Dealing with Problems

There are certain things that you hear in your life that you may never forget. It can be as simple as just another way of looking at something or perhaps a completely new thought or idea that had never occurred to you prior. I don't think I will ever forget a statement that was made in my Practice of Church Music class: "Anytime a church has a large number of policies, you can tell that they have had many problems in their past."

I have found this to be true in most any organization that I have encountered. Why is that? I believe it is because we would rather make new policies than actually deal with the problem. Example: somebody in your Homeowner's Association puts up a really ugly shed and at the next meeting they vote to create a policy about what type of shed is acceptable for your association. Why not just deal with the problem in a loving and caring way? If the ugly shed really concerns people because it could detract from their property values, then simply explain the concern to the owner. Perhaps people could help find a means to beautify the existing shed.

But we don't usually do this. After all, this the United States of America where the majority rules. So, if most of us think it should not be allowed we can just regulate it through policies and procedures. And, sadly, we have carried this into the local church as well. Believe it or not, many people think that each member in the church has a right to make decisions about what the church does and how it functions. However, we should all know that the church is supposed to be a Theocracy (God rules) not a Democracy (majority rules). The church members are tasked with discovering what God wants and then uniting together to see that His work is carried out.

So, does your church deal with the problems or simply make more policies? If your church has hundreds or thousands of little policies, it is possible that your church does not know how to deal with problems. But God gave us biblical instructions for dealing with problems...and not just in the famous Matthew 18:15-17 passage, although it is a great place to start.

I am a problem solver. When someone comes to me with a problem, I look for the answer to fix the problem, not just a solution around the problem. However, modern philosophy teaches men that when a woman shares her problems she doesn't want an answer, she just wants us to listen. Perhaps that is the reason we have so many de-masculinized organizations and churches. We no longer have people willing to work toward fixing problems. We are afraid of conflict because that word denotes negative actions. Conflict makes us think of war, or men fist fighting in a western bar, or boys giving each other a black eye.

Conflict is a result of any problem and is something that we will always have as long as this world exists. How we deal with conflict is important to the resolution of a problem. Policy making, however, rarely solves a problem. Next time your church wants to create a new policy, ask them if they have actually worked to solve the problem first.