This is a follow up post to my previous post about the reasons church plants fail.
I think the number one reasons church plants fail (or churches go through crisis) is because there is an inability to deal with conflict well.
I could be spiritual and say that churches operate in a spiritual warzone - and in a war there are always casualties. True - but not much of an excuse...
I have been reading a book on conflict resolution that I want to recommend to you. It’s called ‘Anatomy of Peace’ and it is dynamite! In fact, I have to read so slowly, because I keep being afraid I will miss something.
There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who divide the world into two kinds of people and those who... sorry, couldn’t resist. No: there are two kinds of people in this world: people with ‘a heart of peace’ and people with a heart of war’. They respond to conflict differently. People with a heart of war make conflict worse; people with a heart of peace resolve conflict well. Conflict is inevitable, but ‘how you do conflict’ makes all the difference.
But how do you obtain ‘a heart of peace’? This book helps you get there. It is not a Christian book with lots of bible-truthies in pink cute letters and floral arrangements. In fact: it’s not a Christian book at all (though the way it deals with conflict and heart issues reminds me of lots of truth I also find in Scripture). Written by the Harbinger Institute it tells the story of a group of people who all have their own share of conflict (family, friendships, work- and culture-related). In the course of the story conflict is picked apart and you discover how peace and war work - on a personal scale, as well as on a larger scale.
I wish I had read this ages ago. I have been learning a lot about conflict; how it works, who I am in the midst of conflict and how I can maintain a healthy sense of self in conflict. There are situations in my past that would have had a different conclusion had I known then what I know now.





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