Group Conflict--It Happens in Business, Family, and Church
Proverbs 16:28 (CSB)
A contrary person spreads conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.
Whenever the people of a congregation are effectively living the Christian life then we know that the Holy Spirit is involved. And when the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding followers of Jesus, there will be peace in the congregation. God will burden them for those who have not heard the Good News and had the chance to be saved from their sentence to Hell. God will use them to comfort the brokenhearted.
However, when people are not being led by the Holy Spirit, when they are not surrendering each morning to Jesus, then conflict and every other sinful activity will manifest itself in their lives. Then, they will bring their inner confusion and anger to church.
Also, Satan hides lost people in the church in order to lead Christians astray. Jude had something to say about this in his letter to the churches:
These people are dangerous reefs at your love feasts as they eat with you without reverence. They are shepherds who only look after themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn—fruitless, twice dead and uprooted.
Jude 1:12 (CSB)
If your church has a conflict--little or large--I have a book available online that is suitable for a study group in the church. I use the metaphor of a seagoing ship with barnacles as a euphemism for a church with "dangerous reefs at your love-feasts" or "trouble-makers" in the church.
Here are quick summations of each chapter:
Chapter 1--The reality of church sin and carnality
Chapter 2--The cause and cure for carnality
Chapter 3--Is the church about worship or fellowship?
Chapter 4--The barnacle of unconfessed sins within the church
Chapter 5--Tough-love as a barnacle remover
Chapter 6--Politics in the church
Chapter 7--The need to realize the role of Satan in a carnal church
Chapter 8--Becoming the pastor in the hearts and minds of the people as well as in fact
Chapter 9--How to handle aggressive opposition
Chapter 10--How a healthy fellowship repels barnacles
Chapter 11--The traits of a Barnacle Buster
Chapter 12--A Barnacle Buster's work will model Christ's act of clearing the Temple
Chapter 13--Some churches suffer from group mental illness.
Find the book online at www.amazon.com. Or follow my links at https://www.boblewisministries.org/books. ##