People Problems in the Pews

May 6, 2000
2 minutes read time
a man sits outside with his head in his hand
People problems are nothing new.
Ben White/Unsplash

Over the years, many Church members have quit attending services either temporarily or permanently because of hurt feelings, offenses or conflict with someone. Although the emotions are understandable, such things are no excuse for withdrawing from God’s worship services.

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God wants us to learn to get along with all kinds of personalities and to love all of God’s children. Services are a workshop where we can practice human relations skills. Fellowship before and after services is a time to build and repair relationships.

God wants us to have a tough skin concerning our own feelings, but to be soft-hearted and sensitive concerning other people’s feelings. Rather than retreating and licking our wounds, God would have us focus on healing the hurts of others.

Even when there has been a serious conflict, God wants us to “turn the other cheek” and apply the biblical principles of peacemaking. (See Matthew 5:38-48.) Prayer, fasting, humility and diligent effort usually bring about reconciliation. Ministers are available to help as peacemakers. And when the other person won’t respond favorably, we can take comfort knowing we tried our best to do it God’s way.

People problems are nothing new. In the epistles, we read of many conflicts among members and instructions on how they were to solve them. We can apply those instructions to solve similar problems.

Jesus Christ, during His ministry, suffered hostility and persecution from His enemies, and even desertion and betrayal by His followers. We can be extremely thankful that He didn’t give up and desert His mission or His disciples because of being hurt. We now owe it to Christ to follow His example of commitment by being committed to the Body of Christ.

personalities
Forgiveness
conflict offense
Body of Christ
Character

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Donald Hooser

Don Hooser is a minister for the United Church of God. He lives in McKinney, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.  He and his wife Elsie had three children, and she died in August 2020.  Don married Judy in January 2022.  Mr. Hooser graduated in 1963 from Southern Methodist University with a degree in mechanical engineering, and graduated in 1966 from Ambassador College, Big Sandy, Texas.  For most of the time since then, he served as the pastor of churches in Ohio, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington. From 2011 until his retirement in 2021, his primary responsibility was answering the many letters written to the Church.