CONFLICT HANDLING

How Modern Day Churches Handle Conflict As It Relates To Public Relations?



Table of Content

Introduction1

Churches and Public Relations1

Conflict in Churches1

Public Image about Churches2

Conflict Out of Hands3

Conflict Resolution by Churches3

Biblical theory4

Resolution According to the Type of Conflicts5

Conflict Care by Pastors5

Diffusing Conflicts6

Resolution of Public Relation Issues7

Developing Healthier Behavior in Church Groups8

The Concept of Permission-Giving9

Conflict Resolution through Outside Help10

Conclusion10

References12

How Modern Day Churches Handle Conflict As It Relates To Public Relations?

Introduction

The topic stated above relates to the problems and issues faced by the churches of the modern time. The main focus is upon problems faced by churches, related to public relations and how churches resolve these issues.

Churches and Public Relations

There is no specific specialist or consultant required for maintaining good public relations of a church. Public relation is simply putting a positive impression on people's mind, which can be done by anybody. It might seem difficult, but in reality, public relation is one of the most convenient tools available to churches that can create a positive impact quite easily.

Lynne Marian studied the importance of public relations for churches. She found that maintaining public relations creates a positive impact of a church which allows ease of communication with people and societies. Moreover, maintaining public relations create a positive image. For instance, a person might desire to attend the Easter event at a church about which he has positive perception whereas, he might refuse to go to another church which do not have much of a positive image. Additionally, public relation, as a tool, can create greater impact than any other advertising. Public relation communicates one-on-one and hence is considered to be more effective (Marian, 2010).

Conflict in Churches

Conflict is not a simple thing at all. However, if we have a desire to be proactive rather than reactive to a conflict situation, we can minimize difficulties and legal ramifications that might flow from disputes. Churches in United States are facing the worst public relation issues than ever before. These issues have been created because of the negative image in people minds. Although, these problems are big but there is nothing unique for churches. Corporate organizations in United States face similar issues but the way these firms resolve the issues are different. Churches cannot recruit management or public relation consultants which most of the corporate organization do in the United States.

Even in general, occurrence of conflicts in churches is not something new. Modern day churches face more problems than before. These conflicts range from issues developing inside the church to the external issues such as public image. The cause of conflict can be sin or a conflict might arise due to a different point of views of people (Swan, 2009).

People gather in churches and, this is a fact that wherever people gather, chances of conflicts remains there. The reason is that the way of perceiving everything, differs from individual to individual. It is near to impossible to control the occurrence of conflicts but, people should realize that it is ...