The role of the pastor in conflict management: A case study of two Southern Baptist churches affected by congregational conflict

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore which conflict management actions of the pastor were most meaningful to the members of a congregation which experienced significant conflict. The setting was two large, urban Southern Baptist churches in the southern part of the United States. The researcher interviewed nineteen subjects, using the grand tour question, What can be discovered about which conflict management actions of the pastor are most meaningful to the members of the congregation? and two related sub-questions.;The researcher served as the primary tool for data collection and analysis. He used inductive content analysis of the interview transcripts and discovered eight themes related to the pastor's role in conflict management. The members of the conflicted congregations reported the following themes, in decreasing order of the frequency of their occurrence in the interviews: leadership style; rate of change; demeanor; building relationships; preaching; communication; reconciliation effort; and honesty. The accuracy of these themes is suggested by their appearance written documents from the time of the conflict in each church and in numerous non-academic sources on church conflict management. This study suggested that pastors in church conflict situations should pay particular attention to these areas in their ministry to congregants.