Growth in Times of Conflict

“We’ve got to stop fighting or the church won’t grow.” I hear this a lot. But its only partially true. We’ve got to stop fighting for certain but that has nothing to do with growth. Nothing. We’ve got to stop fighting and instead find healthy ways to discuss and work through our differences. Jesus gave us a Biblical model to do that. Have we sat down with those we disagree with? Or are we just spouting opinions about others? If we have indeed listened to different opinions, then have we had discussions with third parties present? Or do we escalate the discussion to those in authority first?

Perhaps we’ve done all of these things and still disagree and it’s time to part ways. But that doesn’t mean we can’t grow.

This past year our church went through a very tense time. There was conflict. There were discussions. It wasn’t always pretty. But we grew. We grew! We continued to have visitors. We continued to have new members join. We confirmed students. We Baptized. We grew spiritually. We grew numerically.

Growth comes when we put God first. Putting God first doesn’t mean we a free from conflict, it means that we use a model for healthy conflict. To be fair, putting God first doesn’t always mean numerical growth. Or spiritual growth for that matter as it doesn’t feel like growth when we are wrestling with God.

But conflict doesn’t mean we can’t grow. God is bigger than our conflict.

Until Everyone Hears,