That is a rather provocative title, no? “10 Things You Can Do to Keep Your Church Healthy.” Only 10? How about 100? The reality is that there are many things that can be done to keep a church setting healthy.
Apparently there are 3 million people that leave or disaffiliate from their church or faith every single year.
1 out of every 7 Americans now consider themselves as dechurched/exvangelical.
Note: All of this is the result of hard learned wisdom of working in churches myself, having studied leadership both in learning settings and on my own.
Let’s just go right into it, shall we? Here is my top ten.
- Require Transparency and Open Communication
- Identify and Eliminate Collective Defense Mechanisms (Such as Deflection, Projection, Scapegoating, Splitting, Reaction Formation, etc.)
- Identify and Eliminate Any Manipulation Tactics (Triangulation, Silencing, Siloing, Gaslighting, etc.)
- Find Long Term Solutions (So You Don’t Have to Keep Coming Back to the Same Problems)
- Recognize that Belonging is Important, But Not at the Expense of Individualism
- Acknowledge that Allegiance to the Mission/Mission Statement is More Important in the Long Run Than Allegiance to the Institution or Its Leadership
- Remember that Real Change Comes with Improving the Culture/Environment/Values More than Replacing One Person for Another (No Church Culture is Beyond Critique, If It is, then It Is Already an idol)
- Require Personal and Professional Boundaries Be Maintained in All Directions
- Ask Former Staff and Former Congregants What Could Be Healthier/Why They Chose to Leave and Share that Feedback with the Leadership Team (and Even Larger Congregation If that is a Value)
- Keep Yourself Healthy and Holy at All Costs (Since It WILL Inevitably Cause Others to Do the Same)
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