Week 3 (Church fight (originally taken from week 10))

Michael Berens
Week 3- Church Fight

I interviewed Rachel Demarse, a pastor at Exit 59
On Friday the 16th of January, 2009

I go to a relatively new church, so the problems that build up over the years are just not as existent. I did however hear about one story involving a ministry that is still going on. I asked Rachel about it and she told me the details, though they will not all be available to the public eyes of this blog. It is relatively short fight but it seems to still linger around.

It is now time for Background:
We have a ministry called Muffin Mingle. It is a time where people can come early and interact with each other around the eating of muffins. We have coffee and tea available as well. The thought was people would come to church earlier and stay later if there were muffins for people to socialize around. It turns out that people are not as into this idea as the staff was. In fact the congregation of families and College students are far from prompt in their arrival time. In fact most people show up right at 9:00 or 11:00 and expect breakfast, which this ministry is not. People even grew angry when the muffins were not available after church had started. So this ministry of muffins turned out differently than projected.

The issue:
Two members of the staff decided that muffin mingle was not working and strongly proposed that muffin mingle should stop. The staff was about six people at that point. The other four were very surprised and were stubborn about keeping it even though they were not as involved as the two people bringing it up.

How bad it got:
The two eventually got fed up with the stubbornness of not hearing them out and erupted. One thing was said and finally they all stopped. It took a little time and then it cooled down. I would say on a bad scale it was a medium at what was said, but it was only on an emotional level and not so much on an attacking level. No physicality was involved and that helped greatly.

What could have resolved it—What someone should have done?
From what I heard I feel as though listening ears should have been given all around. On account of the four people that were stubborn and did not agree with the proposal, they did not have the experience of dealing with muffin people. So maybe they should have had a learner’s ear towards the situation. On account of the two that wanted to nix the muffin ministry, they should have come with a more humble attitude towards asking. If they did that, maybe they would have been heard on a better term. Someone should have stepped in and declared a revaluation on the muffin ministry and then hold another meeting concerning the ministry to se the actual effectiveness.