No Growth Without Conflict

Chuck Wickman, the founder of Pastor In Residence Ministries, has commented that: “the primary stressor experienced by pastors, leading most often to forced resignation, is VISION CONFLICT, the ugly pastor/pew rift over how the life and work of a particular church is to be understood and acted upon”.[i]

I experienced a pastoral resignation over what I think was largely a vision conflict.  My forced resignation was another of the 1,500 to 2000 per month annually in the US.

Will I or should I return to gospel ministry? Can good come out of this? What can be the role of a conflict in your life? In particular, I want to bring some perspective to an “exit” due to vision conflict.

1. What is vision conflict?  My description of “vision” in the church is: the spoken or unspoken values, expectations, and mission of a congregation with its own unique history, gift mix, and setting of time and place. “Vision Conflict” is a disagreement about these values of communal life in the church.

Let’s use Barnabas and Paul in Acts 15:36-41 as a basis for discussion. My belief is that the “sharp disagreement” between them was a vision conflict. There is no hint of an ethical or doctrinal disagreement between them. Each made a judgment call according to the individual faith each possessed by the Holy Spirit.

Barnabas was a gifted missionary/pastoral/encourager who “saw” the Holy Spirit still working in a valuable John-Mark; Paul was a gifted missionary/evangelist/pastor/church planter ready to leave Barnabas’ tutelage and be a leader in his own right with his own team. He considered John called Mark baggage he was not willing to risk again at that time.

So there was a disagreement between them about how their existing missionary team should proceed…or not. They are both seasoned leaders at this time and as such they know “where to go and how to get there”.  But expectations can be resentments waiting to happen (especially in long established churches and/or where “buy in” of the vision by leadership has not really been achieved).

1. Can there be growth without conflict? I believe that only with conflict (ideally constructive conflict), including vision conflict, can personal and corporate growth result and the Kingdom grow.

Note first that  on a personal level Paul is ready to form and lead his own missional team. Barnabas has “succeeded” in his leadership training of Paul and Paul is ready to go onto the next stage of his ministry.

On a corporate level there is growth also. The parting of Paul and Barnabas has the practical effect of nothing less than a further division of labor in the economy of the Kingdom. One team has divided to produce two for spreading the gospel to the nations.

Again on a personal level: I perceive that Paul later gains the fruit of humility in his later recognition of John-Mark as a valuable co-laborer in the gospel ministry (II Timothy 4:11). Sometimes we see conflict as a thing to avoid at all costs (and I am not saying to go looking for it unnecessarily), but there is no growth without it. Paul’s growth in His meekness was an eventual benefit to John-Mark and the whole church.

I remind you that believers are united with Jesus in His life and death and resurrection. Therefore for you, like Jesus, there is no glory without suffering, no crown without the cross, and no freedom from sin without conflict with sin. God has a purpose for your struggle, failures and abiding weakness. His grace is sufficient. So much for my own idol of worldly success in the ministry!

1. How can you have hope after vision conflict and its aftermath? The church program named Pastor in Residence Ministries has been used by the Lord since 1986 to bring hope to the bruised and hurting “exited” pastor.

After my own forced resignation, and some initial pride, I humbled myself to join the PIR program at our local Refuge church. I found renewed hope in the fellowship of the Body who grieved and rejoiced with me.  I experienced acceptance by God’s people, which led to my own inner acceptance that God was working all things for my good and to His glory (Romans 8:28-29).  I benefitted from the gentle grace of the Affirmations Group Study small group. Those faithful friends spoke truth into my life and pointed me to Jesus, my hope.

The Lord used the Pastor in Residence Ministry to help me count my losses and to experience a healing hope, a movement from the past to the future. Hope is future faith. Christian hope then is not wishful thinking or messianic dreaming; hope is the firm assurance that God has a plan for your life in the future…one day at a time. Where does your hope lay: self, environment, others or Jesus?