A Church And Conflict Management

Last updated on: July 5, 2018 at 12:04 am by Scot McKnight

A Church And Conflict Management 2018-07-04T19:36:28-05:00 Scot McKnight

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Is Paul’s approach to conflict an example or not? (From Conflict Management and the Apostle Paul.) The following post, which kicks off a series on Paul and conflict comes from a book I was privileged to write with my DMin cohort at Northern Seminary.

Here’s how this project worked: Lauren Visser and Greg Mamula co-wrote a study of conflict management theory in modern thinking. (The chapter is a model of description and will be of value to any pastor or staff thinking about how to manage conflict.)

Then each student, working with another, wrote chapters on various conflict episodes in Paul’s mission experience. Students were not asked to whitewash Paul but they were asked to do their best to evaluate or compare Paul to the opening chapter by Lauren and Greg. I believe more writing makes for better teaching, preaching, and communicating in a church. I also believe writing about tough issues like this sharpens our minds with one another and also gives us angles on Paul that we might not otherwise have.

There is no reason we have to think did conflict perfectly; we don’t idolize Paul. Yet, he opens doors to valuable discussions, and our seminar on this topic was one of the highlights of my academic career of teaching.

I wrote the introduction and it follows:

Buried into the back of your copy of Paul’s letter to the church of the Roman colony, Philippi, is an apostolic urging that may well be the precise reason Paul wrote this short (in Pauline standards) letter. Two women, Euodia and Syntyche, are urged “to be of the same mind in the Lord” (Phil. 4:2; NRSV). Lynn Cohick, in her commentary on Philippians, observes that some argue that the situation in Philippians 4:1-3 about Euodia and Syntyche is minor, unimportant, or incidental.” She’s right, and one could create a long list of scholars who agree. But Lynn turns the corner noting that “most recent commentators hold that Paul’s concern for unity between these [two female leaders and] believers is central to the letter.”[1]

The story repeats itself. Bible read by males, Bible read for males, women in the Bible ignored or silenced or unnoticed. In a letter about unity shaped by the word “same” (1:27; 2:2; 3:15; 4:2), in a letter justly famous for the Christ hymn (2:6-11) but which is provoked into appearance in this letter to teach Christoformity and sacrifice for others in order to maintain unity (2:1-5), and in a letter where fellowship (1:5; 2:1; 3:10), the first real mention of anyone in particular is these two women. What are they told? To have the “same mind” (3:2). I am of the view, with many others, that the division between Euodia and Syntyche both shapes the problems at Philippi and represents the problem. The problem is division and the need is unity.

Granting that non-controversial conclusion, I want to approach this from another angle, one I have not seen or heard. How do you think Euodia and Syntyche responded to Paul’s putting them on the spot? To Paul’s degrading of their status in the community by calling them out in this letter, which would have been performed publicly for all in the congregation and house churches to hear?

So let’s imagine what they might have said in their defense, and we’ll get to what he said that they surely needed to be of the same mind about below. It would not have been a stretch of imagination for the Christians of Philippi to know, first, about some of the Apostles Behaving Badly. I’m speaking here of the public outburst of Paul against Peter and Peter’s rather obvious failure to live up to the gospel that includes gentiles. The story is told from Paul’s angle in Galatians 2:11-14. Details aside – was Peter eating pork? Were the Jewish believers demanding circumcision? – the incident itself is enough to tell the story of apostles. “One mind, Paul?,” Euodia and Syntyche ask.

And, second, we can reasonably think that Paul was not himself of “one mind” with either Barnabas or John Mark. One can read up about Paul’s strong disagreement with Barnabas over taking John Mark on the mission trip subsequent to the Council in Jerusalem (Acts 15:37-40). Earlier John Mark had jumped the mission trip ship and headed back to Jerusalem (13:13) and Paul didn’t like it. Barnabas, correctly it turns out, saw more in John Mark than did Paul at the time. Euodia and Syntyche could have looked Paul square in the eyes and said, “One mind, Paul?”

