CAUSES OF CONFLICT IN CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS.
Below are some of the factors we have observed as the brain-behind of too many conflicts in the churches in this contemporary time especially among the leadership and those who are working under them as volunteers and paid staff for the attainment of church goals.
(a) Selfish Ambition to Rule over Others:
The first conflict that ever took place was in heaven and it was caused by selfish ambition and lack of satisfaction with a given position.
According to Igbadiwei (2001) “Satan became dissatisfied with his position, so he wanted a higher position than the one the organization could give him, and that led him to reject the government of God set over him and planned a coup with some angels he was able to deceived to topple the government of God. And fought with angle Michael and other angels that were loyal with God’s government, until he was overpowered and cast down.
And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels. And prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan, which deceived the whole world; he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him.
Rev. 12:7-9:
How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nation!**
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit”. (Isaiah 14:12-15).
This selfish ambition to unseat the incumbent leader which started with Satan did not stop there. The world has witnessed consistently this phenomenon both in the secular and sacred organizations.
Many church founders (leaders) have suffered in the hand of difficult to lead church leaders, elders and deacons who from one time or the other threatened to remove them. And many of this group in our churches has succeeded in removing their General Overseers without minding the call of God on him..
( b) Doctrinal Disputes:
Some of the greatest movements in the history of Christianity have grown out of conflicts about doctrinal issues. The present protestant churches were born out of doctrinal disputes.
According to E.G. White (1967) Romanism was the leading doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church which holds that the Pope is the visible head of the Universal Christian religion, invested with Supreme Authority Over Bishops and Pastors in all the parts of the world. The Pope also arrogated the very title of Deity upon himself. As a result, he named himself “Lord God the Pope” and assumes infallibility and demand that all men should pay homage to him.
They also introduced the selling of indulgence which is salvation by good works etc. Any adherent who refused to abide by such doctrine or question the sources of teaching will be seen as enemy to the church and will be treated same.
John Wycliffe was called, “the morning start of reformation”. He was born in Richmond Yorkshire in 1324, he studied Theology and Law at Queens College Oxford, and later became a powerful Preacher. This man was the first to stand against these heresies in the church. John Wycliffe called the Christians not to submit to the word of Pope, which the church considered infallible, but to submit only to the word of God. God spared his life so that millions of people would see the light of His word and be saved, when the Romans wanted to kill him.
John Huss, Jerome of Prague, William Tyndale, John Knox and Martin Luther had no small conflict with the Roman Catholic Church as a result of these doctrinal issues.
This struggle over doctrinal matters continued and finally gave birth to what is known today as the protestant church.
Contemporary Doctrinal Conflict: `
In recent years this doctrinal matters have continued to create problems and some times leads to the splitting of the church in question.
Bible Missionary Church (BMC) here in Nigeria among others have had sufficient problem of doctrinal issues renging from matters concerning speaking in tongues etc. and this has led to the splitting of the then Bible Missionary Church.
(c) Lack Of Motivating Church Workers:
Glen E. Reff (1983) pointed out three essential things which he describes as, “definite building blocks upon which all of God’s work must be built. The first is administration, the second is motivation and the third is production.
The above concept is based on the inspired statement recorded in Romans 12:11, “Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” The word fervent in spirit means be motivated in your spirit. There can be no meaningful service to God and the church organization without proper motivation of church workers by the leadership of the church.
Motivating church workers helps a lot to stimulate their interest in the job they are doing.
Some of the church leaders in the name of General Overseers or General Superintendents are very selfish, self-willed and domineering in their leadership style – that is why most workers especially Pastors working under them would not like to continue after some times due to perceive neglect of their welfare and this some times leads to conflicts and splitting of churches.
M.B.O. (Management by Objective) is the principle that upholds that when workers are working hard to achieve organization goals their own goals should be also achieved through the same organization.
There are churches that have lost their members and workers because they did not take into consideration the individual goals of the workers.
Abraham Maslow (who is considered to be the father of Modern Motivation Theory) (1954) established what he called “the human need hierarchy”.
According to him, human needs can be divided into five categories.
(i) Basic physical needs (physiological needs):
They include ‘food, shelter, clothing, sex. When a Pastor or a worker in the church is doing everything to see that the organization will meet her needs and this same person at the end of the day is not able to meet these basic needs as presented above. He/she will develop “lack of job satisfaction.
The leadership should understand that their work force is in title to have enough food to keep the body and soul together. Live in a good house, dress fine like others who are working in other departments or organizations, and have a life partner and make plans about all these white planning for human resources of the church.
(ii) Safety and Security needs comes second in the hierarchy of the worker’s needs:
These includes job security, when a worker is not sure of the security of the job he is doing he will be there and still look for another job opportunity. Some leaders are good in sacking or terminating their workers appointment without regard to the effect of such action in the life of the worker in question and also to the church in general.
People are ready to put in their best when they are given the assurance that their job is secured.
(iii) Belonging needs: such as love and acceptance, ranked third in human needs:
The leadership should learn to appreciate those who have served in the church for a long time and show them enough acceptance and love. By making them to fill belonging in the church where they are helping to build. There are some church leaders no matter your efforts and years of service; they will still treat you as a stranger except you are from their own tribe or relation.
(iv) Self Esteem Needs:
This speaks of recognizing a worker. There are many ways of doing this. This can be done through promoting the worker or giving him a free hand to develop his ministry while he is still working under you as a leader.
(v) Self actualization or self fulfillment needs:
There is nothing so frustrating than for the church leaders to use a particular worker and dump him at last, which many contemporary church leaders are doing.
Everybody has a dream he/she is living for, some may not know how to fulfil such dreams; it is the responsibility of the leaders to help those working under them to fulfill their life’s dreams.
These are some of the ways to motivate workers to minimize conflict in the church. When all these are lacking, conflict situation is created even without knowing it.
Thank you for sharing this crucial teaching with Steemchurch.
Upvoted and resteemed
AW
Some very good information here! I have also heard of churches breaking apart because there was a disagreement on what color carpet to get!
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As a follower of @followforupvotes this post has been randomly selected and upvoted! Enjoy your upvote and have a great day!