Conflict over Offenses in Church

Offense-Free Church

The word church came from those called out to a Greek town meeting, an assembly. So, we are not in the Church unless we also attend church meetings, with obvious exceptions. In any group of human beings there will be problems. Matthew 18:15-20 addresses how to handle offenses in the church. Now that can be taken to the extremes of abuse or neglect. We can be aggressive and annoying or be passive and unconcerned. Neither extreme is healthy. We ought to speak up but we also ought to pick our battles carefully and not nag about every peccadillo. In many churches pastors are evaluated only once a year lest they become discouraged, and the same ought to be true for any of us. We ought to talk to each other over major offenses and not over every little thing.