God desires that His people live in harmony (Ps. 133:1), yet He sees conflict, not as the opposite of harmony, but rather as the path to harmony (Prov. 27:17). Therefore, conflict is a necessary part of a Christian congregation.
When Christians engage in emotionally healthy and loving conflict, God is at work, maturing His people. When Christians engage in manipulative and shaming conflict, the devil is trying to weaken the Body of Christ.
The leadership of a congregation can facilitate civil engagement of conflicting ideas in discussion. This means that, at times, congregational leadership moves into a “facilitating” role. Wisdom and judgment are required to know when the leaders should be more facilitative, and when they should lead in a directional sense. In general, leaders should move out of the facilitative role when there is an issue of doctrinal truth, when a clearly unloving behavior harms individuals, or when their fiduciary duty toward God as caretakers of His people demands decisive action.
There should not be an effort to silence or suppress conflict, but rather there should be attempts to work conflict through to a resolution, and to reconciliation. Therefore, leaders should encourage all manner of discussion.
