How do Christians approach conflict resolution in their daily lives?

New Barna data collected in partnership with The Genius of One explores five factors of church community—unity, boundaries, spiritual gifts, conflict resolution and forgiveness—to assess how Christians and pastors perceive and practice each. When it comes to conflict resolution, at least, pastors and Christians seem to have complimentary approaches.

Christians Are Comfortable Resolving Conflict at Home—But Less So in Other Contexts When asked where they feel most comfortable pursuing reconciliation directly and personally (as outlined in Matthew 18) most Christians agree (53% very, 30% somewhat) they are comfortable taking this step in their home. While nearly the same percentage of Christians (80%) says they are at least somewhat comfortable addressing conflict directly among their friends, strong agreement decreases by 11 points.

Across all other contexts, the percentage of those who are “very comfortable” steadily decreases. Understandably, Christians are most comfortable resolving conflict in areas they frequent and with people they know. Hesitation increases when Christians are asked about conflict resolution in an individual’s community, with their neighbors and especially with strangers or acquaintances.

A look at the data on pastors highlights a similar pattern. Asked where they’re comfortable resolving conflict, pastors show the greatest confidence in the contexts of their homes, churches and friendships. They note heightened discomfort, however, when having to pursue reconciliation with supervisors or superiors, with their neighbors and in their local community.