How do I handle conflict in my Small Group?

The fact that you’ve come to this video tells me that you’re having true community in your group. I mean it. If you’re not having conflict, you’re not having community. So what happens when conflict breaks out in your group? Anytime you get several people together and you have different personalities, you’re bound to have conflict. And the Bible gives clear instruction on how to handle it.

The first thing that you need to do, if you’re not involved in the conflict, is make sure that the people that are involved get together and talk one-on-one. That’s the first step. The Bible says, “Don’t get involved until they’ve talked one-on-one.” Now after that, as a Small Group Leader, you may want to get involved. Maybe you’ll want to go to have coffee with them and make sure everything is okay. Maybe you’ll want to sit down and talk with them and just go through some Biblical examples of how to handle conflict. But the worst thing you can do is to avoid it. Don’t let conflict just sit around in your group, because before long you’ll have a whole group in conflict, so do something about it. When conflict breaks out, get the parties together and talk about it, it’s that simple.