Conflict in the Church: Why Does Anyone Care?
Why Does Anyone Care?
This question is not asked often enough.
Why do church people care enough to get up every Sunday morning, dress better than usual, fuss to get the children and teens ready, leave their homes greeting their neighbors jogging by or walking their dogs, and drive their cars—passing diners and big box stores with full parking lots—to come to church.
Why, with all the demands on their lives at home and at work, do church members dare upon occasion to challenge church leaders?
The answers to these questions were probably taught to them in Sunday School and nurtured in their homes. Church leaders today are able to take advantage of the fact that fewer and fewer of the few people in the pew have a passionate religious upbringing.
Church leaders can take advantage, playing to the common denominator, risking church division to achieve their goals. When disagreement turns to conflict, leaders, quick to take all resistance personally, often resort to labeling church members. Members are resistant to change, ignorant and incompetent. They are incapable of leadership and not very good at following either. Members are dehumanized with terms such as “alligator” to describe lay people who oppose clergy. Church members are quickly considered expendable.
The “discernment” process in the church is widely cited, but rarely practiced. It would ask questions.
- Why do members care enough to challenge leadership?
- Why are members willing to risk peace in the congregation and in their personal lives to advocate against an idea?
The answers to church conflict are the answers to these questions.
But they are rarely asked.
Also not considered: If members don’t care enough to stand up for what they believe, why does the Church crave their benign attendance? Or maybe they don’t!