Understanding congregational splits

Fred Starke and Bruno Dyck

Conflict within the life of the church is a reality as old as the church itself. It happens because all of us are imperfect human beings who remain incomplete in this life. The New Testament speaks of conflicts over correct teaching, moral issues, worship practices, church policy and other issues. While conflicts may be packaged a little differently in our time, the core issues are much the same.


When any two human beings interact, conflict can be expected. Since God didn’t clone us, we live with diversity, and hence with conflict. If it is said of a married couple, “They never had an argument”, we can assume, as pastor Bob Radtke used to say, that “one of them is unnecessary”.

The church will inevitably experience conflict. However, many evangelical churches have become very good at avoiding conflict. In a world committed to “feel-good” activities and self-gratification, conflict is not considered desirable.

There tends to be an “official” position about how a church is doing which goes something like, “We’re fine. Things are great here.” This often arises from a well-motivated but misguided desire to speak well of one’s church. People seem to think that if they say it often enough, it will be true. But it is a little risky to imply that one is trouble free, since Psalm 10:6 indicates that this is the position of the arrogant.

The bottom line is that conflict arises because the church is unhealthy. Though we bear the image of Christ and have saintly qualities, we are still sinners as well. The best response to conflict is to work at being a spiritually healthy congregation. This means that we regularly need to confess the lack of health among us. Scripture contains many admonitions to allow God to search our hearts, and warns that it is easy to be deceived about our condition. The call to corporate heart searching appears often in the prophets. But it seems that many churches have no forum, no evaluative process which would serve as a checkpoint.

A church is rightly concerned about those who always complain or are “negative”. Unfortunately, legitimate and well-founded evaluation may be dismissed with the negative and complaining variety. A friend told me recently that she and her husband approached the leadership of their church with a concern about church life. This step was undertaken with a deep desire to enhance body life. This couple was told by leadership that they were not to be so critical and negative. Yet, theirs was an attempt to bring a concern to the right place, rather than simply gossiping behind the scenes.

In Malachi, the people asked, “How have we ever despised Your name?” and “How can we return [to God] when we have never gone away?” (Malachi 1:7, Malachi 3:7 NLT). The presumption of innocence is a risky place to be. When churches insist on maintaining a “positive” climate and silencing evaluative comments, they may be hindering Kingdom work and silencing the voice of God through His people.

In part, I am talking about the difference between peacekeeping and peacemaking. Ron Susek refers to this briefly in his book about church conflict, Firestorm. Peacekeepers tend to avoid conflict and remain passive. Their approach may create a larger explosion than necessary down the road. Peacemakers, on the other hand, invite participants into a process where all can be heard, no one is silenced and all involved speak in love and truth, without denial or falseness.

Related to this is what Christian psychiatrist John Toews calls “a ‘theology of nice’ that can . . . hide a volcano of emotions” (No Longer Alone, p. 85). It’s interesting that of the many Christian virtues mentioned in Scripture, such as kindness, compassion and gentleness, “niceness” is not among them. This is a modern term which has little to do with true Christian spirituality. Larry Crabb speaks of polite Christian societies which bear little resemblance to true Christian community. A climate of niceness still pervades many of our churches. There is something false about this which hinders true body life and truth-speaking. It allows the fires of conflict to be stoked, but seldom to be addressed.

When we truly understand the inter-relationship between pain and praise, positivity and negativity become side issues. We need to create an environment which fully invites and releases the joy and excitement we have about our faith story and the saving work of Christ, yet which at the same time keeps us humbly aware of our sin and our wounds. We need to focus on being both a confessing and truly celebrating body of believers.

The apostle James asks “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you. . . . You want only what will give you pleasure” (4:1,3 NLT). There is a version of “airhead Christianity” around which clings to its own comfort and does not wish to be disturbed by anything too messy or too deep. To enter conflict requires courage, commitment, love, vision and wisdom. “Don’t worry, be happy” is a joke. Let’s not be among those who “dress the wound of [God’s] people as though it were not serious” (Jeremiah 8:11, NIV).

Hilda Klassen is a Christian counsellor in private practice and a member of Forest Grove Community Church in Saskatoon.

Last modified May 31, 2005.

© 2005 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
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