When conflict arises – what does / should a “church” do?

“We continue to hear from many people on the debate over <fill in your favorite conflict> that our current <fill in your church "rules"> contains language which is contradictory, unnecessarily hurtful, and inadequate for the variety of local, regional and global contexts,” the proposal said. “We will name such a Commission to include persons from every region of our <church>, and will include representation from differing perspectives on the debate.”

Did you know there are 14 definitions of the word "church"?

No wonder some churches themselves don't even know what they're supposed to do when this happens!

The quote is real - except that I've removed the actual conflict, because which specific conflict is really quite irrelevant to what I'm going to say.
I've also removed the specific terminology for the church from which this quote came - because again, it's irrelevant to my topic.
Yes - you can Google it and find it.  But if you do this, you may be biased before even reading this, so please try resist - at least for now.

The image at the top came from sojo.net.  I'm sure you've seen these words outside of churches - "All are welcome".  
For this article, I'm only talking about Christian churches.  At least, churches who claim to be Christian.
"All are welcome" - as they should be.
After all, Jesus welcomed all sorts of people.

Mk 2:13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,”Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
Mk 2:15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”

Notice - Jesus was having dinner with many tax collectors and "sinners" ... for there were many who followed him.  Yes - Jesus had dinner with them.  Because they were following Him.

But then look what happens - the Jewish leaders aren't happy with Jesus - because He is doing these things.  He's eating with people who were to them - "unclean".  They were "sinners".  How could a religious person possibly eat with "sinners"!  Disgraceful!

And yet - if the religious people won't associate with "sinners", how are the sinners supposed to be anything but sinners?  
Wasn't the idea to change their lives?

Like Jesus' response to the criticism from the Jewish leaders -

Mk 2:17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

So yes - Jesus came to be with the sinners.

Definition of "church"

So let's take a little side trip here and look at the fourteen definitions of the word "church" from dictionary.com.  Yes - fourteen!!

1. building for public Christian worship.
2. public worship of God or a religious service in such a building.
3. (sometimes initial capital letter) the whole body of Christian believers; Christendom.
4. (sometimes initial capital letter) any division of this body professing the same creed and acknowledging the same ecclesiastical authority; a Christian denomination.
5. that part of the whole Christian body, or of a particular denomination, belonging to the same city, country, nation, etc.
6. a body of Christians worshiping in a particular building or constituting one congregation.
7. ecclesiastical organization, power, and affairs, as distinguished from the state.
8. the clergy and religious officials of a Christian denomination.
9. the Christian faith.
10. (initial capital letter) the Christian Church before the Reformation.
11. (initial capital letter) the Roman Catholic Church.
12. the clerical profession or calling.
13. a place of public worship of a non-Christian religion.
14. any non-Christian religious society, organization, or congregation.

But let's look at what this word really should mean, at least in the Christian sense of the word -