In my church we have a motorcycle that is used by staff to run errands and there are two people who usually use it. One person is very relaxed and the other is very responsible. I noticed that a conflict was brewing when the second man, during church committee meetings would constantly insult the first man and it was very uncomfortable for everyone at the meetings, particularly the first man as he couldn’t figure out what he had done wrong.
Finally I took the second man aside and asked him why he was acting so aggressively towards the first man and he said that it was because that guy was using the motorcycle too much and most certainly for errands that were not related to church business. After giving this some thought, I had to say I was sorry to him that he had this worry and thank him for trying to be so responsible with church property and said I would speak to the first man.
Then I met with the first man and asked him about his feelings. He said he was hurt because he had no idea what he’d done wrong. I then said that I also needed to apologize to him because actually if I had been more clear about expectations for use of the motorcycle this never would have happened. Then I called the whole committee together for a prayer service which helped us get back on track as a group and when I met with the 2 guys together afterwards they shared their stories had a lot of compassion towards each other. The first man forgave the second one for being mean and the second one forgave me and they are now friends once again.
The Company Motorcycle
-Male church pastor, C2
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