Nine Thoughts on Church Splits

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For over thirty years I have been professionally and personally connected to the local church. I have served as a pastor, church consultant, author, seminary dean, and church resource provider. The most painful moments of my tenure have been those occasions where church dissension is great, and where church splits take place.

There is little good that comes from church splits. The residual pain is lasting and the negative community impact is enduring. After reflecting on church splits over my thirty-year tenure, and after conducting an informal Twitter poll, I have nine major thoughts I would like to share with you in this article.

  1. A church that has split is likely to die. Certainly, many of the congregations will hang on tenaciously. But over the course of a few or many years, the cancer of the split eats away at the health of a church body. I have conducted many church “autopsies.” The beginning of the death of these churches often took place at the point of the split.
  2. The negative community impact of a church split is great and enduring. I have done interviews of community members where a church that split is located. The merchants and residents often say, “Oh that’s the church that fought all the time until it split.”
  3. The majority of church splits focus on the pastor. I have seen some church splits where the pastor is clearly the problem. I have seen others where the pastor is the convenient and most visible scapegoat. By the way, pastors who have been through church splits are scarred for the rest of their ministries.
  4. Church splits typically originate from power groups in the church. The power group may be a formal body, such as deacons or elders. Or they could be an informal group that still wields great power in the church.
  5. Some church members have actually been a part of several church splits. In other words, they have sown the seeds of dissension in different congregations where they have been members. Be cautious about accepting new members who are not vetted with their former church. Problem church members tend to recycle.
  6. Church splits are typically preceded by inactive church members becoming active members. It is amazing to attend a church business meeting or conference where divisive issues are discussed. Inactive members come out of the woodwork.
  7. Church splits are more likely to occur in “country club” churches. A country club church is a metaphor for a church where many of the members have a sense of entitlement instead of an attitude of service. They pay their “dues” to get their way. And if they don’t get their way on every issue, even minor issues, they may sow the seeds of dissension that lead to a church split.
  8. Some churches still split over doctrinal issues. These types of church splits are not as common as other splits, but they still take place. It was more common in mainline churches in the past, but it is becoming more frequent in some evangelical churches today.
  9. Some churches still split over financial issues. These issues include disagreements over budget expenditures, mission expenditures, incurring of debt, facility expenditures, and building programs.

There are no winners in church splits. Those who leave typically leave hurt and angry. Those who stay become a part of a church that usually begins a steady, if not steep, rate of decline. And the reputation of the church in the community is damaged greatly—sometimes permanently.

Let me hear your thoughts on this difficult issue.

Posted on March 9, 2015


With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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121 Comments

  • Jason Adams says on

    What about people that leave to split off but aren’t upset? I find myself in the unenviable position of being asked to resign over some differences of opinion with the Senior Pastor. The church body was shocked and surprised. I do not feel called away and my family loves our little community. We have started meeting in our garage and reaching out to unchurched families. We have 2 families from our former church who are acting as seed families. We have honestly tried our best to run them back to the mother church but they enjoy the ministry we are able to do thru this little garage church. Now the mother ship is kind of trying to run us off or out of town… I am not trying to impede them or their ministry, they have 600 members we have 15 gatherers… I do not feel like I am splitting the church and feel thru prayer that we are doing God’s will, how do I keep it from turning into a magnet for former church members who see “greener pastures”?

  • We are in the midst of the most hurtful church scenario I’ve ever seen. Bottom line from start to present….. people did not follow Scripture, even when claiming “the Holy Spirit led me.” The Holy Spirit led you to put together a completely secret motion to oust the entire church elder board at an annual meeting…and to make sure enough folks were secretly made aware of this happening to show up? The Holy Spirit led you in this? The motions was so construed it only took a 35% vote to send the current elders packing. No sin, no immoral act, no ethical shortcoming, etc….were brought forward. There were no such things against these men. The resigning associate pastor had a following who took up his cross…and it was secretly accomplished.

    And, like the article shares….a couple people appeared to became members just for this occasion, having never returned to church after the meeting was done. Other quite rare attenders, but members, showed up as well.

    One man was told, “when I ask for a motion, read this.” Another was told, “when I ask for the special ballot, bring these forward.” Another was encouraged to “call the question” so no further conversation could take place. No prayer, no loving conversation, no looking into the Word of God…. Just a literal coup de tat.

    We are a broken congregation….without a board…and only an interim pastor unprepared for this sort of mess. All centered around a disgruntled associate pastor who had just resigned….and….who”d the year prior accused our new senior pastor of a sin…bringing about the senior’s resigning. “Some follow Paul, some Apollos……and some the associate pastor…”

    And SIN is left standing….as no one is willing to address it. Satan wins again!

  • Why does a church split have to be negative? These are adults. Why not just let them go in peace and with a blessing?

  • Why does a church split have to be negative? These are adults. Why not just let them go in peace and with a blessing?

  • Beverly says on

    Thank you for these nine thoughts about church split…I would be interested in
    your thoughts on how to recognize the “signs” early and prevent it.

  • j taber says on

    I have become literally amazed at how good people can become so utterly connected at the hip to a personality / an associate pastor in our case….that they are willing to literally destroy one another over his decision to resign. I mean hateful, secretive, deceptive, eleventh hour coup type actions. And the awful slanderous talk / demeaning e-mails used to paint people into unacceptable corners…is heart breaking. God’s people at war internally… Extremely sad, but very real.

