Dealing with Conflict While Shepherding the Flock
Ministry is often not as tidy as we would like it to be. It is redeemed sinners called to minister selflessly, and model Christ to other redeemed sinners. and to reach out to those who need the redemption that is only available in Christ Jesus. Because we live in a sinful world, and because Christians still struggle with sin, there are conflicts in churches and in the practical outworking of local church ministry. Unfortunately, when we think of ministry we tend to glamorize the glorious spiritual victories and the progress of the Word of God, assuming there will be no conflicts in the midst of ministering the Word to people. Ministry does have its great times of rejoicing and blessings, but it also has times of conflict. The true issue deals with how we handle conflict in ministry. The Lord is more concerned that we give him glory in the midst of conflict than that we avoid conflict or that we prevail in conflicts. The Lord even uses conflicts to shape us and our churches into what he would have us to become. Honestly, much of this cannot be learned in formal education. There are probably many pastors in this room who have encountered conflicts in ministry that you never foresaw coming. Even though we have not foreseen conflicts, and often know we are inadequate for the task, God’s Word has the principles we need for dealing with conflict in ministry.
Sources of Conflict
Biblically, there are two obvious sources of conflict: satanic attack and depravity. It is important to note, that if we were living in a sinless world without the presence of Satan or depravity we would not experience conflicts in life or ministry. However, we do live with the presence of evil and sin, so conflicts do exist quite frequently in ministry.
- Satanic Attack
There are several examples in Scripture of conflict in ministry coming from a satanic attack. For example, Ananias and Sapphira were emboldened by Satan to deceive the church and to lie to the Holy Spirit (acts 5). Paul says that some widows in the church had become busy bodies eventually leading to their apostasy, straying after Satan (1 Tim 5:9-16). External opposition to ministry by other religious people is sometimes satanically inspired (Rev 2:9).
- Sinful Hearts
Although it is impossible to discreetly distinguish between the work of Satan and the sinful conflict brought about by human depravity, there are examples in Scripture of conflict that came because of depravity. Demas loved the world, and this love caused him to abandon Paul during Paul’s imprisonment (2 Tim 4:10). The conflict between Paul and Peter over the issue of keeping the law was evidently due to sinfulness on the part of Peter (Gal 2:11–14). Clearly, Diotrephes’s own proud heart motivated him to oppose John and those who had gone out for the sake of Christ’s name (3 Jn 5–10). Certainly, the Scripture contains additional examples. However, this is sufficient to demonstrate that conflict in ministry often comes from our fallenness.
- Genuine Disagreement
Some conflicts do not seem obviously to arise from satanic attack or from human sinfulness. Sometimes the conflicts simply come from genuine, sincere disagreements between believers. These are not cases of clear biblical teaching or principle. An example of this in the Bible is Paul’s disagreement with Barnabas about whether to take John Mark on the second missionary journey (Acts 15:36–41). There seems to be no biblical reason to take Mark or not to take him. It was a simple disagreement. Sometimes Christians have disagreements of this sort. These disagreements ought not to lead to sinful slanders, politicking, or malice.
What are the kinds of conflict that we face, and how should we respond to them? We will answer these questions in the next two posts in this series.
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This post is adapted from the sermon notes of TJ Klapperich at the 2014 Conference on the Church for God’s Glory. Click here if you would like to listen to the audio of this sermon or read the notes in full.
T. J. Klapperich is the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Winter Garden, FL, where he has served since 2006.
Photo by Uriel Soberanes on Unsplash