Daffy Duck rehearses his fencing moves in a classic Warner Brothers cartoon: "Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!" His forward thrust is followed by a "thwack!" as the foil bounces back in his face and bends his beak upward. Daffy folds his beak back into place and tries again. "Dodge! Spin! Thrust!" Thwack!

Every time, thwack!

Why is it that in ministry, as with Daffy, many a forward thrust snaps back and something, or somebody, gets bent out of shape? And if conflict is to be expected, how can we reconcile ruptured relationships, restore a Christ-like ethic, and recover our forward momentum?

The participants in this forum have seen the worst of the worst, and they have fenced in some challenging matches themselves—but amazingly, with grace.

They shared some of their stories on Leadership's recent TV seminar, one of a series produced by Church Communication Network for satellite downlink at local church sites (http://ccn.tv). In this roundtable discussion prior to our ...