Conflict in the local Church Fellowship is not reason to leave your Church. Paul the Apostle addressed a lot of church conflict in his letters in the New Testament. I cannot find a place where Paul tells fellow believers to leave and to go to another Church where it will be more encouraging and less confronting. So many leave church at the first sign of conflict. Paul’s response is to encourage believers to make things better. If we do not do this, it may stop God’s greatest plan for your life. Again if one leaves because of conflict someone has said, “it shortchanges God’s best work in our midst. It sidesteps the process of repentance, forgiveness and grace. It negates the power of the gospel to bring reconciliation where reconciliation might seem impossible. We and those around us miss out on all of it when we just leave”.
Also if you leave because of believing in gossip or rumor instead of finding out the truth first from the Elders or Pastors, one has taken the wrong course of action. They have taken the way of the enemy who is the accuser of the Brethren. We must follow after the truth. Certainly all conflict may not be able to be solved, but we know that reconciliation which God desires is impossible without repentance.
Please remember that true repentance starts with us. And so does the extending of grace and always accepting those who hurt us. I don’t think there is anyone I would turn away from in all the years I’ve served the Anchorage Moravian Church. Bitterness is a sin. So is unforgiveness. Let’s boot that out of our Church body.
When make up our minds to remain true to the local church body where Christ and His Holy Spirit puts us, we will keep repenting in brokenness and humility and offering our forgiveness. I encourage myself and everyone else to keep on when God makes it clear that you are a reason for conflict. We are to keep on repenting and offering God’s grace of love and unity. God certainly works through any kind of conflict and His best work may be in this conflict.