    At 60 years of age I’ve just witnessed my first literal church coup. I mean literal. A past board member and prominent figure in the church secretively put together (while on a mission trip no less) a “not to be let out” motion to oust the entire church elder board (6 men). Secret phone calls, secret e-mails and private conversations took place to make sure enough supportive persons would be at the annual meeting (usually very poorly unattended)….and vooh way lah ( 34% no votes achieved a lack of 66% yea votes needed, by his secret motion brought unannounced to the meeting…and no board.!!! Out of a church of ~ 300 attenders….a group of less than 30 ousted six Godly men! I could not believe my eyes. We’ve attended for 25 years, lead youth group 17 years, and I’ve lead worship for 22….and our hearts are literally broken by what we are witnessing. It’s not of God. It’s divisive and literally being done in coup-like fashion…..but we have no board now to handle the mess. How convenient. For the first time in my life I’m finding real doubt surfacing regarding “the church”. I know Satan seeks to destroy, and we are praying for the Holy Spirit to bring an awakening and eventual healing, but it doesn’t look good. The power broking “self appointed motion writer and coup leader” continues to call special meetings, bring motions, and appoint persons to speak them…. Like a war campaign…he knocks of one motion at at time. Again, we have no board to speak… He’s saw to it there is none. And our poor elder interrum pastor! He’s up to his ears in difficulties, and is woefully ill prepared to take us through this sort of conflict. I fear the church is all but split…. You could have never convinced me I’d experience this in my life time….but here it is.

  • PlantedSplit says on

    I was a member of a very good church, with what seemed to be one of the best pastors on the planet. However he decided to create a finance committee and very shortly thereafter all kinds of questions started coming up about church spending. His salary was already 96,000 a year and he preached out 20 plus weeks a year. There were a LOT of things that should never have been bought with the church credit card. He was the only one who looked at the finances closely though until he started the finance committee. Once the men on the finance committee started bringing up issues with the books he closed the committee down and blamed every church issue on the firing of the previous assistant pastor and people gossiping in the church.

    A couple of days later he stood up in front of the whole church and said “The only solution for this is a church split, and that’s what I’m here to do tonight. Split it right down the middle. ” He then let his dad get up and praise him (the pastor) for the next 20 mins and call anyone who disagreed unsaved armpits, almost homosexual, and then said the church needed to have a bowel movement.

    Needless to say the church did split right down the middle. Over 125 people left the church. The leaders of entire junior church division, several sunday school teachers, the youth leaders, two of the trustees(the church didn’t have deacons), the song leader and a lot of members left the church.

    God then lead those of us who left to start a church in the neighboring town. We are being sent out by a very well established church with a Godly pastor. God has taken care of us every step of the way. Working many miracles along the way, and Sunday we voted on a pastor with %96.8 approval! God’s beed good to us and has kept us together for almost a year, even without a pastor (until now).

    I still love my old pastor, I just pray that he will get right with God and lead the church with God’s direction. His church is still going and has even had a lot of new members join since the split. What really makes me sad though, is here we are almost a year later, and he claims to believe what he did was scriptural. He said he received counsel from 3 other pastors who told him to split his own church.

    P.s. Sorry that was the wrong email address last time I posted this.

  • PlantedSplit says on

    I was a member of a very good church, with what seemed to be one of the best pastors on the planet. However he decided to create a finance committee and very shortly thereafter all kinds of questions started coming up about church spending. His salary was already 96,000 a year and he preached out 20 plus weeks a year. There were a LOT of things that should never have been bought with the church credit card. He was the only one who looked at the finances closely though until he started the finance committee. Once the men on the finance committee started bringing up issues with the books he closed the committee down and blamed every church issue on the firing of the previous assistant pastor and people gossiping in the church.

    A couple of days later he stood up in front of the whole church and said “The only solution for this is a church split, and that’s what I’m here to do tonight. Split it right down the middle. ” He then let his dad get up and praise him (the pastor) for the next 20 mins and call anyone who disagreed unsaved armpits, almost homosexual, and then said the church needed to have a bowel movement.

    Needless to say the church did split right down the middle. Over 125 people left the church. The leaders of entire junior church division, several sunday school teachers, the youth leaders, two of the trustees(the church didn’t have deacons), the song leader and a lot of members left the church.

    God then lead those of us who left to start a church in the neighboring town. We are being sent out by a very well established church with a Godly pastor. God has taken care of us every step of the way. Working many miracles along the way, and Sunday we voted on a pastor with %96.8 approval! God’s beed good to us and has kept us together for almost a year, even without a pastor (until now).

    I still love my old pastor, I just pray that he will get right with God and lead the church with God’s direction. His church is still going and has even had a lot of new members join since the split. What really makes me sad though, is here we are almost a year later, and he claims to believe what he did was scriptural. He said he received counsel from 3 other pastors who told him to split his own church.

  • I pastored a church that was really a split but called itself a mission from old church even though the old church didn’t support or recognize the new church. it was 20 years before I came. It brought lots of unhappy members and guess what, they stayed unhappy all through my time there.
    another church I pastored ran 250 in sunday school and the leadership and I kept the unrest to a minimum but when I left the very small minority became very vocal and basically kidnapped the church. within 3 years all the problem people were gone and the church has been running in the 60’s for the pas 8 years. so sad.
    I am retired and a member of a tiny (9-11) in sunday school that split several years ago after having 2 morning services to handle the crowd. it has declined steadily for the past 10 years. its on its way out and sad to say it is in a neighborhood that really needs a good church there.
    no one wins and especially the people living nearby. they all know what is going on the church usually as well as the members.
    misconduct and power as you said. sin takes a huge toll.

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