HEALING THE WAR-TORN CHURCH
How a new pastor can help reuinte the house divided.
Michael E. Phillips
July 1, 1991
Only one week after I had candidated and been accepted as the new pastor of a different church, my future congregants began to call. Our conversations were not happy talk, not effusions of "Things are going to be great." Rather, they dealt with the near, dark past and the frightening future. "Pastor, we heard so-and-so is leaving." "Pastor, the church is going to fall apart." After the first frantic call, I said to my wife, "We made a big mistake." In the days to come, two dozen more people called, intensifying my regret and foreboding. In my ministry, I have begun more than one pastorate on a scarred battlefield. As new pastor in a civil-war torn church, you face a frightening task. Though you gallop on the scene like a hero, with back-slapping and cheers and words of encouragement, when you sit behind the desk the first week, the reality sets in-this church really has been at bayonet points. Casualties litter the field. Snipers are still firing. Many combatants remain mortal enemies. Morale is low. The church's reputation is in rags. Soldiers are slinking off in the night. Each time I find myself facing the same questions: How can I lead this people into a new day? Will they follow? Will I fail and not only stain the church's name but soil the lives of good people? In each setting, I've not only drawn increasingly on my experience, but I've sought the advice of battle-scarred but victorious pastors to help me bring healing to a war-torn situation. Here are a few things I've learned. Reconnaissance Patrols
In a war-torn church, I first must appraise the situation. My first question is What skirmishes are still being fought? In one church, I did reconnaissance by arriving in town before my family and staying with some of the families ...
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