4: Christians behaving badly

By Murray Robertson, Leadership Development Network

Of all the possible reasons why churches stop growing this is the saddest one to write about. Even more sadly, it could perhaps be the most common. In travelling around the country, I constantly hear stories about churches that were doing really well, when sadly something went wrong, the church split, the pastor left, attendance nose-dived and the community looked on in scorn at yet one more example of Christians behaving badly. It would be very easy to lose sight of the fact that on his final night Jesus prayed for unity among his followers, not as an end in itself, but so that the world might believe.

Why does it happen? It's easy enough to say it's a manifestation of sin, which it obviously is. Or that the Devil is having a go at us, which is equally true. But why do we give sin such a place among us? I suppose at one level we should not be surprised. Reading the Gospels is a sobering lesson on how badly religious people are capable of behaving. After all, Jesus' greatest opposition did not come from hard-bitten sinners. It came from the devoutly religious who were utterly sure they were right and Jesus was wrong. But we are followers of Jesus. Presumably we have faced the issue that Jesus is right, that's why we profess to follow him. But in fact many of us do not. The behaviour that is seen in some churches is a pretty clear indication that we are not following Jesus.

So why does it happen? The reasons given are legion, but it seems to me much of it comes down to issues of power and control. In turn, much of that is driven by personal inadequacies and insecurities. We see it at all levels of the life of a church. In the churches that have a strong emphasis on congregational government, the regular church business meeting gives some people the opportunity to behave badly in pursuit of their own cherished ambitions. Other churches that focus on the power of the eldership often see the greatest strife there. Other churches emphasise the authority of the pastor, which in turn often becomes the focus of much dissent and conflict.

A common response to dissent is to call for submission, but often there are serious issues that need to be brought out into the open and discussed. The climate in some churches is sadly toxic and abusive. Much of this often reflects the personal insecurities of people with power. I wonder sometimes if some Christian people enjoy behaving badly.

Sometimes the bad behaviour might be a reflection of some deep unmet need. The older brother in the parable of the prodigal son behaved very badly towards his father. Underlying his anger was a deep sense of resentment towards the father who had not delivered on his expectations for him.

Whatever the reasons, we need to have the courage to recognise our behaviour for what it is, deep sin against the Body of Christ. There are groups such as Resolve who can help with conflict issues, but so often groups like this get called in too late. In analysing why churches stop growing, in far too many instances we need look no further than our own sinful behaviour.

If you'd like to talk to Murray Robertson about working with your denomination or church on this topic, please email him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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