Week 7: Church Conflict Story

1.  I interviewed Pastor Matthew Trexler on Wednesday February 18th at Starbucks

2. This happened while Pastor Matthew was working on staff at his last church.  A pastor (Phil) on staff became aware of another assistant pastor who's actions with a parishioner who was a part time office worker were beginning to cause concern among people in the congregation and members of the staff.  The pastor was having one on one lunch meetings and behind closed door meetings with this parishioner.  The pastor was single and the part time staff person was married, regardless of this fact however they were not acting above reproach.  Phil, other staff members, and members of the church congregation began to notice this issue and so Phil approached this other pastor on staff to enlighten him to the issue.  Phil was told by the pastor that there was no issue and that none of his actions were a cause for concern.  Due to the lack of desire to change his actions, Phil then approached the senior pastor.  Phil informed the senior pastor of the issue and also included that the issue was causing disunity among the pastoral staff and among the church congregation.  Although Phil stated these issues to the senior pastor, no confrontation was made.  Phil then re-approached the senior pastor saying that the issue with the pastor who was not above reproach in his actions must be resolved today.  Phil laid out how to handle the situation with the other staff member but still no actions were taken by the senior pastor.  Finally, Phil began to realize that no actions would be taken by the senior pastor.  A response to the issue finally came when the local church board got involved and eventually told the district superintendent.  This issue caused pastors to realize that their leader was not willing to take necessary steps to protect the church and its members and Phil realized that it was time to resign.  This issue caused relations to be strained between staff members and the senior pastor.