Reconciliation

Ideas to Consider in a Possible Reconciliation Process

1. Ministers, church leaders, deacons, church council and committee members and organizational leaders will make diligent efforts:

	To recognize and admit that the church is in a troubled condition, on a plateau and perhaps declining, with conflicts between persons, and differences of opinion as to causes and remedies.
	To pray earnestly and regularly, attempting to discover and follow God’s will rather than our own;
	To regard each fellow leader and minister as a called servant of God and gifted with unique spiritual gifts, yet fallible with human weaknesses;
	To confess our individual weaknesses and ineffectiveness as church leaders, ministers and lay leaders alike.
	To share concerns directly, with forthrightness, honesty and integrity, generally taking a Christian brother or sister to share and listen;
	After sharing concerns directly with individuals involved, if additional action is deemed wise, to share with appropriate church leader(s), and to avoid “triangulating” or exacerbating the problem by talking to the wrong people in the wrong places or wrong ways.

2. Employ and utilize the coaching-consulting ministry of the Center for Congregational Health, involving every minister and key church leader in the process. (This is a ministry of the Baptist Hospital School of Pastoral Care in Winston Salem, NC. Visit the web site at http://www.healthychurch.org/ The Center works not only with Baptist churches, but with various churches and denominations. Check with your denomination agency for similar help.)

3. Provide for every full-time minister to participate in the “Career Assessment” ministry of the Baptist State Convention. (This is a ministry provided by the North Carolina Baptist State Convention and other state conventions. Visit the web site at http://www.ncbaptist.org/index.php?id=182 Check with your denomination agency for similar sources.

4. Request the Personnel Committee, with appropriately selected additional church leaders, perhaps with a chosen deacon, to schedule and conduct - weekly at first, then monthly - personal goal setting and progress measurement sessions with each staff minister and office staff.

5. Recognizing that significant former members and key church leaders have chosen to leave the church for what they perceived to be just cause, to secure the assistance of an independent research-survey consultant to interview former members and to prepare a composite report while protecting the confidentiality and integrity of persons involved.

6. If reconciliation and/or the forward progress of the church is not accomplished in a reasonable and timely way, to work toward necessary changes in ministerial and/or lay leadership in a forgiving and merciful spirit, yet with integrity and decisiveness, so as to bring healing in the church family, to accomplish the Great Commission Mandate of reaching and discipling people, and thereby accomplish God’s will in the church.

For more information about church growth and church health, contact Robert Stewart, email rstewart55@nc.rr.com