Win, Win Situations

It was a year ago that I had the opportunity to travel to my home state of Texas on business for the company I work for. It was a conference on Win Win Negotiations for purchasing agents, buyers, and salespersons. In this conference, we learned how to negotiate deals that would be a Win Win situation for all parties involved. Win Win negotiations is not just about saving companies money but it's about building lasting business relationships while improving business ethics and overtime saving money (which is the big to do at my company).

Over the past few months (and even more recently), I thought about the conference as it relates to the church and asked myself the question, How many times do we in the church create Win Win situations for all parties involved? Unfortunately, we don't in many cases! Instead, we use the voting system to resolve conflicts and make tough decisions. When in fact voting is not creating a win win situation. Instead, it creates a win lose situation that does more harm than good. Bob Sheffield a pastoral ministries specialists for Lifeway says;

"Church conflicts, which have resulted in strong emotional differences of opinions, are not resolved in a majority church vote. In a majority vote situation, the majority voters may leave the meeting declaring, “We won!” The minority voters may leave with a feeling of, “we lost … but we will get them next time.” The next time may be a month, a year, or longer. As a result of this type of “win-lose” vote, I have observed church families with long standing distrust and built up resentment. When this happens, every vote, no matter how insignificant, becomes a “win-lose” vote".

Let me summarize, Nobody wins in voting situations in the church!

Scripture is silent on the issue of voting as far as it's procedures, principles, etc. is concerned from what I can research. The only guiding principle for voting in the church is "Robert's Rules of Order" which in many churches today have more authority than the Bible.

As I thought about this, the text I'm studying to preach in a series of sermons, FGMBC F-I-R-S-T Essentials - Our commitment to Fellowship - Hebrews 10:19-25. The text exhorts the church to; "Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. And let us not neglect our meeting to together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially that the day of His coming back is drawing near"(NLT).

Creating an atmosphere of win, win is thinking of ways to encourage each member in the church to love and good deeds. The guiding princples in these verses communicate:

First, The Mentality of Fellowship - The text is clear, along with it's many cross references, that we should protect the unity and fellowship of the church by protecting our mind from selfish agendas and impure motives. When we look for, join, and participate in the church, many people come with a mentality of what do you (the church) have to offer? It's on rare occassions when people join and ask, what can I do to help the ministry?

Secondly, The Ministry of Fellowship - Question, what is the goal of Christian fellowship? To encourage one another to outburst of love and goods. True genuine fellowship is more than just hanging out at the church. We come together for the express purpose of encouraging each other to become better Christians today than they were on yesterday.

Thirdly, The Meeting of Fellowship - We should not stop participating in the church with our talents, tithes, and time simply because things don't go our way. The church is not perfect (yet) because the church is filled with imperfect people, like you and I. But thank God, in all of the churches imperfections, He (God) still loves His church and has not giving up on His church nor should you.

Bottom-line: Creating a win, win situation in the church is protecting the unity and fellowship of the church by protecting our minds from selfish agendas, encouraging each other towards love and good deeds, and constantly meeting together in the general assembly of the saints.

Handling differences in the church is not easy and can be very frustrating. But we can overcome differences by creating a win, win attitude in the church. May God bless you until next time.

Remember, your tomorrow will be better than your today!