I half jokingly say that this church is every pastor’s dream. If it is a dream church, then the dream is in some measure a nightmare! They were blessed in many ways: they were Christians and recipients of God’s grace (1 Cor. 1:4), they had been enriched in their speaking and knowledge (1 Cor. 1:5), and they had received spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 1:7). But they were fraught with division. Let us now consider some of the conflicts in this church.
The apostle Paul founded the church in Corinth during one of his missionary journeys (Acts 18). He was thus very acquainted with the church there. When he wrote the book that we know as 1 Corinthians he was not present with them. He wrote to them due to reports that he had heard about them (1 Cor. 1:11; 5:1; 11:18) and to answer questions they had sent to Paul in a letter.7 Let us now focus on the issue of their conflicts, which were multi-faceted.
Evidence of discord, indeed conflict, can be found especially in 1 Corinthians 1, 6, 11, and 12-14. In chapter one, we see that they are divided in their preference or commitment to different ministers: “I follow Paul”; another “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ” (1 Cor. 1:12, NIV). In chapter six, we find that there were lawsuits between some members of the church (1 Cor. 6:1-8). In chapter eleven, they were not treating one another rightly at the communion service (1 Cor. 11:17-22; 33-34). Dr. Gordon Fee believes that the Corinthians were abusing the poor at the communion service by not leaving them anything to eat.8 In chapters twelve through fourteen, we see that there is disorder and dissention regarding spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:40; 14:12). In each of these scenarios, their behavior was not what it should have been because of an improper or deficient understanding of who they were as the church, the people of God. The Corinthian believers did not seem to realize that they were members of one body, members of one another. As a result of their lack of theological understanding of what it means to be the body of Christ their behavior suffered. They were not living as God intended them to because they did not understand who God made them to be. Paul sought to correct these situations through his instruction.
Paul did not shrink back or waver in dealing with this fractured and fragmented church. He brought truth to bear on the specifics of their corporate life. The believers in Corinth needed to have their minds renewed in order to “fix” their corporate experience. Paul gave the church the proper perspective about their leaders; he told them that the leaders were servants who were doing the work that the Lord gave each of them to do (1 Cor. 3:5). Concerning their law cases with one another he told them that cheating their brothers and sisters in the Lord was not only wrong (1 Cor. 6:8) but that it was a poor testimony to bring their grievances with one another to court before non-believers (1 Cor. 6:6). Concerning spiritual gifts, Paul told the church that though there is variety in the gifts, they all come from the same God, and they are given for the benefit of the church as a whole (1 Cor. 12:1-11). There is a correlation between belief and behavior: beliefs impact behavior. When it comes to fixing problems and bringing a church together it takes more than people skills, as valuable as they are, it takes truth, truth that is thoroughly explained! Paul took time to address each of these situations in some detail.
Category: Ministry, Winter 2016
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