Are there patterns in a church's experience with conflict?

A pattern is a series of actions that tend to repeat whenever a particular situation occurs.  Congregational or organizational patterns are behaviors that tend to repeat when certain situations occur.  For instance, whenever two members have a disagreement in the church, the pattern may simply be that the pastor is automatically called in to attempt resolution of the conflict.  The disagreement could be as small as deciding when to repaint the sanctuary or a larger conflict over church discipline of a deacon.  Another example might be the response of the membership to an attack on the pastor by a member.  Someone may send a "nastygram" to the personnel committee about the pastor's sermons.  The congregation may engage in gossip as a bad habit.  The gossip about the attack on the pastor begins to polarize the membership -- those who support him and those who do not.  Each faction then tries to push the other out of the church through various political maneuvering.  In the end, they force the pastor out of office because of the bitter acrimony among the membership.

The pattern is the general set of behaviors which can be identified and, with sufficient observation over time, predicted during the next cycle of conflict.  Observing the patterns of conflict over time can provide the pastor and church leadership with valuable information for conflict management.  As noted in previous lessons, knowing when a conflict is likely to occur allows one time to prepare for it.  Knowing the pattern of behaviors during the conflict can help the leadership formulate various strategies for successfully defusing and resolving the conflict.
 

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Copyright 5/23/2001, Randy Lariscy.