[Michael Phelps]

I think the major difference between dealing with problems in the church, and dealing with them in the world is that we are taught, either subliminally, or blatantly, to not engage in conflict in the church. Don't confront the situation, ignore it, pray about it, whatever, and it will go away. But it doesn't. The hurt festers, the wound gets infected, and it's just never a good idea to ignore problems, conflicts, hurts, etc.

In my job now, I still have disputes with people, but we immediately go into my office and have them out. We may yell, scream, pound our fists, but when we leave, the issue is resolved.

When I pastored, I dealt with people who were openly rebellious. I had to put up with that. It caused great stress on me. In my current role, if I have issues like that, I can deal with them openly and quickly, and if the person refuses to line up to the job expectations that they agreed to, I help them with other career opportunities.

When I have a disagreement with my boss, I can now go into his office, state my case, we discuss it, and I live with the final decision.

In my HUMBLE opinion, what creates more hurts and deep wounds in a church is the inability, or unwillingness to confront issues head on and work them out. If we could all do that, I think the church would be a much happier place.

But, again, just my two cents.........