• A respected church member persuaded other members to invest thousands of dollars in a business venture. When the venture stalled and he refused to return their money, the investors complained to the pastor. The businessman rebuffed the pastor’s inquiries, so the elders mentioned the possibility of church discipline. A threatening call from an attorney successfully intimidated the elders, however, so they simply asked the businessman to find a new church. He complied and quickly chose a new flock to prey on, but he continued to bilk other members at the first church out of thousands of additional dollars. When those investors later discovered that their leaders had known of the businessman’s schemes and did nothing to warn them, they threatened to sue the church! The shepherds were discredited, the flock was ravaged, and the “wolf” continued to prowl.
• A couple was dismayed to discover that a teenage volunteer had touched their daughter inappropriately on a Sunday school outing. Fearing that other children might have been similarly wronged, they asked the church to do a thorough investigation of the youth ministry. Thinking that the parents were actually laying the groundwork for a lawsuit, and dreading the scandal that might arise if people learned of the incident, the pastor downplayed their concerns and tried to cover up the incident. After being avoided for nearly a month, the mother mentioned the incident to her cousin, who had recently graduated from law school. Within three days the legal wheels began to turn, and the youth worker, pastor, and church were soon named in a $100,000 lawsuit.
• A woman came to her pastor for advice on how to respond to her cold and indifferent husband. Sincerely wanting to help her, he provided godly and compassionate counsel. One afternoon when his secretary was gone to a doctor’s appointment and the woman came in for counseling, she hugged the pastor and told him she had developed an emotional attachment to him. When he pulled away, she felt rejected and ran from his office. He lay awake all night wondering if she was going to endanger his reputation by claiming he had made advances toward her. She did. The next day her husband came to the church, angrily accusing the pastor of trying to seduce his wife and threatening to call in his attorney.
• A couple asked their pastor for marriage counseling. During their discussions, the husband admitted that he had occasionally lost his temper and struck his children in anger. The wife eventually gave up on counseling and filed for divorce. In an effort to help her obtain custody of the children, her attorney asked the pastor to testify that the husband abused his children. When the pastor refused to testify against one of his own church members, the attorney served him with a subpoena, which required him to appear before the judge or face charges of contempt. The husband’s attorney found out about the subpoena and moved to block it in court. He also hinted that he would sue the pastor if he disclosed to others what his client had shared in confidence during pastoral counseling.
• Two young women came to their pastor to confess that they had both been sexually involved with a man they met through their church’s singles ministry. Finding their confessions to be all too credible, the pastor approached the man to talk with him about taking sexual advantage of the two young women. The young man angrily said that his personal life was none of the pastor’s business. When the pastor disagreed, the man retorted, “I’ll make this easy for both of us. I’ll find a new church, and you can just forget about it.” The pastor later learned that the man had left his previous church for the same reason! Now he had moved on to a third church and was reportedly attending their singles group. The pastor agonized over what to do. He wanted to protect other women from being seduced, but he had heard about other pastors being sued for defamation or invasion of privacy for talking to other churches about former members.

Each of these examples is based on an actual conflict in a church. Some of these conflicts were resolved through Christian conciliation, while others evolved into lengthy lawsuits. But all of these cases, and hundreds like them, have one thing in common: they could have been prevented or resolved more easily if church leaders had learned and consistently applied the biblical and legal safeguards we will discuss in this section of the website.

As you study these safeguards, keep in mind that risk management in the church is not primarily about building legal walls that will satisfy a judge. It is first and foremost about practicing biblical wisdom in a way that will please God and bring him glory. To put it another way, your best defense against destructive conflict and legal liability is to be thoroughly and consistently biblical in the way you relate to one another in your church. If you embrace this principle, you can secure three priceless benefits:

• You will prevent many conflicts by reducing the likelihood that people will be surprised, offended or harmed by a practice or activity of your church.
• You will reduce your church’s exposure to legal liability by preventing major conflicts and threatening lawsuits from developing.
• You will protect your leaders from being intimidated by the threat of being sued as they carry out their God-given responsibilities to shepherd their flocks.

Practicing these principles will take a significant investment of time and energy. What many churches fail to realize, however, is that they are already investing heavily in the conflicts that plague their personal, family, and congregational lives.

By devoting time and energy to teaching your people to be peacemakers, your church can prevent hundreds of hours from being squandered on conflict. In the long run, the relationships and time you redeem can be devoted to extending Christ’s kingdom.