I have been in the church for over sixty years. I have seen church divisions from near and afar, in the church I attend and in other churches. They are never pretty sights. I have helped pull things back together after them. At times I have been sidelined by the leadership when things were going well, till the problem hit, then I am desired to help clean up the mess. I will be frank. I never want to see one of these again. But most of the divisions I studied up till a few years ago were vertical splits where a portion of the congregation split off from the rest. The fracture was vertical. And I really never looked at any other possibility.

To set the stage, let’s look at the anatomy of a church split. Luther’s split with the Catholic Church was vertical. The split between the Greek and Eastern Orthodox was vertical. Organizations are pyramids with a leader on the top and the rank and file on the bottom. Think of a vertical split as a portion of the pyramid split off and moved away. The size of the fragment can be small or large. The tip of the new pyramid can be low or high but the higher it is, the larger the segment that moves away. With a vertical split there is some leader that takes the people away. This can be a formal or informal leader. A good pastor recognizes the existence of the informal leaders in the church, those without titles who because of their character and leadership ability are looked up to by others. He utilizes them just as he does formal leaders. If he does not he can have serious problems. A split can be lead by formal or informal leadership.

But what happens when the spilt is horizontal. Up till now I have not looked at it in this light and hadn’t thought of it. I have actually seen at least a half dozen of these over the years and only now am seeing what happens. I started seeing this while in church several weeks ago. It was prompted by something someone did that I mentally said, “This could cause a split.” Then I realized it would not fit the paradigm of the usual split I understood.

One of the symptoms of a horizontal split is a physical loss of membership or at least loss of a significant number being a vital part of the church. The latter is often as as devastating as the actually physical loss. One of the first signs of this is seeing committed members slip to pew sitter status or leave. The typical answer to this is, “They were never happy here.” It is easy for leaders to take this approach because these people are often the ones who commit to something but want to be sure it is going right so they are problems because they ask too many questions. It is almost easy to look at their leaving as a good thing until too many of them leave. These people rarely make a big fuss when they leave, they just disappear. Sometimes the only way anyone notices is that holes appear in the ranks of workers. It is rare that more than a few move to the same church. They appear randomly in other churches. They never form a new church. The less committed are less impacted by the split so they rarely leave.

So what happened? Look at this scenario. Over three months you have lost up to a third of your most committed people and nobody is really saying anything is wrong. There may be a few people in the next level of commitment that are either skipping services or have gone too. It is harder to tell with these because they sometimes miss a couple of services in a row. You write it off to bad weather or vacations but forget these people come to church in nearly every weather and they don’t take that many Sundays on vacation.

If you are a pastor and have seen this happen you are in trouble but be of good cheer. The problem can be fixed. Don’t fret the ones who have left. The losses you have sustained are permanent but the hemorrhage can be stemmed with the right action. But let’s look at how this happens.

If this has happened in your church you have just experienced a horizontal split in the church. And I will be willing to bet a twenty that nobody in seminary every told you this existed, what causes it or how to handle it if it does.

How is it that a significant group can decide to leave in a short time without a leader to take them away? There has to be a trigger. King Saul had one committed soldier on the field of battle. He could have lost that soldier had ne not connected with David. The lad asked a question. “Is there not a cause?” Saul answered that and there was an instant connection between the leader and the led. David who had seen the need to fight was now seeing that he was being given the nod to do it. The most committed people in your church are looking for two things from you, the word that there is a cause and the nod to go. There was no horizontal split on Flight 93 when Beamer said, “Let’s roll.” They knew they were in it together. There was no elite, no royalty. Beamer was part of the group. The leader was not issuing orders. He was in the thick of it with them.

A horizontal split occurs when the leaders move away from and loose connection with the rest of the church. The split is between the leaders and the church and it starts out as a lack of connection. Jesus said his desire was that they would be one. This not only means that the congregation is one or the leadership is one, it is that together they are one. Why is it so amazing to us that when we do it God’s way it works and when we leave that way it doesn’t?

So what causes a horizontal split or better, what can we do to avoid one? We can never allow the leadership and the congregation to loose contact.

Give me a couple wedges, a heavy hammer and an axe I can split an oak log. I have done it. The Axe will not split it. But I can get a little notch with the axe, just a little one in the end of the log. I set the one wedge n that notch and I drive. When it has hit its maximum I set the other wedge into a narrow place in the crack I have created. I drive that wedge further opening the crack. And I repeat the process. I can rend a solid log into pieces.

A horizontal split in the church has the same anatomy. You get a little notch. You drive a wedge. You set another wedge and widen the split. The notch is usually subtle. It is something that pulls the congregation away from the leaders. Often this notch is seen for what it is by the leaders, a mistake but rather than admit it they try to justify it and the wedge is driven. The congregation looks at it as, “They don’t trust us enough to tell us.” A second notch is some form of separation. Leaders in the church are there to serve the people. The big brother and sister view is great. They are still a part of the body. What can get divisive is the set apart idea. The moment you do this you have cut the notch. Now all Satan has to do is apply the wedge and hammer. Little things become big. It is the little foxes that spoil the vine.

I cringe when I see anything that sets leadership apart from the church and I did when I was in leadership. The only honor I sought was the confidence the pastor and the people had in me to be able to serve them. Anything more than that is going to be destructive.

And pressing for prayer for the leadership can be destructive. It sets them apart. It can be the notch. I have actually seen this play out in one situation! Dee and I only asked for special prayer for us in a leadership role in one situation. We were prayer ministers and when we started with a new person or couple we asked two people who prayed for us to be in prayer for us that we would minister effectively.

Beware of honor for leaders. Beware of anything that sets them apart from the people.