How can church leaders get better at leading their people? Many church leaders are well trained in theology, preaching, teaching and leading services but struggle to read the relational systems at work in their churches. These systems are very often the driving force behind congregational life, especially when emotions are running high, but much of their power is hidden to the untrained eye.

What do I mean by a church ‘system’? Just that churches are a made up of complicated webs of emotional attachments and shared histories. There are coalitions, cut-offs, triangulating, over-functioning and under-functioning behaviour patterns etc. and these internal dynamics, like the body’s internal organs, determine the health or malady of the local church body.

Here is my invitation for us to think together about the relational functioning in our churches (a big topic in the New Testament letters) and how we might learn to be better functioning leaders to the glory of God.

HCP aims to:

1. •network church leaders
   

2. •help leaders think systemically about church relational life
   

3. •provide resources on relational systems
   

4. •stimulate discussion on church health
   

5. •offer advice on conflict prevention
   

6. •provide links to good systems resources
   

7. •offer a platform for biblical and theological reflection about church systems.
   

Grace and peace.

Peter A Frith.

Quote from Roberta Gilbert in Extraordinary Leadership:

Clergy people, for the most part, are wonderful people.  They are intelligent, sensitive, and idealistic.  When they graduate from seminary they approach their duties full of creativity and energy. Their hopes and dreams include devoting their lives to helping people in the service of God. They work incredible numbers of hours serving their congregations. But, they have no idea what, sooner or later, awaits them. For most, there is a rude reality waiting in the shadows that is totally unexpected. It seems to come at them out of the blue – and it is unpleasant. What they find is that the emotional side of the congregation, that supportive, loving, and caring side, can also flip, becoming negative, perplexing, and difficult to manage. It can turn against the minister or Rabbi, becoming critical or vindictive. It can spare the leader, but stir up the congregation to an extent that nothing useful can get accomplished. It can obstruct forward progress of any kind. Clergy people are usually completely blindsided by it. The pastor may wonder “What course in seminary prepared me for this?” or think, “I never dreamed it would be this way,” or simply leave the ministry in terror or other unmanageable emotional reactions, never to return. Some statistics estimate that40% of clergy leave the field in the first five years after the completion of their seminary training. While not all of these leave for emotional reasons, it is a safe bet that a large number do. Clergy, as well as most professionals, are given no way of thinking about the emotional side of organizations. Thus, when it shows up, intense and negative, they are unable to deal with it.