Guided by fear

I was just making some observations recently of how many churches are frozen by fear. Fear in many forms. Fear of the future and some of the signs they see of decline and aging of the congregation is one many are dealing with currently. The greatest fear that I run into is the fear that is leveraged in many congregations by a few people who know that fear of conflict is their best ally. How many churches are being held captive by those who not only threaten to but actually do drop the "trouble" grenade. Business meetings and hallway encounters are often scenes of the display of power tactics that is crippling many of our congregations.
So what can be done about it? I am convinced that at the very least we must begin to recognize as congregations that it is not the few people who are creating the fear that are the problem. The real problem is the majority of good hearted folks who just don't want to hurt any one's feelings and thus allow the control. Churches do not turn around because difficult people stop being difficult, churches turn around when enough folks stand up to the potential troublesome issues and alter the church culture. Some one can lead the way and say, "We are just not going to do things around here that way any longer." But someone has to lead the way and be willing to pay the price, oh that God will stir up a restless discontent among us to the end that we will not allow fear of fear to overtake us. Much is at stake and generations ahead of us will be affected by our choices.