A bad past experience in the church can keep people sitting on the sidelines for years. They might …<\/p>\n
When that happens, we all lose out for the church “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work<\/a>”\u00a0(Eph. 4:16).<\/span><\/p>\n We can try to help a person work through a bad experience, but usually it requires much prayer and patient waiting until the person is ready to let it go and get involved again.\u00a0 Learning to trust again, healing, and the regaining of confidence, all take time through the application of God’s grace and power.<\/p>\n Rather than constantly having to put out fires, work at preventing\u00a0 bad experiences.<\/p>\n 1)\u00a0 Disagreement with policy, personality, or politics in the church that results in negative conflict<\/p>\n Decisions<\/a> must be made by leaders and change<\/a> must be introduced.\u00a0 People will not always like what is presented to them. Often what tears people down and leaves them feeling burnt by the situation, however, is not the decision that had to be made, but the way it was handled. Let’s\u00a0exercise integrity in all we do, yielding to the Spirit so His fruit\u00a0governs how we act and react (Gal. 5:22-23)<\/span>.\u00a0 Perhaps some of the following links will help:<\/p>\n Obstacles in Becoming More Purposeful<\/a><\/p>\n Resources for Conflict Management<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a02)\u00a0 Discouragement because of frustration, boredom, or chaos\u00a0that results\u00a0in disillusionment or failure<\/p>\n This could be a result of not serving in the right place.\u00a0 When people do not serve in ways that fit their gifting and personality, the potential for problems increases.\u00a0 Perhaps some of the following links will help:<\/p>\n Finding Your Best Fit in Ministry<\/a><\/p>\n Ministry Profiling in Staffing<\/a><\/p>\n Tools for Developing Ministry Profiles<\/a><\/p>\n This could also be a result of not being effectively trained to serve in that area of ministry.\u00a0 Perhaps some of the following links will help:<\/p>\n Why Don\u2019t We Train Everyone for Ministry?<\/a><\/p>\n Training of Church Volunteers for Ministry<\/a><\/p>\n Ministry Training Resources<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0Realistically, we must admit that we will not always be able to prevent conflict.\u00a0 We will not always be able to prevent people from experiencing failure in their ministries.\u00a0 We can, however, promote an atmosphere of true community and unity<\/a> in our churches and ministry organizations that provides a safe climate for working through the disagreements and discouragements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A bad past experience in the church can keep people sitting on the sidelines for years. . . . When that happens, we all lose out for the church “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Eph. 4:16). We can try to . . . Continue reading The Effects of a Bad Past Experience on the Life of the Church<\/span>Avoid These Effects by Seeking to Prevent Bad Experiences<\/h2>\n