Dealing With Tensions And Conflicts In Churches And Church Organisations - Part 3 Series

DEALING WITH TENSIONS AND CONFLICTS IN CHURCHES AND CHURCH ORGANISATIONS – PRACTICAL EXAMINATION AND SUGGESTIONS – PART 3

We have been looking into areas where tensions and church conflict may arise. So far we have examined a number of these and today we continue with more, so let’s begin.

[F.1]. ENSURE GOOD ELDERSHIP

I have been for a while in this and that church and it is disappointing in some to see activity but very little substance. This is because the depth is missing and we could conjecture many reasons for that. For a godly man coming into that situation of an ungrounded church, he needs to start at the bottom. It is wrong to appoint a leadership or the equivalent of an eldership as the people are biblically unqualified. The true man of God needs to meet the people where they are and work on two things.

The first is to preach salvation and give invitations for salvation. The second is to take systematic training beginning with the basics and building up, building stronger and stronger Christians. The book of Romans is one of the most remarkable books in the bible, sometimes called “The Gospel According to Paul.” The beauty about Romans is that it can be carefully taught to beginners and mature Christians at their levels. It contains the fundamentals.

Over time with careful nurturing of the people and especially individuals, you can begin to form a group of godly men that could be termed elders, but who need instruction further for their advancement.

Of course you will get opposition if you want to preach faithfully. Tensions will begin to surface. You could be accused of changing the structure of the church or the identity or the ethos. Nevertheless, stand your ground as we had in Part 1 and preach the full counsel of God. There is an absolute certainty these days, I can tell you, for that to be done. Faithful men sold out to the Lord will have opposition and tensions may be high. Jeremiah was persecuted and locked in a foul rock cistern with sludge underneath. He was maltreated but never retreated from the ministry God gave him. There is one other little help I can give you. Look for common Christian men of maturity to share with and pray together, like a peer contact.

[F.2]. AMBITION - MALE AND FEMALE AND FEMALE OVER MALE

I enter a minefield and can only speak what I know. There is no need for attack. The education system these days promotes self interests above the group interests. The rights of the individual are set out as very important. The ME generation is all to the fore.

Once feminists used to be rather extreme in dress and behaviour in the early 1900s, but now they are more sophisticated. The western world promotes the equality of male and female in everything in its distorted modern concept of sexuality, and equal representation as in Parliaments or Committees, etc. even to the inclusion of unisex toilets. The world sees no difference between the two sexes; the education system supports that.

However the church is not the world and neither should it have the world’s values and that means the way God has stated for a church fellowship to work. We can’t go changing that because it might now conflict with the modern distorted world. Feminists are everywhere in the world and I wrote on this in a Series “We Are Not Ignorant Of Satan’s Devices Or Schemes.” It can be found in one of the articles in the series - https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/2-we-are-not-ignorant-of-satans-devices-or-schemes-part-2-ron-ron-sermon-on-spiritual-warfare-277292

Some women have entered church leadership and control congregations, and more and more women now are in leading positions as you see in the Anglican Church of Britain, the Episcopalian church in the USA, and the Uniting Church in Australia, and in many of the Pentecostal divisions. It is one of the greatest causes of tensions in churches by the feedback I receive, mainly from conservative Christians. More often than not the women who have risen to/taken these positions are quite dominant and some are non-biblical in their approach. In a number of liberal churches agenda drives some women, especially a racial and socialist one. I have seen some church sites that are into critical race theory, climate change and social issues on the fringe. Some of the Australian churches are supporting Palestinians and condemning Israel (to their detriment, I might say). The Uniting Church progressing from the Methodists in the 1980s contains some of these radical ideas.

I do not intend exploring the feminist move into churches any further but I do confirm that the tensions are in the churches where this happens. God’s headship in creation is negated but it remains fixed because man is head under Christ. {{1Corinthians 11:3 “but I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.”}}