Recognizing The Symptoms of a Terminal Disease Called a “Church Split”
If you are a regular church goer or have been serving the Lord for various years, I’m sure you have heard of stories, rumors, church gossip, concerning divisions or church splits. Why would such things happen in any church? What would lead to this? How could this have happened in the body of Christ? Why couldn’t these small groups that make up the church have talked it out or come to some peaceful resolution that would have avoided the negative consequences that a church split brings with it? Could these churches have avoided this? I have asked myself these same questions many times when I hear of divisions or church splits. What went wrong? Didn’t these churches notice the symptoms of what was inevitably coming?
The problem is that when a church split happens, it always seems as if it came out of nowhere, but there were symptoms in that church body for days, weeks, months, and possibly years. Without being detected.
Just as a terminal disease, for example cancer, there are many different forms of cancer that attack different parts of the body for different reasons. There have been people who have had cancer for years without it being detected, and when they finally do, it may be too late. For the person who got diagnosed, it may seem as if it came out of nowhere, but, it has been there for possibly months or years, and the result may be death. The same goes with a division, it may come from different angles and for different reasons, but the result is the same, a church split, which can bring spiritual death or confusion, especially to the weak believers.
What is the root of a church split? The root of a church split is a symptom called disagreement. A disagreement about something that may be going on in the church. A disagreement with the Pastor or his leadership team. Whether it is the themes the Pastor is preaching about that may not be is to their liking. It may be because of a decision the leadership team made about the direction they want to take the church, and they were not in agreement with it.
This is not the first time the people of God were not in agreement with their leader. In the Bible, we see the faithful leader Moses, who God called to deliver His people from the bondage of Egypt. The Lord God delivered them with a powerful and mighty hand, demonstrating miracles and prodigies. To make a long story short, the Pharaoh had no choice but to let the people of Israel go. After Pharaoh regretted it and tried to chase them down, God opened the Red Sea and the Israelites walked on dry ground. Then Pharaoh’s army tried to chase them down into the sea and we read that God let the waters down and drowned the Egyptians. The Israelites were finally free, so they thought. Now they had to learn how to serve and trust in God in the desert.
Now in the desert, the people of Israel would complain and whine about how God should have let them in Egypt to die, and why was Moses doing this to them, no food, no water, and so on. They did this various times to Moses during their forty years wandering in the dessert. Various small groups would continually revolt against Moses, Aaron, and God, when they were disagreement about situations that they were not in agreement with.
What I have noticed is that many times, when people would come to Moses whining and complaining, it was always these small groups of people. These small groups would agitate and spread the whining and complaining to more and more people (like a cancer). Then the people of God would choose sides. Some would stay faithful with Moses and others would take the side of their group’s leader. Let me give you an example. The Bible talks about in Numbers chapters 13 & 14, narrates and tells us the story of when God told Moses to send twelve spies from each of the twelve tribes of Israel to spy out the land of Canaan, which was the promised land. When they came back, the twelve gave good reports; “the land was truly flowing with milk and honey.” “The land was fruitful.” They even brought back to Moses fruit from the land, but they said, “they have fortified cities”, “they have warriors that are giants.” Unfortunately, when it came to the part of the report about Israel taking over Canaan, they had another report, because out of the twelve spies only two were positive, which were Caleb and Joshua, who trusted in God and wanted to go and take possession of the promised land, but the ten spies, which made up this small group convinced a nation that it was impossible to conquer it. A “small group” convinced a nation that it was impossible to conquer. A group of ten negative men, despite all the miracles God has done, still didn’t believe.
According to Grunlan, a small group must have “interaction,” they must also develop a set of “norms”. As time goes on, they develop “roles”, who is the leader, who are the followers, who are the voices of influence in the group and so on (Grunlan 151)? The Bible didn’t mention which one of the ten negative spies was the leader of this group, but one had to contaminate the rest. The outcome, division, punishment, and banishment from entering the promised land.
Now back to the church. Divisions usually start with a small group who is displeased with their Pastor, leaders, and the way the church is heading. Usually these small groups start as fellowship meetings. You know, hanging out, praising God, and so on. Then all it takes is one person to start with the criticizing and complaining about the church. The criticizing starts little by little. Then they justify the criticizing with; “we are not judging or criticizing the Pastor”, “we are just analyzing.” Another symptom to look out for in small groups are the ones who criticize everything. I understand that sometimes we are not going to agree with everything that goes on in the church, but the Bible says in Hebrews 13:17 — Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you (New International Version).
Another symptom of a church split is when one person, rises and has influence over everyone else in the group. They contradict everything the Pastor says, and always use statements such as, “if it were me, I would do it like this.” “If I were the Pastor I would teach, preach, or handle a situation like this or that.” This group after a while, starts to look at, and criticize everything that is wrong with the church. They build up the courage to make a meeting with the Pastor and his leaders and start demanding changes or they are leaving. Many times, these small dividing groups are so full of rebellion, and the changes they demand are outrageous. The leader of this revolting group, knows these changes won’t come and uses it as an excuse to divide the church and possibly, branch off and start another church. The result, as I stated previously are, division, pain, confusion, others leaving, betrayal, and young believers possibly backsliding in pain and disgust.
As believers, we must have the courage and maturity to stand firm in times of division. Now, I understand that a Pastor’s role is to guide and shepherd his/her congregation, but a wise Pastor must have his ego in check. A Pastor must also, know when to be humble enough to discern and hear the disagreements, constructive criticism, suggestions, and needs of his/her church as well.
Talking from personal experience, the divisions that I have witnessed, have happened because the leader did not tend to the spiritual needs of the church. A Pastor as a shepherd must discern as I stated earlier, through the Holy Spirit. If there is a small group who is displeased, the Pastor should sit down and figure out what they can do to resolve the situation. I’m not suggesting for the minister to give in to all their demands, but at least listen to them and possibly consider some of their ideas. Unfortunately, this is part of the politics that enter the church. Politics will always enter any situation when you are working and serving the people. We can not please everyone, but as servants, we must meet the needs of the people. There are times that the answer will be no. I truly believe that if we show love to our church, and are humble, and learn how to communicate better, a lot of misunderstandings, divisions, and church splits may be avoided. Remember, we must know how small groups work, because the church is made up of families, that are small groups as well. It is not easy, but with the guidance, wisdom, strength, and love, that the Holy Spirit gives us, all things are possible.
It is not easy to work with people, but when we see the Glory of God manifested in their lives in the church, it is truly worth it.
Works Cited
Grunlan, Stephen A., and Milton Reimer. Christian Perspectives on Sociology. p. 151. WIPF and Stock Publishers, 2001.
The New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011. Print.
