Barnabas File

Are you part of a nice church or a great church?     A nice church is where everyone gets along because we never really discuss anything of substance.     We value community and fellowship and fear upsetting what we see as a delicate equilibrium in the congregation.     Nice churches will do well but they will never be great churches because they are unwilling to put the effort into dealing with major issues and needs. Let me be honest up front--I don’t like conflict.  On the various conflict management inventories, I usually score high on avoid and/or accommodate.  Conflict makes me tired and frustrated.  I have learned, however, that very little progress is made if we continue to avoid needed discussions and hard decisions. Speed Leas wrote a classic book titled Discover Your Conflict Management Style [i] .  He includes an inventory to identify your default style or styles of dealing with conflict. ...

Are you part of a nice church or a great church?   A nice church is where everyone gets along because we never really discuss anything of substance.   We value community and fellowship and fear upsetting what we see as a delicate equilibrium in the congregation.   Nice churches will do well but they will never be great churches because they are unwilling to put the effort into dealing with major issues and needs. Let me be honest up front--I don’t like conflict.  On the various conflict management inventories, I usually score high on avoid and/or accommodate.  Conflict makes me tired and frustrated.  I have learned, however, that very little progress is made if we continue to avoid needed discussions and hard decisions. Speed Leas wrote a classic book titled Discover Your Conflict Management Style [i] .  He includes an inventory to identify your default style or styles of dealing with conflict.  The lesson to be learned...