Rating: 
Summary: Keeping your sanity
Review: As moderator of a church in crises, this book helped me keep perspective and sanity. Unwillingness to believe that evil or intentionally hurtful people are in many, if not all churches, allows these antagonistic people to continue splitting the congregation and driving pastors away. This book helped prepare me to recognize the antagonist, deal with the antagonist and keep the Christian community safer from those that cause serious harm. Now I am in seminary and will be much better equipped to deal with these problems in a congregation.
Rating:
Summary: Keeping your sanity
Review: As moderator of a church in crises, this book helped me keep perspective and sanity. Unwillingness to believe that evil or intentionally hurtful people are in many, if not all churches, allows these antagonistic people to continue splitting the congregation and driving pastors away. This book helped prepare me to recognize the antagonist, deal with the antagonist and keep the Christian community safer from those that cause serious harm. Now I am in seminary and will be much better equipped to deal with these problems in a congregation.
Rating:
Summary: Very helpful resource
Review: I came across this book five years ago when dealing with a difficult person in my church. It was invaluable then and remains so now.I had about an hour and a half to skim *Antagonists in the Church* and extract very useful information before going into a meeting with this person and another church leader. Though I didn't do the book full justice, I did find that the writing was clear, the information laid out helpfully and accessibly, and the content very germane to the context I was facing. I was able to go into that meeting with much more confidence and a much greater sense of how to conduct my own behavior when confronted with this church member's antagonism. I find the book helpful in helping to define antagonistic behavior and to differentiate it from other kinds of conflict behavior. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Usefulness not limited to any specific faith
Review: I've unfortunately had to put this into practice. Found it very useful, workable and comforting. Aids in the identification, prevention and dealing with antagonists. They are like demon posssessed people, in that not everyone is one. But when you identify one for sure, they are bad news. Haugk gives some very good helps in this area where clergy need support and aid. Always refer brother clergy to this for help. Study Guide is useful companion.
Rating: 
Summary: Outdated and Harmful
Review: Kenneth Haugk asserts there are antagonists in the church and outlines how to identify them. He attempts to apply psychological knowledge when he lists what he believes are the personality characteristic of antagonists. He follows a format similar to that used in psychiatric diagnosis but does not, unlike psychiatric diagnosis, present any empirical data to support his position. Furthermore, he divides antagonists into three groups: hardcore, major and moderate antagonists. He asserts that hardcore antagonists are psychotic and that major antagonists have character disorders. Later on in the book he states that antagonists are evil. So by implication he is stating that individuals suffering with serious mental illness are evil and that they are untreatable. In my own career as a psychologist I have worked extensively with the seriously mentally ill including individuals suffering from paranoia. These individuals are not evil but are part of society's outcasts, the very people Jesus sought to help and protect. They are also treatable and it is possible to include them in a church community rather than ostracize them. Kenneth Haugk also engages in circular reasoning. For instance, he writes, "Why is so-and-so antagonistic? The simple (if circular) answer is, Because he or she is an antagonist."
Kenneth Haugk's thinking is so sloppy that it would be laughable if his assertions were harmless. However, he encourages ministers to engage in pure power plays without regard to ethics. His recommendations are tantamount to scapegoating and shunning. In many ways they are similar to the very behaviors he condemns! Individuals are to be identified as antagonists without informing them and without giving them a fair chance to defend their actions. They are then to be treated coolly and not allowed to participate in the church as fully as they might like. He never considers what the negative impact on the person labeled an antagonist would be. He dehumanizes them. Many of the behaviors he regards as evidence that an individual is an antagonist are the very behaviors a person might exhibit when they attempt to defend themselves against a clandestine attack conducted by their minister and lay leaders.
Kenneth Haugk presents ideas about individuals that were even outdated at the time he wrote this book. They are even more outdated now. Rather than engaging in character assassinations it would be more constructive to look at specific behaviors that are problematic and discuss the best way clergy and lay leaders can respond. I encourage readers to pass this book by and find one that looks at interpersonal dynamics in churches from a systems point of view which is fairer and more humane for everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Why didn't they teach this in seminary?
Review: Several years ago, we found this book to be an incredibly important tool in riding the waves of congregational conflict. This book realistically addresses issues that few are ever taught in seminary. Book is great on boundaries, strategires, etc. probably best for protestant, Anglican, and non denominational churches. This book should be required reading for all clergy.
Rating:
Summary: Some evil lay-leaders rage against ministers
Review: Some churches are vulnerable to one or more pathological antagonists whose background includes a dysfunctional family upbringing, abusive relationships by parents, immoral behavior of their own, or some deep-seated resentment of others including God. Haugk tells us how to identify these angry people who are hell-bent to destroy the minister's ministry, career, and possibly his marriage and family (as collateral damage). Pathological antagonists are not merely mentally ill; they are what psychiatrist M. Scott Peck calls "evil," since their behavior is so destructive. Since most parishoners are naive about such persons and their potential for injury, this book is must reading for the good and decent lay-leaders who could organize into a protective force for their ministers. To quote Cicero: "There are two kinds of injustice: the first is found in those who do an injury; the second in those who fail to protect another from injury when they can." Mi! ! nisters are especially vulnerable to attack by charming insider preacher-haters; Haugk shows us what can be done about them.
Rating:
Summary: I wish I read this book 20 years ago!
Review: What a great book. Haugk has preformed a great service to pastors by giving them the tools to deal with their greatest bane: antagonist in the church. He does so first by defining what an antagonism is and differentiates it from ordinary conflict. Second, he give the pastor the identifying characteristics, behaviors and warning signs of an antagonist. Third, he then deals with preventive issue, and finally, he gives the pastor strategies, skills and techniques that will help him cope with antagonist. As I read this book I could identify in my minds eye various antagonist I have dealt with in twenty years of ministry. Although there has been only a handful of these difficult people, they have been very destructive of my ministry and family. If only I had this book back then! Anyone who has dealt with these people knows exactly what the author is taking about. This book is must reading for every pastor. I only wish that I read this book twenty years ago.
Rating:
Summary: I wish I read this book 20 years ago!
Review: What a great book. Haugk has preformed a great service to pastors by giving them the tools to deal with their greatest bane: antagonist in the church. He does so first by defining what an antagonism is and differentiates it from ordinary conflict. Second, he give the pastor the identifying characteristics, behaviors and warning signs of an antagonist. Third, he then deals with preventive issue, and finally, he gives the pastor strategies, skills and techniques that will help him cope with antagonist. As I read this book I could identify in my minds eye various antagonist I have dealt with in twenty years of ministry. Although there has been only a handful of these difficult people, they have been very destructive of my ministry and family. If only I had this book back then! Anyone who has dealt with these people knows exactly what the author is taking about. This book is must reading for every pastor. I only wish that I read this book twenty years ago.
Rating:
Summary: A must for clergy and lay leaders
Review: Whether you are clergy or a lay person, this book is a must read. It is insightful and full of usefull suggestions for dealing with as well as explainations for the evil that one encounters in church work. I only wish I had read it before I made many of the mistakes the author warns against. However, now I am prepared for the next attack of the ever present antagonist, thanks to Dr. Haugk.
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