Confronting Conflict Quotes & Sayings

In short, a spiritual teacher needs to inject conflict into a disciple's life. Without conflict, we remain at levels of immaturity and don't grow spiritually. The conflict is likely asking us the question, "When are you going to grow up?" Jesus was consistently challenging his disciples by confronting them with their levels of immaturity. Within congregational life, there needs to be a kind of psychological contract between pastor and people that "sometimes I'm going to make you quite uncomfortable in my sermons and in my personal conversations with you." We should not accept spiritual messages that just always make us feel good about ourselves - a feel-good gospel. That is going to keep us stuck at immature levels of self-insight. In order for congregations to grow, both numerically and spiritually, we will need to experience conflict at all levels of congregational life. — Roy M Oswald

A story can take you through a whole process of searching, seeking, confronting, through conflicts, and then to a resolution. As the storyteller and the listener, we go through a story together. — Maxine Hong Kingston

We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface hidden tension that is already alive — Martin Luther King Jr.

We know - intellectually - that confronting an issue is the only way to resolve it. But any resolution will disrupt the status quo. Given the choice between conflict and change on the one hand, and inertia on the other, the ostrich position can seem very attractive. — Margaret Heffernan