Diverse

The church, as a structure, is a human institiution and system.  People will become part of a church for a variety of reasons, but that will be shaped mostly by their experiences and with those experiences come complex expectations and assumptions.

Pastors must have relational skill sets, spiritual rootedness, and emotional grounding to navigate the white waters of conflict they will ensue.

Hopefully, as a Pastor, you have the ability to access the joy and life of community for without nurtured relational and social intelligence, you will observe conflict and resistance as anomalies rather than realities of life.

For if not, you will try to take on the toxic forces through reasonableness, love, insight, role-modeling, inculcation of values, an striving for consensus, when in fact you should be taking a stand that sets limits to the invasiveness fo those who lack self-regulation.  Gary Nelson

http://youtu.be/P2RnkPkfN7Y

Related articles

• We're All Imperfect Humans (anoasisathome.com)
• How To Deal With Conflict Over Proposed Changes To Church Property And Furnishings (via Thom Rainer) (garyware.me)