Conflict in church. We see it all the time. Anyone with sense would say the obvious: that getting a whole load of people together with different personalities, tastes and cultures will inevitably lead to disagreements. However, we can say more than this.
Beyond the superficial disagreements ("I've had enough of tea and quiche!"), I believe much disagreement comes from the perspectives that come from the five-fold gifts of leadership. To find out about these, read the pentagon blog. And these disagreements can be more serious and more legitimate.
For example, the apostle might say to the teacher, "all you care about is reading the book! You've missed what God is doing in our city!" The prophet might say to the pastor, "perhaps you should try listening to God more than other people!" And the evangelist may say, "all you care about is the people inside the church! What about those on the outside!"
The truth about balance: many try and resolve the conflict by trying to strike a balance. "We don't want too much of this or too much of that" - when actually we need more of everything. But more importantly, things need to come in the right order and with the right basis and purpose.
As mentioned in the pentagon blog, the church must be lead with an apostolic leadership at the helm, along with the prophetic. This maintains the focus that Jesus prayed: "Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven". Heaven on earth. This doesn't mean we want less of the rest of the five-fold. What it means is the nature of the other giftings must be such that they fit around this prayer and all visions that come from this prayer.
This means we will absolutely pursue good teaching, evangelism and pastoring and an apostle will encourage that, but always in the vain of "what is God doing here?" or "how is God's kingdom being established here?" Without being rooted in an apostolic ministry, teaching can turn into nothing more than an intellectual transaction rather than the life-giving spring it was designed to be. Prophecy can become a purposeless obsession with dreams and visions. Pastoring can become trying to please people and evangelism can become simply a way of filling up empty seats. As such all endeavours by any part must come around the pursuit of the Kingdom - heaven on earth. To do an activity for its own sake is very short sighted.
Of course, this is where the conflicts are most likely to arise - where each part is not in its rightful place and when the apostolic is not at the base. Where there are distortions, people don't see the other groups as in conflict or tension - remember what they are against is the distortions of them. Of course, what is also essential is that people have humility to be led. The apostle must lead and the others must accept his or her leadership (not in a dominating way), and not expect their ministries to be the "main thing". (The ministry of the apostle is not the "main thing" by the way - the "main thing" is the Kingdom of God).
As such, many conflicts can be resolved. There will still be some inevitable tensions as each five giftings (and therefore perspectives) seek to model a church which works best. However we do not avoid these conflicts, but seek to resolve them with the aid of love, humility, patience....basically good character (or the fruits of the Spirit, if you like).
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