Church staff cannot afford to relegate their spirituality with haphazard abandon anymore. Anecdotally, talented staff personnel are being discarded by their congregations and their pastors because they cannot produce fast enough results. The production line mentality still prevails in most North American churches. Slogans and campaigns ushering in “bigger is better!” flood the marquees and lawns of churches in novel disguise—the latest church program, the newest Bible study, and especially, the expansion of building projects. This is the reality of the church today. And because of this reality, the need for church leaders that understand their vocational calling as agents of change and co-creators with Christ are paramount. Conflicts that manifest itself within most church staffs arise from this very reality—the anxiety of producing more for a consumer-driven society.
Inevitably, anger becomes the primary emotion when conflict arises. As church staff personnel are vying for competing budget hikes, volunteers, and valuable time off, there are bound to be moments of conflict that provoke anger. Most of the time, anger is but a cue that church staff feel that the sanctity of fairness has been diminished amongst them. All parties involved have the right to feel what they feel. In fact, anger can be the catalyst for hope and courage:
Anger can give us the energy and the willingness to speak up, speak out, march, vote, protest, refuse to participate, resist evil, and blow the whistle. Anger provides courage, one of the gifts we can receive from anger that grows out of love.
As a visual artist, I am reminded of how many times people view my work either in the field (sketching in public venues) or in a show/gallery setting and tell me that they could never do what I do. I chuckle and suggest that if they really want to learn, all they need to do is practice. They find that amusing but never take me at my word. But practice, practice, and more practice are needed when learning the difficult task of engaging conflict for productive means.
If Christians are not practicing the art of anger as hope and courage, then anger as a knee-jerk reaction will take the shape and form of violence. Like the following story of professor Andrew Lester who, as a young boy, was bullied until he could no longer take it:
When I was in the seventh grade, a boy named Ira transferred into our school. For reasons I never understood, Ira picked on me constantly. His favorite annoyance was to jump on my back when I wasn’t looking. I tried to ignore him, be nice, and avoid fighting, but to no avail. One day when Ira jumped on my back, I didn’t control my anger. It exploded, and I threw him over my head onto the basketball court and began to heat his head on the asphalt. When the coach finally pulled me off, I was shaking with rage. His tears, cries of pain, and the blood on his head also left me frightened. Guilt piled on immediately. Having trespassed against my moral values about not being angry and not hurting people, I was embarrassed by my behavior. I vowed anew never to get angry.
Because he wasn't sure how to set boundaries with Ira, Andrew’s level of frustration increased until he did something about it—something that took total control over him. The sign of a mature Christian is not to smile at all costs, but instead demonstrate integrity through the fruit one bears in whatever setting they may be a part of.
Unfortunately, most church staffs are not trained in conflict management, and even if they were, who knows if they would follow protocol. Again, it all depends on the intentionality of the Christians on a church staff. If they are doing the work of being a disciple, they are, most likely, growing into a mature faith. But conflict on church staff’s will always abound with more frequency when one’s spirituality is left unchecked because “spirituality is the total relation of the whole person to the whole of life” (Jones, 1992). Integration is paramount. The integration of the whole self by way of God’s transformative power (grace) is that which reminds us all that we are children of the living God.
Too many times, church staff personnel work within isolated pockets of ministry. They gather together maybe once a week for the hourly staff meeting. But if true collegiality is promoted throughout the staff, creative dialogue about ministry opportunities and listening to the Holy Spirit’s prompting will emerge. If this sense of collegiality is in place, healthy conflict can be achieved because all will know that they are valued.
*All quotes are cited from Andrew Lester's work The Angry Christian unless otherwise noted.
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