April 2024 | Volume 19 | Issue 4
When Your GO Team Doesn’t Agree
Dealing with conflict over how your church does missions
Are there sharp differences of opinion on your global outreach (GO) leadership team or committee? Sometimes these conflicts erupt in open disagreements in team meetings but often they are tensions just under the surface, the sleeping bear that no one wants to poke.
Discord almost always delays and sometimes totally derails full missions engagement. Yet despite the serious consequences, many GO teams seem paralyzed to resolve disputes. Conflicts may revolve around core missions priorities, activities, or administrative decisions. Sometimes the root cause is personality clashes and power struggles. Regardless of the reason, it is important not to assume differences are unreconcilable, but instead to prayerfully and honestly address the discord and undertake the hard but biblical work of finding resolutions.
Don’t assume differences are unreconcilable. Instead, prayerfully and honestly address the discord and undertake the hard but biblical work of finding resolutions.
Conflicts that revolve around a church’s missions priorities and strategies are beyond the scope of this article. However, Catalyst Services is developing new resources that focus on how to creaet a missional compass built on these core elements. Contact us for more information.
This Postings provides concrete suggestions for tackling the other sources of team conflict. None are simple antidotes but rather launch points to help missions teams and team leaders begin to address disagreements and move forward.
BIBLICAL DISCERNMENT IS THE CORE PURPOSE
Their Story
Their StoryThe missions team had their usual lengthy list of agenda items as they gathered for their monthly meeting. But this particular evening, a former missionary opened their session with a talk on biblical discernment. His challenge launched an extended conversation that eventually led to reshaping the team’s definition of their purpose and generated a new enthusiasm for their role. The thesis was simple: God calls us as a leadership team first and foremost to the process of corporate, biblical discernment. Using Ruth Haley Barton’s book, Pursuing God’s Will Together, as a guide, the team redesigned their primary task to be spiritual discernment of how God wanted their congregation to pursue missional engagement.
Unify around decisions based on discernment that is prayer saturated and Spirit led.
As a GO team grapples with conflicting opinions, they have the privilege of coming humbly to God asking Him to unify their team around decisions which are based on discernment that is prayer saturated and Spirit led.
Several strategic affirmations form the foundation for a godly discernment process:
- We acknowledge and celebrate what God has done in the past through the church’s missions program and missions workers. Any contemplated changes are not a judgment of what has been done in the past but rather an eagerness to maximize our congregation’s potential for even greater things in the future.
- We humbly agree to reject an “us” versus “them” mentality. We want to lay out options for prayerful consideration without assuming anyone holding a different opinion has improper motives.
- We will respect the leaders God has placed over this church. We may ask for reconsideration of a decision based on additional information and/or our sense of discernment, but once final, we will move forward in the unity Christ prayed for in John 17.
LEADER ACTION STEPS
Their Story
The GO team’s monthly sessions often included lengthy debates about missionary personnel matters that failed to result in action. Some members were eager to implement needed changes, but the opposition of a couple of long-time members prevented any real progress. Making decisions was also complicated by the fact that several people on the team were close family members of supported missionaries who could be impacted by proposed changes.
When a new leader took the helm of the GO team, he met individually with each person and listened carefully. In his private conversations with those who were related to missionaries, he was relieved to find that they were willing to step out of any discussions and decisions that could impact their relative. Next, he got the team’s approval to set up a task force to begin work on a set of policies that would streamline future decisions. There were still hard conversations ahead, but as they took steps forward and saw results, the team was energized to continue working together to resolve conflicts.
Is your church’s GO team paralyzed by similar difficulties? What can a team leader do to see their team regain forward momentum?
Dedicate time to listening one on one
When GO team members hold conflicting opinions about an important pending decision, it is wise for the leader to meet individually in advance with those championing differing viewpoints. The team leader must approach these meetings with a sincere desire to better grasp not only the team member’s opinion but also what has led them to embrace it. Each member deserves to feel that they have been heard. These one-on-one sessions may also provide opportunities to discuss the rationale behind others’ opinions.
Clarify how decisions will be made
First, make sure your team understands their authority. What decisions has the church delegated to them? In what situations do they make a recommendation to the pastor, elder board, or other leadership body that then makes the final decision? What decisions does the missions pastor or GO team chair have authority to make?
Second, must the GO team have unanimity on decisions or will a simple majority vote allow the team to move forward? If majority approval is sufficient, then team members must agree to support whatever decision is made, even if they have not voted in approval.
Help the team understand different perspectives
Creating corporate listening time is also essential. If older members of the GO team are resistant to new ideas coming from younger generations, invite Millennials or Gen Zers to describe for the group the mindset of their peers and why innovative approaches are needed to involve their generation in missions. If the proposed changes originated with the senior pastor or other church leaders, set up a time where the team can hear from them the goals they want to achieve.
Sometimes leaders are married to a method, but they have forgotten what the original reason was. Clarifying why that method was used in the first place makes it easier to transition to a new method. We can say, “We’re still addressing the same issue but in a different way that works better for younger generations.”
