Firestorm: Preventing and Overcoming Church Conflicts

by Ron Susek, D. Kennedy (Foreword)

Practical suggestions on how to avoid and overcome the destructive interpersonal conflicts many churches have experienced with leaders, members, and pastors.

Genres: Leadership

257 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1999

Reviews

[Nathaniel Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was painful to read the story of Central Baptist Church. Not because the writing was poor, but because of the accuracy of the tale. Even as a young Christian, unaware of all the invisible power structures, hidden agendas, and old conflicts I felt the wring of truth in the tales of these invented characters. The principles which Susek uses this story to exhibit were enlightening. Some points, such as, the importance of an established church culture, I had never considered to be something worth respecting to prevent conflict. Susek provides good advice fueled by powerful examples in this book making this book worthy of respect and attention.

[David Meiklejohn · Rating 3 out of 5]

What happens when trouble brews in a church? According to this guy, without it being checked it builds into a firestorm. He looks at lots of reasons this can happen, and the devastation it can cause, and particularly at what a pastor can do to deal with it at the various stages, including when it looks like all is lost.

[Madelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredibly painful read, but one that is incredibly necessary. Beneficial for anyone involved in church leadership- and there’s even a chapter for church members wanting to be peacemakers as well. Susek balances hard and honest realities with a keen sense of hope and grace.

[Walt Walkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Susek provides some valuable insights and information in this book about the causes of "firestorms" in church. I believe the book is targeted more directly to the pastor than perhaps the leadership board of the church. While I felt like I garnered some good information, I did think Susek left some difficult questions unanswered, and that the book was tedious at times. It was easy for me to set down, but I am glad I read it.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as I waded through the implosion currently underway at Mars Hill Church. It was fascinating how dead-on much of the timelines and scenarios seemed to be--just with different names. It's a great read for anyone working through and processing church conflict.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good.

[Timothy Bandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firestorm

Good book for dealing with conflict in the church
I would recommend it to anyone caught up in a firestorm.

[Greg Davenport · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book to read in preventing conflict in church.

[Rob O'Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent introduction to conflict management for ministers, but not in the way the author intended.

Primarily, his theology of how God is involved in the genesis of conflict is completely skewed and has no legitimate theological basis. Essentially, according to Susek, God sends destructive conflict upon congregations in order to test their faithfulness. God causes irreparable psychological and spiritual trauma to befall generally good people for...reasons that align with the author's surface-level, quasi-evangelical theology but do not really stand up to the best practices of organizational theory or even biblical teaching. Ironically, his chapter on Satan's role in conflict is written in such a way that it is very difficult to distinguish between God and Satan, at least when it comes to congregational conflict. Thankfully, there are only two chapters in this volume that fly completely off the rails in this way (chapters 11 and 15), which can and should be ignored.

Additionally, while the author claims that he is providing a paradigm for analyzing and redeeming chronic conflict, he actually provides a paradigm for analyzing and redeeming acute conflict. This is more about the "blow ups" that come from nowhere, that occur simply because a wrench was thrown into the works. Conflict is understood, generally, as something that is always present and is necessary for healthy development. Susek's view, partly due to his inappropriate theological view, sees conflict as all-the-time evil and to be avoided at all costs. This, as a paradigmatic concept, flies in the face of systems theory and organizational health models.

However, it does match the more acute, crisis-centered models of conflict. This means that the books is accidentally good and worthy of reading.