Norma Cook Everist, Church Conflict: From Contention to Collaboration. Abingdon, 2004.
Referenced in: Understanding the Dynamics of Church Conflict
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This is a good text overall, but Section 2 is especially heflpful. It contains an excellent discussion of seven conflict styles – avoidance, confrontation, competition, control, accommodation, compromise, and collaboration – along with the negative and positive uses of each. It also gives exercises for readers to reflect on their own history with each style, and anecdotes from Cook’s dialogue with many typical church members regarding their experience with or reactions to each style.
From the Publisher
Norma Cook Everist lays out a variety of responses to conflict, running the gamut from avoidance to accommodation to compromise to collaboration. Written with the real needs of congregations in mind, this book will serve as a reliable guide to all who wish to move through conflict into a more effective and authentic fulfillment of their calling.
About the Author
Norma Cook Everist is Professor of Church and Ministry at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. She is editor of The Difficult but Indispensable Church (2002), and author of Open the Doors and See All the People: Stories of Church Identity and Vocation (Lutheran Voices, 2004).
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