The Case for Closing the Contagiously Conflicted Church: Three Reasons Why it is Necessary

The topic of this thesis focuses on the harm of severely conflicted congregations and necessary reasons for their existence to cease. The rationale behind this choice is that there are numerous congregations that are contagiously conflicted and harming the lives of vocational ministers, the name of Christ, and the witness of the church. This issue needs to be addressed. Having served as pastor of two contagiously conflicted congregations, it is this writer\u27s hope that this document will help others discern if and when such an unpleasant decision is necessary. The research for this thesis was derived from surveys of pastors who may have experienced this extreme conflict, as well as an analysis of those surveys for an understanding of the effects of contagious church conflict