By Jeff Hilton

ORANGE PARK — "A healthy congregation is a congregation that has healthy internal and external tension," said Gilbert Rendle, Alban Institute consulting director.

Rendle brought his message and research experience to a crowd of 40 clergy, staff and lay leaders at Orange Park United Methodist Church Oct. 19. The church was the first of three stops Rendle made across the state with the goal of helping pastors and other church leaders discover ways to harness change-induced tension occurring in every congregation. His workshops are one of the resources being offered by the Leader Development ministry of the Florida Conference’s Council on Ministries.

Rendle well understands the leadership issues clergy and other church leaders face. He pastored two Pennsylvania United Methodist churches before blending his ministry skills with interests in organizational development and congregational research.

Acknowledging churches have the common mission of bringing people to Christ, he said congregations seldom develop at the same pace. He suggests pastors and church leaders should "find the appropriate next step for their congregation."

He referred to congregations that follow established patterns year after year as "satisfied." "Satisfied congregations don’t go any place," he said, adding that leaders in a satisfied congregation should seek to "appropriately discomfort people" with the knowledge that productive change will create tension that can be beneficial.

Comparing members of the G.I. Generation to Gen Xers, he made a case for the first group’s willingness to defer gratification and the younger group’s apparent interest in affecting change very quickly. Saying neither group’s approach is more right than the other, Rendle added it becomes the role of leadership to massage contentious issues, often with the understanding that satisfying one group will likely leave another unsatisfied.

Rendle used the invention of the telephone to illustrate some of his points. He reminded listeners the early phones came in just one color, black. They did not have caller ID, call waiting or automatic dialing. Like the telephone, which now offers more features than ever, congregations must offer a range of worship, study and spiritual growth opportunities to accommodate an increasingly diverse body of worshippers, according to Rendle. He said this accommodation process could require tenured members, content with their church as they know it, to be open to change when newer members and visitors, far more accustomed to change than previous generations, seek involvement in their church.

"The real fundamental of church conflict is when we disagree with one another how do we treat each other," Rendle said.

A majority of his listeners agreed when asked if they often view their congregation as a family and again agreed when asked if their own families experience tension that may pit parent and child or sibling against sibling. Against those findings, Rendle asked if church families get vocal about underlying tensions.

He told listeners, many of whom frequently find themselves as arbitrators of discontent in their congregations, not to "take it personally." He said leaders need to be poised when making decisions that will inevitably leave one or more people unhappy.

Carrill Munnings from Jacksonville’s Spring Glen United Methodist Church suggested leaders must be prepared to address tension among members as they sense conflict rising. "Don’t wait for the lighting to strike before you get a surge protector," she said.