Conflict Management Mechanisms through Social Media among the Nigerian Baptist Pastors

Abstract

This article aims at exploring the conflict management mechanisms through social media that the pastors of the Nigerian Baptist Convention are using in their churches. Twenty pastors were randomly and purposively selected from the pool of Baptist church pastors in the Ibadan metropolis. Five key officers of the Nigerian Baptist Convention at the national level at its headquarters were also interacted with. Each of these pastors was orally interviewed. Some documents were used to substantiate or disprove the assertions of these pastors. It was revealed during the study that church members are faced with a lot of conflicts. It was also revealed that pastors have been unconsciously using various conflict management mechanisms to resolve these conflicts. Furthermore, the study revealed that pastors have started using social media to resolve conflicts. The study, therefore, recommends that Baptist pastors in particular and other pastors, in general, should be introduced formally to more conflict management mechanisms in order to more effectively and consciously resolve conflicts among their church members. The study also recommends that pastors should be more familiar with how to use social media to manage conflicts among their church members.

Denominational Loyalty on the Cooperative Programme of the Nigerian Baptist Convention Between (2013-2023)

“…In 1916 and 1918, Baptists from Sapele and Calabar attended the annual meeting of the Yoruba Baptist Association. To accommodate the non-Yorubas and foster love and unity, the Yoruba Baptist Association was changed to the Nigerian Baptist Convention in 1919 (Afolaranmi, 2022b).…”

“…Additionally, political and social unrest in Nigeria can also affect denominational loyalty. In times of crisis, individuals may turn to alternative sources of support and comfort, including different religious groups or movements, leading to a weakening of their ties to the Nigerian Baptist Convention (Afolaranmi, 2022b).…”

Prospect of Threads in Contrast to Twitter as an Online Social Network Tool for Conflict Resolution

“…This paper is based on a study carried out recently by this researcher where it was discovered that social media in general can be used as a tool for conflict resolution (Afolaranmi, 2022). The study focused on the use of Facebook and Twitter as social network services (SNSs) and WhatsApp and Telegram as instant messaging apps by Baptist pastors in the Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria.…”

“…Users can also filter out replies with certain words in them." Other similarities and differences will be drawn out of the compiled features of Twitter and their uses in conflict resolution as this researcher compiled and reported them in a recent study among Baptist pastors in the Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria (see Afolaranmi, 2022). Three things should be noted here: one, Twitter features explained here might have been modified between the time they were compiled during the aforementioned study and when this paper was presented for publication in a journal; and two, many features that Twitter has may not have been on Threads before this paper was presented for publication; and three, as at the time of writing this paper, while Twitter is available on iOS users on Apple's App Store and Android users on Google Play Store as well as on Microsoft Store for Microsoft users and on the web through its website https://www.twitter.com for people to use on any Internet browser, Threads is only available on iOS users on Apple's App Store and Android users on Google Play Store.…”