Great Church Fights
James 4:1-10
SERIES: Great Church Fights Understanding Conflict SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: A father heard a commotion in his yard and looked outside to see his daughter and several playmates in a heated quarrel. When he reprimanded her, his daughter responded, “We’re just playing church!” Unfortunately, that’s not too hard a scenario to believe when you think about all the conflict that plagues the average church. I consider myself extremely blessed by the fact that the two churches I have pastored over the past…
1 Corinthians 1:10-17
SERIES: Great Church Fights Divisive Politics in the Church SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: The old proverb says, “When the cat’s away, the mice will play.” The meaning, of course, is that when people find themselves without proper supervision, they often conduct themselves without proper decorum. This is exactly what was happening in the church at Corinth. The Apostle Paul founded the church there while on his second of three missionary journeys, and he remained their pastor for approximately 18 months. But other cities needed…
Galatians 2:11-14
SERIES: Great Church Fights Heavyweight Bout Over Doctrine and Practice SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Two weeks ago, we learned that there are three major kinds of conflict in the church: positive, negative, and neutral. Then last Sunday we examined a case of negative conflict–one stirred up by divisive politics in the Church. Today we turn our attention to a case of positive conflict—one in which the motive of the person who stirred it up was good, his method of tackling the problem was correct, and…
Acts 15:36-41; Phil. 4:2-3
SERIES: Great Church Fights When Personality and Perspective Clash SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Is there anyone here this morning who likes everyone you work with, everyone at school, and everyone in your neighborhood? I didn’t think so. If anyone did raise his hand, I would be inclined to ask, “Do you lie about other things, too?” I don’t think it’s possible to like everybody. Some people have personalities so different from ours that it takes a yeoman’s effort just to be pleasant to them,…
Nehemiah 6:1-19
SERIES: Great Church Fights Operation Intimidation: Dealing with the Hard-Core Antagonist SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: A stunning article appeared in the St. Louis Post Dispatch several years ago, following up on the story of 15-year-old Kip Kinkel, a young man in Springfield, Oregon. Kinkel killed both of his parents and then shot up his school cafeteria, killing two students and wounding 22 others. The 4-column headline read, “‘Evil exists,’ experts say of school shootings.” As if he had just made a startling discovery but could…
Gal. 4:12-20
SERIES: Great Church Fights When Pastor and Parishioner Clash SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: I’m not sure there’s any more conflict in the average church than in the average business or political party or social organization, but it certainly gets more publicity. When a pastor is fired, or a church splits wide open, or a church member sues the Elder Board, it usually gets front page coverage. We all know how the news media thrived on the conflict between Jim Bakker and Jerry Falwell, the…
James 3:13-18
SERIES: Great Church Fights Are We Willing to Become a Peacemaking Church? SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: For the past two and a half months we have been studying conflict and peacemaking here at First Free. We have examined negative conflicts, positive conflicts, and neutral conflicts. We have carefully studied more than a half dozen conflicts described in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. We have gleaned all the principles we could find about the sources of conflict, the kinds of conflict, and,…