conflictThis past Wednesday in our regular weekly Bible study at Team Expansion’s Int’l Services office, we tackled the challenge of trying to document some of the typical roots of team conflict. It was interesting enough to me that I thought we should expand on our discussion here in the “BackPage” of Brigada. As our springboard, we read from I Cor. 1, where Paul says he’s glad he hadn’t focused so heavily on baptizing people personally, simply because he was starting to get sick at his stomach of the number of ‘name-droppers’ who would somehow try to ‘glory’ in the fact that they had been baptized by Paul himself. So one of the roots of division and team conflict might be pride, do you think? :-) Whenever we are unwilling to give way to others, because we value our own needs above others’, we concluded that conflict would always be the outcome. Other causes might include inflexibility, selfishness, lack of communication skills, and more.

What are some of your own theories as to why missionaries, national workers, and home office personnel sometimes can’t (or won’t) get along? If you quote a source in your response, please point us to it. And thanks in advance for any tips you can provide.

Doug