It takes no imagination to know that what festered between Paul and the Corinthians was anything but unity, fellowship and one mind. One communication after another – 1 Corinthians, the severe letter, 2 Corinthians, which may be more than one letter, one trip after another – Paul, Timothy and Titus each trying to work things out. Any reading with sensitivity can see that 2 Corinthians 10-13 is Paul’s response to accusations made against him by the Corinthians. They couldn’t be entirely wrong, could they? “One mind, Paul?”

These three examples could at least have flashed through the mental screens of Euodia and Syntyche when they, sitting in the house church – one of theirs? – heard their names and heard as well Paul’s urging of them to be of “the same mind.” Did they even hear Paul continue with “help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life” (4:3)? And who is this “companion”? Perhaps Epaphroditus, perhaps Luke, perhaps Timothy. Whoever it is, he is being urged to work with Euodia and Syntyche to come to agreement. There are many things we don’t know – including what the point of their dispute was. What we do know is that they were fractured and they were contributing to fracturing in the Philippian house churches.

If they continued to listen, however, they heard Paul affirm them publicly, and that was noteworthy and valuable in a world driven by status and public honor. If they listened they heard him tell the whole church that they have been companions with Paul in gospel work – which means evangelism and teaching and discipling and suffering. If they listened they heard him label them with his most noble term: “co-workers.” If they listened they heard they were to be classed with the leader Clement. Most noticeable, they heard him say they – in spite of their tension – were names listed in the “book of life.” This is Paul’s way of saying they are on God’s side all the way.

Whatever they heard they knew that the tension at work between them, however, was at work in Paul’s own life and mission. Paul could surely point to fractured relationships now healed – which is the case with Barnabas (1 Cor. 9:6), Peter (9:5; 15:5) and John Mark (Col. 4:10; Philemon 24; 2 Tim. 4:9, 11), and it is noticeable that Peter is now getting along with John Mark too (1 Pet. 5:13). I am not suggesting directly that Paul could respond to their flashing mental screens with his stories of fractured relationships now made healthy again, but we could.

What I am saying is that Paul is not perfect; only Jesus gets that place in our minds and hearts. What I am saying is that Paul is not a perfect pastor and his approach to conflict is not always consistent with Jesus’ or even with his own gospel of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:16-21). What I am saying is that in the book that follows we will take conflict management theory at its best, which for pastors at least is Christian principles put to use in management theories, and examine the apostle Paul. He comes out pretty well, but not unscathed.

What I am saying is that Paul is like us and he needs to grow just as we do.

[1] Lynn H. Cohick, Philippians, Story of God Bible Commentary 11 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013), 208.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

July 4, 2018

We Value Diversity

Next Post

July 5, 2018 Of Moldy Walls and Foreigners (RJS)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Acts of the Apostles Adam Advent Anabaptism Angels Anglican Apologetics Atonement Baptism BCP Prayers Bible Biblical Studies Birds Blogging Bloglossary Bonhoeffer Books Calvinism Christianity Church Church History Coffee Colossians Commentary Recs Conversion Creation Creeds Culture Death Ecclesiastes Economics Education Embracing Grace Emergent Emerging Movement Eschatology Essays Ethics Eucharist Evangelicalism Family Fasting Fathers Fellowship of Differents Footsteps Tour Fun and Whimsical Gospel Grace Happiness Heaven Hell Holy Spirit Irenaeus James Jesus Jesus Creed Job Justification Kingdom of God Law Lectures Lent Liberalism Love and Marriage Mabanteneni Manhood Mary Miracles Missio Alliance MissioLife Missional Missional Jesus Movies and Film New Perspective Northern Seminary OneLife Origins Project Orthodox Parables Pastor's Spouse Pastoring and Leading Pastoring and Preaching Patristics Paul Paul-John Tour Pharisees Pietism Political Theology Prayer and Formation Preaching Problems for Faith Psalm 119 Psalms Public Issues Purgatory Religions Resurrection Revelation Romans Rule of JCreed Science and Faith Sermon on the Mount Sports Ten Commandments Theology Third Way Top Ten Lists Translations Uncategorized Universalism University Ministry Way Out Weekly Meanderings Wisdom Women and Ministry Work Worship Writing & Blogging Youth Ministry

Select a Month July 2021 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In what city did the disciples first preach to Gentiles and were first called Christians?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Corinth Ephesus Jerusalem Antioch