Conflict occurs sometimes in the day-to-day operations of a church.  Feelings get hurt and egos are bruised.  Rash decisions are made that aren't in the best interest in fulfulling God's mandate on His church.

I'm reminded of the story from I Kings 3:16-28.  Two women who lived in the same house had small babies at about the same time.  One woman had apparently accidentally smothered her baby in the middle of the night by rolling over on it. When she realized what had happend she slipped her dead child beside the other woman, and taken the still living child as her own.

When the other woman awoke, she was horrified to find the child dead.  After close examination she realized this wasn't her child at all, and that her housemate had taken her baby.

The women went to King Solomon to plead their cases.  They each argued that the living child was theirs.  King Solomon had to make a decision.  How would he handle the dispute?

Solomon asked for and received his sword.  He announced that since he couldn't definitively tell which woman was the rightful mother of the baby, he'd cut the baby in half.  Each mother would get one half of the baby -- the split would be equitable.

One woman was horrified at the thought, and begged King Solomon to spare the baby's life.  She said she would rather see the other woman get the baby than to kill the baby to satisfy the dispute.

The other woman told King Solomon to go ahead and kill the baby.  If she couldn't have the baby, then neither could the other.

Solomon knew from this who the real mother was.  He knew the one that ultimately cared more about the baby's welfare than about her own desires was the mother, and gave the baby to this woman.  Solomon was a very wise man.

Often when dealing with church matters I pray for Wisdom like this.  Because there are people in churches today who would just as soon see the ministries of the church die, or at least crippled, because they don't get their way.  They are like the mother of the dead baby.  If they cannot get what they want, than neither will anyone else.

These bitter people forget that we are charged with a mission far greater than we individuals.  We are charged with caring for God's kingdom.  Even as they acknowledge with their words that we are about God's Kingdom, they forget that caring for God's kingdom means reaching out to the hurting, the poor, and those who so desparately need to learn of God's love, grace, and compassion.  But they'll throw it all away in an act of defiance just so someone else doesn't win.