Transforming Conflict: Some Keys for Church Leaders

Do you tend to avoid conflict, or view conflict in the church as something negative or destructive? In this article, Alastair McKay, former Executive Director of Bridge Builders, offers some keys that can help unlock a different understanding of conflict. He sets out an approach which can enable leaders to engage with conflict as a source of creativity and transformation in the life of the church.

The article provides an introduction to some of the ground covered in Bridge Builders’ course, Transforming Church Conflict. The course focuses on developing some of the qualities, self-awareness and skills covered by the article, and which are needed by leaders to enable them to work better with conflict. The article was first published in a slightly different form as a chapter entitled “Resolving Conflict” in the book How to Become a Creative Church Leader: A Modem Handbook, edited by John Nelson (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2008) pp. 194-210.