"SOME CHURCHES DON'T DESERVE A PASTOR," an old area minister told me. This fellow served our denomination in placement and conflict management, so he'd seen a lot. As a young pastor, I doubted him. I grew up in good churches.

Looking back, I can recognize there was conflict in the churches of my youth. But none of them split or, as far as I know, destroyed a pastor. During my college years, the pastors and churches in conflict that I observed conducted themselves appropriately— even in the midst of tension. God used the conflicts to advance the discipleship of these pastors and churches.

Following seminary, I worked as an associate pastor with a senior pastor who endured continuous conflict in a church that had a history of bad relationships with pastors. In his gutsy tenure of pure steadfast love, he outlasted many of the troublemakers and straightened many of those who had apathetically condoned the troublemakers over the years. The pastor who followed him has done well also.

So when I ...