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Organizational justice is the perception that one is being treated fairly in an organization, especially by those who hold power, such as the leaders within a church, both lay and staff. These perceptions of fairness (or lack of fairness) will influence church members’ commitment to, satisfaction with, and involvement in their church, as well as their psychological and spiritual well-being. Young churches are especially susceptible to the consequences of violations of organizational justice because young churches experience frequent changes in programs and delegation of responsibilities. Leaders of young churches should seek to maximize organizational justice, grounded in biblical principles, in order to have a healthy, functional body of believers who work together to serve God. These leaders need to respond to justice violations with humility, managing any conflicts that occur in effective and constructive ways. They must also work to prevent organizational justice violations in young churches from becoming engrained in the churches’ culture.

Interpersonal conflict among missionaries is a major factor contributing to missionary attrition. This paper examines two approaches to resolving conflict, one focusing on mandatory submission to authority and the other focusing on fostering cooperation between the parties in conflict. Both biblical and empirical evidence suggest that cooperation is usually the best option. Although the submission approach is often viewed as biblical, it represents a shallow understanding of the complete biblical picture and a naïve and overly optimistic view of human nature. The cooperation approach better incorporates the biblical principles of servant leadership, mutual submission, and seeking one another’s interests. Empirical evidence suggests that organizations such as mission agencies may be more effective if they adopt an approach fostering cooperation as an organizational norm. Research on power and its abuse may be used to motivate missionaries to voluntarily limit their hierarchical power in order to better love and serve others. Viewing conflict as a decision making process can enable missionaries and mission organizations to more effectively find ways to minister and achieve their goals, including evangelism and church planting.

This grounded theory study examines the motives for relationships between local churches and missionaries: What motivates churches to enter into a relationship with a missionary, to continue this relationship, and to end it? Similarly, what motivates missionaries to begin, continue, or end relationships with a local church? We used purposive stratified sampling to select 17 missionaries and church mission leaders to interview for this study. We performed semi-structured interviews with both groups to discover their understanding of why they form, maintain, and dissolve relationships with each other. Multiple motives influenced all participants. These motives can be broadly categorized as either relationship-focused motives or task-focused motives. Furthermore, the task-focused motives can either be centered on specific goals shared by churches and missionaries (e.g., starting a reproducing church among a specific people group) or on specific processes (e.g., evangelizing or feeding the poor). Although all participants had multiple motives, each participant emphasized some motives over others. The motives present in each party influence many aspects of their relationship, including their communication, financial involvement, and the purpose of the church’s short-term mission trips to the missionary's setting. In contrast to social exchange theory which provides a framework to understand conditions under which a relationship will be maintained or ended, the Multiple Motive Theory of Church and Missionary Relationships goes further; it describes specific motives that exist which influence whether a relationship begins, continues, or ends.

When members of mission organizations perceive injustice within their organization, they work less effectively and attrition is more likely. This paper examines various types of organizational justice (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational) which need to be monitored and maximized to help mission organizations accomplish their goals.

Effective ways of conflict management must be found for missionaries when no trusted mediator in the region is available. Home office management or leaders in other regions can intervene through context rich media, such as the telephone and video conferencing, to provide help. Intervention through context poor media, such as email, is much less likely to succeed. Effective managerial intervention involving interaction with each party can lead to reframing the conflict into an opportunity to cooperate and find mutually beneficial solutions. The manager can present information, ask questions, and help the parties see that resolution is possible by addressing key issues such as the relative importance of the consequences, the potential win-win nature of the solution, each party’s sense of victimization, and the certainty of continued interaction in the relationship.