Saturday, May 21, 2011

Understanding, Resolving and Preventing Conflict

R. J. Krejcir has written a series of Bible Studies to help churches, church leaders and others to learn how to solve conflict in the church setting in a Biblical way through reading a series of scriptures. The very first scripture is:

Philippians 2:3-6: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.

In this article Krejcir discussed the fact that there will be conflict. The people in the church will “come across various disagreements, misunderstandings, and distinctions with various view of moral and value stands with one another that will converge in our relationships.” He discussed that even college children will come back to church with different experiences and they may even come back “denying the existence of God . . . replacing him with a mystic force or idea, but still hold on to their church without the faith.

Krejcir also goes on to discuss that conflict is normal, conflict is a responsibility, and he guides the study through scripture on how to understand, solve and prevent conflict. This study will guide the church and the leader through a process of transformation helping them become more Christ-like.

Richard Joseph Krejcir is the Founder and Director of Into Thy Word Ministries, a missions and discipling ministry. He is the author of several books including Into Thy Word, A Field Guide to Healthy Relationships, and Net-Work. He is also a pastor, teacher, and speaker. He is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California (M.Div.) and holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Practical Theology from London (Ph.D). He has garnered over 20 years of pastoral ministry experience, mostly in youth ministry, including serving as a Church Growth Consultant.

© 1989, 1998, 2007 R. J. Krejcir Ph.D., Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development www.churchleadership.org

3 comments:

  1. Teresa, conflict management must have been the topic of the day. Having recently gone through some minor conflict resolution issues at my church, I found myself searching for solutions. What seemed minor to me, was not all that minor to those who I was trying to resovle the conflict with. The approach I was taking was trying to center around Christ. In my blog post I point out a theology of conflict resolution based upon a monk named Dorotheos. The link is: http://justpeaceumc.org/2009/11/loving-god-neighbor-the-dorotheos-story/. Your article, interestingly enough, provides yet another approach to the same principle that Dorotheos promotes. While your article provides a different approach, the end result is the same, which is to bring people back into connection with each other and with God. It seems to me, that if we are going to resolve anything, our center has to be God, our ability to resolve matters has to focus on coming together for a greater purpose. That greater purpose is to accomplish Kingdom work. Kingdom work happens when we humble ourselves to be servant and or to put aside our differences, seeking to serve Christ instead of ourselves. Truth be told, our blunders are usually based on trying to do our own will instead of God’s.

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  2. Christian, I totally agree! Amen brother! We usually have to look at the reason for the conflict rather than the words really spoken. Sometimes it is subtle, a power play, or a person who has had a problem in the past projecting that problem on the "problem of the day." Each conflict has a core identity issue and usually we see them as minor because we don't have that issue. Our church almost tarred and feathered a pastor for not wearing shoes and preaching in the pulpit. The problem was not these issues but a deeper issue of respect. The pastor saw these as 'stupid' and they were but what he did was cause a stumbling block for the people by not wearing shoes and preaching from the pulpit (most of the time). They really didn't have a problem there, they wanted to feel respected and wanted to give respect to the pastor. We really need to see the core issue of conflicts so we can be a good witness for Christ, not a stumbling block to knowing him. Thanks for your post!

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