Implementing a Vision in Congregational Conflict Resolution

Opening story

In the recent past, our congregation experienced a conflicted period. We were spending more money than we were taking in, and were depleting our reserves. We had started a capital campaign and abruptly stopped after discovering a lack of commitment and understanding of its goals. Our church staff members were in conflict among themselves. There was a simmering dispute over the longstanding pipe organ fund. After a promising start, our new Senior Pastor was in trouble with some of the congregation and lay leaders. A few vocal members were leaving the church. Giving was down. There was a lot of whispering among the congregation and a sense of angst.

As Chair of the Pastor-Staff Parish Committee (which supervises the clergy and staff) during this period, I noted several behavioral problems with the congregation. There was an ugly outburst against the staff at our annual conference meeting.   Clergy were gossiping about each other. Staff members were gossiping about each other. I was receiving several complaining phone calls at home. Lay members would come to our committee meetings and actually weep in desperation. Some members stayed but publicly announced their intent to stop giving money in protest. A few members publicly quit the church. Other members announced their intent to quit but kept returning each Sunday solely to voice complaints. Members had called the District Superintendent and the Bishop, some supporting the clergy and some requesting change. We were very aware that the number one reason for clergy turnover is unresolved congregational conflict.

I asked myself many times; can’t there be a better way to work through these issues? What does conflict mean to Christians? Why can’t we all “fight fairly?” Should someone have intervened prior to this disruptive time?

Affiliation with JustPeace Center for Mediation of the United Methodist Church

In 1999, the UMC General Council on Finance and Administration gave birth to JUSTPEACE, a unique churchwide ministry designed to offer new ways of resolving the many conflicts faced by the various agencies, organizations and persons in the denomination.  Their mission statement was JUSTPEACE Center for Mediation and Conflict Transformation “is a mission of The United Methodist Church to engage conflict constructively in ways that strive for justice, reconciliation, resource preservation and restoration of community in and through UMC and with the Church universal.” Tom Porter of Boston is the Executive Director.

In 2000, I noticed an article about JustPeace in a church publication and immediately called their office to find out more about it. As an active member of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR), I was aware of the promise of applying alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methodology to faith-based communities. I eventually became connected with Tom Porter and was invited to attend one of their first national gatherings held in New Mexico. The meeting was a motivational opportunity to learn about the national movement of congregational conflict resolution.

Getting started building a new ministry: three steps

Over a few years, several congregational members with a background in ADR came together and agreed to focus on this ministry. Fortunately, our church is very amenable to new ideas and encourages development of new ministry projects. As a first step, we needed to develop an internal ministry team. As a result, we have created a diverse group of twelve members, including a young clergy member and a retired clergy member. We meet every six weeks. As a second step, we crafted a mission and four phase approach to frame our vision. We felt that we needed to present a concrete concept to others before we could expect their support. We decided to initially focus on education, prevention and consulting, rather than mediation of disputes. This was a crucial decision to our future. Our third step was to obtain support from the clergy, especially the Senior Pastor. We presented our vision to the clergy and stayed connected with them over time. Ultimately, the clergy strongly endorsed our work.

Philosophically, we debated over whether to take the path of exclusively resolving conflicts or primarily engaging conflicts. Several churches have built successful dispute resolution centers providing mediation services to members. At our church, we choose a different road that focuses on prevention and organizational consulting.

Crafting the mission

Our current mission is:

1. To promote the healthy resolution of differences among the congregation.

2. To build a more consistently respectful culture in the congregation.

3. To educate our congregation in conflict prevention, consensus building and conflict resolution.

4. To build personal capability in each member in peacemaking as a life skill

5. To serve as a “just-in-time” resource to the Clergy, Church Council, and the Conference

Implementing the mission

There are four phases to our ministry, and will require at least two years to implement.

Build congregational awareness/announce ministry

•Educate congregation on conflict transformation from lay and theological basis through existing church vehicles/sermons/offer workshops on conflict resolution

•Enlist stakeholder groups to gage their interest and commitment to this ministry

Emphasize a relational and preventive focus

•Facilitate building a covenant of staff relationships and a grievance procedure

•Facilitate building a covenant of treatment or civility among church members

•Facilitate covenant of treatment between lay chairs and church staff

Provide internal consultative services to specific issues

•Respond to requests from Clergy and Church Council and Lay Leaders

•Serve as a clearinghouse for referrals

•Support lay leadership skill building

Provide mediation service for reactive conflict resolution

•Perhaps focus on family, consumer, neighbor, and business disputes

•Create neutral panel and offer mediation to church members in areas of focus

2004 leadership survey on conflict capability

In 2004, we conducted a survey of three target groups within the congregation. The three groups were clergy, paid church staff, and the Administrative Board leaders. Each group was asked to answer questions about the past and present nature of conflict in the church. They were asked how church members have handled conflict in the past (fighting fairly or fighting dirty), and what sources of conflict they foresee in the future. Among other insights, we discovered that the clergy see the absolute best and worst with people in conflict, but the Administrative Board (the lay leaders) think deepest about the upcoming sources of conflict facing the congregation.

