Alternative Dispute Resolution: A Tool for Managing Leadership Conflict in a Church

Abstract

Dispute within a church is unavoidable since members come from diverse backgrounds which make their opinions and ways of viewing issues different and sometimes conflicting. Management of leadership conflict in a church has not been given much attention despite the fact that leadership conflict is often rampant in a church. Such conflict likely undermines the essence of the church and its leadership, which supposed to be an epitome for other forms of leadership in society. Though scholars have postulated several ways of managing church based conflicts, little or no attention has been given to the use of alternative dispute resolution to address leadership conflict in a church. Hence, the current paper examines how alternative dispute resolution may be use to resolve church based leadership conflict.