by: Jim Schlottman
5/1/2006

Many churches gear up for outreach-oriented ministry during the holiday seasons. Thousands of churches offer seasonal musical or theatrical events, most churches have special holiday services, and a concerted effort is made to attract and welcome visitors.

But a new research study by George Barna, indicates that most Protestant churches have overlooked one important matter: nobody is covering the phones!

In their book, “Mastering Conflict and Controversy,” Edward G. Dobson, Speed B. Leas, and Marshall Shelly say that one of the ten most predictable times of church conflict is Easter.

If Dobson, Leas, and Shelly are correct, that Easter is one of the predictable times when conflict may occur, then it is understandable why no one was covering the phone. They were all dealing with conflicts.

At least 19,000 churches are split or scarred by major conflict each year, and 18,000 pastors lose their assignments each year because of conflict, burnout, or moral failure. Lost giving and replacement costs total more than $700 million annually. The human and kingdom toll is incalculable. Worst of all, unresolved conflict robs us of our ability to give a believable witness to the reconciling love of Jesus Christ (Ken Sande Peacemaker Notes, December 2003).

Dave Ragsdale, Quiet Waters Director of Counseling and Consulting, and I recently presented one of our “Leading with Courage Through Congregational Conflict” conference in Surrey, British Columbia.

We began conducting these conferences because we were seeing too many pastors in our Counseling Intensives who were the victim of a conflict. We thought if only we could teach pastors and other Christian leader to predict and manage conflict, we my cut down on the need for counseling.

During the conference, we talk about Dobson, Leas, and Shelly’s 10 predictable times and other times we have identified. In addition to Easter, their 10 predictable times include, during a stewardship campaign or at budget time, addition of new staff, change in leadership style, a pastor’s vacation, changes in a pastor’s family, introduction of baby boomers into the church, the completion of a new building, loss of church membership, and increase in church membership.

Have those times been true in your ministry or have you identified others? Please let me know so I can add it to our list which includes, when ministry is going great and we underestimate spiritual warfare, changes in direction - priorities - vision, board changes, a church addicted to conflict that is going through a withdrawal cycle, and when the community is in a time of stress.

In this issue of the Compass Online, I’d like to address just one of these predictable times, and talk about managing the related conflict.

A very common predictable times is during a time of loss of church membership. During the loss of membership, resources – money or people – dwindle and tensions increase. There is a felt need to blame someone for those losses and the blame is usually pinned on a person or group even if no true fault is there. Most often the blame is focused on the pastor.

Does that sound familiar to those of you who find yourselves in this situation right now?

It may seem over simplified, but it is important when dealing with a loss of membership and thus loss of resources that you manage those limited resources. Most important, in managing the related conflict, you must make every effort to identify reasons, not who is to blame. Then take an aggressive mode of action on the identified reason, and not a passive attitude toward the loss of membership. Finally, with this time of conflict a pastor should not take unnecessary blame.

I wish we had time to address each of the predictable times, but I want to leave you with a few thoughts that I hope will help when you see conflict coming down the road. As you face the predictable ti