A Pastor’s Guide to Understanding and Overcoming Church Conflict

The fact of the matter is that the leadership of most local churches will be opposed by antagonists, even from within the congregation.
This book will attempt to answer the following questions:
• How can a pastor wisely evaluate and embrace positive conflict in his ministry?
• What processes will work effectively in Western culture when dealing with reasonable people?
• How can a pastor best handle destructive conflict directed toward him by antagonists in the church?
• What attitudes or actions are helpful to remain positive toward the ministry during times of stress and attack?
• Where can the pastor find help when he is under assault?
This is an important topic that needs to be explored by every pastoral candidate, current pastor, and former pastor. A valiant effort should be made by each person called to serve as pastor or elder in a particular congregation to be prepared for what is coming. We serve Christ in a fallen world that also has spiritual forces that desire for local churches to fail. An enemy of the cross has planted weed seeds in the field along with the Lord’s grain. The battle is already occurring, and courage is desperately needed. Prayer is not optional. There are enemies on the outside and enemies on the inside. We are called to love the human ones. But this does not mean the shepherd refuses to move from the sheepfold a sheep that keeps biting the other sheep and regularly drawing their blood. God is sovereign and we are responsible. Both light and dark providences are allowed in God’s master plan. However, as far as it depends on the elder, they should have a plan in place to deal with divisive people because so much is at stake for so many.