Missions Pastor John Frye IV as quoted in the January 2024 Postings
As viewpoints are expressed, the leader is responsible for making sure that one or two voices do not dominate the discussion but that all are encouraged to express their opinion. Sometimes an additional option will surface that indicates the fresh leading of the Spirit. Ultimately, the leader is responsible to move the team forward to make a decision. Gracious but honest dialog doesn’t resolve all differences but can be the basis of mutual respect and, in many cases, movement toward a win/win option.
Learn from those with skills in conflict resolution
Many churches have members with professional training and expertise in team building and conflict resolution. Asking them to coach the leader or meet with the team provides an opportunity to use their skills to serve missions. They may be able to introduce fresh techniques on how to brainstorm options, make sure everyone is heard, avoid endlessly looping in repeated discussions, and bring the group to a consensus in order to move forward.
Courses and books on biblical peacemaking can help, too. Some churches have a peacemaking covenant that could guide the GO team. If conflict persists, an outside coach could be engaged to help the team resolve disagreements.
Create an environment of creative experimentation
Different generations (and cultures, if the church is multicultural) view and engage in missions differently, requiring fresh approaches. At the same time, almost every GO team has some members who resist change while others thrive on it. A wise leader will suggest that their team incorporate new ideas as short-term, pilot projects rather than immediately making them permanent. After a trial period, honest evaluation of the effectiveness of the new concept can give the GO team opportunity to scuttle, adjust, or continue it.
Incorporate new ideas as short-term, pilot projects rather than immediately making them permanent.
TEAM ACTION STEPS
Establish policies and keep them up to date
In the past, many churches developed an extensive manual of detailed policies that covered dozens of situations and streamlined decision-making. However, long policy documents have proven difficult to keep up to date. Briefer guidelines that are current and broad enough to cover essential issues are more feasible. These policies should always complement a clear missions vision and strategy.
Create a task force
Additional investigation may be needed to make a good decision when the GO team is not in agreement. Rather than involve the entire team, a task force can be assigned to return with more information and a recommendation with rationale. Asking members who are more neutral on this particular issue to serve on the task force may make it easier to find a compromise solution or identify the best way forward.
Adopt a dual-program approach
If conflicts revolve largely around traditional vs. younger-generation priorities and styles, some churches have decided to sustain their “legacy” program while at the same time they also empower a new team to experiment with fresh approaches. This option requires additional leadership and resources, and a degree of cooperation between the teams. Evaluating this dual approach after a set trial period is important.
Their Story
This congregation was once known as a premier missions church in its city but the majority of the former members either moved further out into the suburbs or passed away. A young pastor is now rebuilding the congregation with neighborhood families unfamiliar with missions. The missions committee, made up of long-time members, was frustrated by the dwindling interest in their traditional missions activities. Recently a Millennial-generation couple with missionary experience joined the church and today are leading the missions team into a respect-the-past, embrace-the-future mentality. The church’s support of beloved, long-time missionaries continues while new creative family programs are reaching diaspora members of their community. This couple are godly bridge-builders who are patiently working to balance old and new.
Divide your leadership team. Sometimes the best solution to conflict and the route to maximize every team member’s gifts is to rearrange the seats on the proverbial leadership bus. In many churches, the GO team is comprised of two very different types of leaders: Some are emotionally attached to missionaries and have a heart of compassion to serve them; making difficult administrative decisions upsets and discourages them. These people need to be recruited for a separate missionary care team tasked with lovingly caring for the church’s global workers. Meanwhile, those with gifting in the area of strategic planning can be empowered to move forward in new directions. Everyone wins!
RESOLVING DISCORD IS NOT EASY
Acts 15:36-40 recounts an unresolved disagreement between Paul and Barnabas regarding taking John Mark on an upcoming missions trip. As a result, each man chose different partners and traveled in different directions. God used this conflict to expand the number of teams carrying the gospel across the Roman world.
Two millennia later, there are still painful disagreements among leaders that are not easy to resolve. As with Paul and Barnabas, rather than allow clashes to wreck ministry, it may be best to part ways. Sometimes collaboration will become possible in the future as apparently happened between Paul and John Mark as Paul commends him in 2 Timothy 4:11 as “useful to me for ministry.” Paul’s changed attitude likely was at least partially the result of growth in John Mark.
Their Story
The youngest member of a local church’s missions team clashed with the rest of the team over both priorities and methodology. Excited by what he had learned in Perspectives, he eagerly tried multiple ways to introduce change into his church’s very traditional missions program. His efforts were largely rebuffed, and he was tempted to quit multiple times. But over a matter of years, various things changed. This young man matured in his leadership style, and his commitment to serve established his credibility with older church leaders. Attitudes began to shift, and today some of his ideas are being adopted. He has become a valued younger leader.
Is your GO team mired in conflicting opinions? The worst response is to pretend they don’t exist or give up and assume that “we just live with it.” The Holy Spirit outlines God’s expectations in Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians: “being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind” (2:2). Let’s not settle for less.