Challenges to success

We have experienced many challenges to achieving our mission, most of them fairly typical in faith-based and non-profit organizations. The first challenge is simply finding a sufficient number of people with passion in this field.  Very few congregational members have extensive experience in conflict resolution. The second challenge is crafting a compelling vision to motivate the ministry team and sell the idea to the church. Many Christians incorrectly think conflict is only bad and wish “we could all just get along.” The third challenge is overcoming the natural reluctance of church leaders to recognize the need. ADR has not been a major part of the american culture, only litigation. ADR is truly a leading-edge area of church culture and practices. In the beginning, we got a lot of glazed over eyes when describing our vision. Only by articulating our past church conflicts in great detail did we sell our vision.

Immediate next steps in our journey

We have four tactical goals for the upcoming year. First, we will be offering two adult education workshops in the fall. One is titled: Understanding Conflict within Our Church, and explores the nature of faith-based conflict and conflict resolution. The second workshop is titled: Self-reflection within PVUMC: How effectively do we handle conflict today?, and explores the implications of the survey on how our congregation handles disagreements and our proclivity to “fight fairly” and sometimes “fight dirty.”

Our second goal is to offer consulting support to Pastor-Staff Parish Committee, which in the UMC is the epicenter of complaints about church staff and clergy and sets the tone for constructive responses.

Our third goal is to offer consulting support to the clergy in responding to upcoming conflict-laden issues (such as our capital campaign) and in responding to highly conflicted members.

Our last goal is to offer a full-day workshop on congregational conflict resolution to the seventeen probationary members of the conference clergy. This will include a pre-work survey and be a highly participatory and reflective learning experience. Our observation is that seminary must start including congregational conflict resolution into their curriculum.

The Future

Our future is exciting and unlimited. We have many ideas about our future, which include:

Mediation of individual disputes

JustPeace successfully conducts mediations of disputes for the UMC across the nation. Our ministry team is aware that other congregational ADR programs offer mediation of internal and external disputes. This is an exciting option but requires experienced mediators and significant administrative support. This is a later stage initiative.

Avoidance of UMC schism over sexuality issues

We are highly interested in the conflict resolution implications of the recent quadrennial meeting of the global United Methodist Church, in which a small group publicly advocated schism over sexuality issues. We are adamantly against schism as the means to resolve church conflict, and accept the conclusions by researcher, peacemaker and professor Dave Brubaker to avoid schism by an active middle voice of the congregation.

Collaboration with other denominations in the area

The Phoenix area has several ADR organizations and numerous opportunities for faith-based collaboration through non-denominational vehicles. We have informally met with other faith leaders and see this as a future opportunity. We are aware of the rich tradition of conflict resolution in the Jewish, Catholic, and Mormon faiths.

Support of the Bishop and the Cabinet to assist conflicted churches

Any conference has a few “high risk” congregations. These congregations are experiencing some kind of major issue, such as changing demographics, deficit spending, loss of membership, a recent schism, loss of a founding Pastor, splits over sexuality issues, etc. Our ministry team has offered to consult with these congregations and use ADR tools to address their conflicts.

Author Biography

Richard D. Fincher is the Managing Partner of Workplace Resolutions, a Phoenix-based ADR consulting practice. The firm provides mediation/arbitration services to litigants, workplace dispute systems, ADR training, and class action services. Prior to establishing his neutral practice, Dick served as a senior executive in law and human resources with three Fortune 50 corporations.

Dick has been a Methodist for twenty years, and has served as Chair of Pastor-Staff Parish Committee in three different congregations in three states. He serves as a national Board Member of the Association of Conflict Resolution (ACR). He has recently co-authored a book titled “Emerging Systems for Managing Workplace Conflict” by Jossey-Bass Publishers. Dick received his undergraduate degree in industrial relations from Cornell University and his law degree from DePaul University College of Law. He can be reached at 602-953-5322 or rdf (at) workplaceresolutions.com