Case study-B

Church-B, established before 1948 by American Southern Baptists, is located in a town in Israel. The church halted operations twice: first, before World War II, when the Lebanese pastor, went back to his home country, and many members of the church were scattered due to the conflict; and second in 1972.15 In 1980s, an American veteran Baptist missionary revived the church, starting with a few members, including two local ordained pastors. At the time, a few young people joined the church and it did well for a few years until the missionary left to take a position overseas. Pastor-B, a promising young Palestinian leader, came back after he finished his Masters in Theology from a western country. With missionaries’ support,16 he became pastor of Church-B. Pastor-B, charismatic with a strong personality, was successful in rebuilding the church, attracting families and many middle-class professionals, and at certain times had over 70 members.

14

Field note, Aug 2015; open interview with Rami.

15 _{Up until this period American Baptist missionaries had been working with Jews and Arabs together,} trying to develop Arab-Jewish churches. The Baptist Church was re-opened in 1965 and had three pastors: a Jew, a Palestinian, and an American missionary. This church was not functional, because of theological differences between Jews and Palestinians, mainly after the six-day war. This then led to the closure of the church in 1972.

16 _{Missionaries were indirectly the main decision-makers during this period as they owned the church} buildings and funded part of the pastors’ salaries.

Table 4.2 Members of church-B First-generation born in 1930s-1940s Second-generation born in 1950s-1960s Third-generation Born in 1970s-1980s Missionaries Pastor 1 Deacons Church committee 7 Church members: 70 10% 80% 10% 1

4.2.2.2 Conflicts, splits/exits in church-B

a) An exit: a leader left church-B

Yasmin was a ministry leader at church-B. She claimed that the pastor did not share power. Although according to some interviewees her ministry at church was successful, she left and joined another church.17

b) An exit: a leader left church-B

Nadia was a ministry leader at church-B for many years. Pastor-B had been dissatisfied with her style of leadership over the last few years and was asked to leave her church ministry. Nadia left church.18 However, some interviewees stated that Nadia was indirectly criticizing Pastor-B.19 When the church committee questioned Pastor-B regarding his conflicts with Yasmin and Nadia he became upset and conflict escalated.

c) A Split: five church leaders left church after a conflict with Pastor-B

As a result of Yasmin and Nadia’s exits, the church committee requested for church-B to be led by a council alongside Pastor-B and to have a constitution. Pastor-B could not handle this request well and viewed this as a conspiracy to fire him; his

17

Yasmin, Sep 2016, Elias, Rana, Aug 2015. 18 _{Elias, Nadia, Rana, and Pastor-B, Aug 2015.} 19 _{Lina and Rana,Aug 2015.}

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condition was, ‘I, the pastor, lead the meetings and I, the pastor, have the primary individual responsibility and privilege to lead the church.’20

The church committee worked in creating a constitution without Pastor-B being involved. This led to heated business meetings between the committee members and the Pastor. When they called for a general meeting ignoring Pastor-B, Pastor-B dismissed the church committee.

After a few months of turmoil, the church split. Around 60% of its members (mainly professionals) left and established church-B2. The dynamics between Pastor-B and the church leaders are discussed in Section 4.3.

The attempts of the ABC to reconcile the parties were in vain; Pastor-B did not encourage any third-party to intervene.21 The other group, led by Elias, decided to withdraw all their requests to use the church building and established a new church.22

In August 2015, I attended a service at church-B. The building can hold 100 people; but there were about 30 people in attendance, many of them family and relatives of the pastor. In this service his two daughters led the worship with two other young women, and his wife translated; the worship theme was ‘God rebuilds broken relationships.’ His sermon about David’s repentance was short; in the past he preached

with more enthusiasm and for a much longer time.23

Church-B2 meets in a school auditorium. Initially it grew and doubled its attendance. It is led by a committee and has no pastor. A few years later Nadia, who joined church-B2 and became a committee member, felt at some point that she was not given enough power and decided to begin a new ministry. She left with her family. In August 2015, I attended a service at church-B2; the attendees were the same group that split the church ten years ago, except they were ten years older and without their

20 _{Pastor-B’s letter to ABC, 9 Dec 2005.} 21

Which would have been the traditional thing to do.

22 _{Open interview with Rami, official of ABC; a letter church-B2 sent to the ABC, 15 Dec 2005; Pastor-} B’s letter to the ABC, 23 April 2007.

children. At this service there were two guests, a pastor (who was invited to preach), his family and another family. Church membership was only 11. The church has no new generation (children/youth), and it is run by the same church committee from a decade ago. They have no meetings except the weekly main service. Immediately after the service everybody left with no fellowship time.24

4.2.3 Case study-C