An Experiential View of Conflict in the Local Church: Focusing on Smaller and Medium-Sized Protestant Churches

There are several other books on the topic of conflict in the local congregation. They all make their contribution towards solutions to this problem. However, this brief work zeros in on specific happenings, how they affected the congregation and/or the minister, and are then followed by a denouement of each case. This book also suggests that in many cases there are practical remedies that from experience can be shown to work. Also included in this writing there are some general suggestions on how to approach the overall problem of such conflict in any church in which it may occur. As stated in the book, people are people. And as long as there are people there will be problems. But informed and fair handling can nearly always bring remedy or improvement. Even declaring a type of conflict unresolvable, and one party or the other walking away from it, is an improvement over continuous quarreling. Names of people and places are not used out of respect for the privacy of all concerned. About the Author: The author, Cleon Spencer, has had a varied experience with people, both within and outside the church. So with a people oriented mindset, he seeks, in this his third book, to bring his experiences to a unique focus on trouble spots that frequently exist in the administration area of a local church. Hopefully the author’s descriptions of these troubles will help bring about understanding of them, which in turn will make the troubles more treatable. This being so, the local church thus treated, will be more likely to go on to become a successful congregation; which is the goal and purpose of the book. It is the author’s sincere desire that this book will be effective in the above stated manner.