The Small Church Board: Dealing with Problems within the Church

Problems arise in any and every church. The fact that the church is composed of fallen people seeking to serve a fallen world where Satan and his cohorts are seeking to destroy the church means that we will encounter all types of difficulties and challenges. The problems within the church may range from organizational struggles to conflicts, from problems with attendance to issues of program effectiveness. This can be especially problematic in the small church where we feel that we are always living on the edge of financial and organizational viability. Anytime there is even a minor decrease in attendance or giving we feel pressure to respond quickly and decisively to the perceived problems least we lose more people and suffer greater financial shortfalls. Within the small church, problems are exponentially felt because of the rippling effect that it has within the small church and the impact even the loss of one or two families can have upon the whole congregation. Consequently, our natural tendency when problems arise is to react quickly in fear that the problems will escalate and further damage the church. So we become reactionary rather then prayerful and thoughtful in our response. We make knee-jerk reactions that often provide short-term solutions, but fail to address the real issues involved. How we respond can often have a greater negative impact that even the problem itself. In addressing the problems and issues in the church it is helpful to avoid some of the pitfalls that not only will fail to solve the problem, but further add to it. Read more