Conflict

Conflict is a funny thing, especially in the church and in circles of leadership at churches. Being a "good Christian", Christ-followers are often passive (including myself) and avoid conflict. Why? Because they don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings…we are Christians right, so we should be nice and loving (or at least give that appearance). Yet, when dealing with issues and topics for the world’s greatest organization and its potential influence, we need to push past our passiveness and be willing to push back, and be willing to do the tough thing at times. Be the one who questions, corrects, debates, and seek what is best.

We can let the friendship be more important than the friend…allow our image to be more important than the team…even put our comfort in front of the success of the organization. Much of this topic is ironic to say the least. The one thing we think we protect when we avoid conflict…unity, teamwork, harmony…is actually what we allow to erode if there is not a culture for appropriate and open debate, push back, and conflict. Because, when there is the opportunity for everyone to put all their ideas on the table, then for debate to follow on those ideas, the result is buy-in from everyone involved, and trust is formed among the team members. The best purveyor of these ideas is Patrick Lencioni in one of is great books, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Watch this short video of Lencioni (he says it much better):