Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach

This book is a classic in its field and is an excellent summary of a family systems approach to congregations. Steinke uses the healing processes of the human body as a metaphor to show how congregations function like a body to heal wounds and to prevent illness. Based on my experience as a pastor, I'd say Steinke is right on the mark. Using family systems theory to describe a parish is very accurate, and Steinke clearly knows parish life intimately. Every wise pastor knows the importance of listening to the emotional language of the congregation. When something is amiss, the pastor "feels" it. Steinke recognizes this reality when he says that a church community is an organic whole, and everything in a congregation is connected emotionally. You can't consider one part of the community without considering the whole thing together as a family system. All churches have conflict, and pastors are rightly wary when conflict raises its ugly head. But Steinke points out that a healthy church is not one without problems, but one that addresses and heals its wounds. Like a healthy body, a healthy church has a well-functioning immune system (good leadership), vigorous circulation (open communication and feedback) and healthy breathing (the movement of the Spirit of God). There are a lot of leadership books on the market, but Steinke addresses church leadership in particular. He says that good leadership is like the brain of the body. The human brain has the amazing ability to convert ideas into biochemical realities. In the same way, good pastoral leadership functions as the organ bringing balance and perspective to the church. Leaders make a difference when they make clear and effective responses to the conditions in the congregation. To promote healthy congregations, Steinke points to a number of things: a healthy sense of purpose and vision; the willingness to address conflict; maturity among the leaders; a positive tone or mood in the congregation; the ability to manage anxiety; and a focus on solutions rather than the disease. Being pastor of a church is a fascinating and lovely vocation. This book helps you see that vocation even more lovingly and more clearly.

You know a book connects when you think the author is speaking about your experiences. Steinke helped explain some of the struggles I had dealt with throughout my ministry. True of all systems thinking, it is not about shame and blame, rather thinking and acting in more productive ways. I wish I had this book to read before I started in ministry. If every pastor and church board would reflect on this book, and taking it to heart, it would help them to work better instead of harder. It is an excellent book for those who have never viewed congregations from a systems perspective.

This book was used to help my church understand some of the problems that it was experiencing, following the resignation of our minister. In a book study, we were able to reframe our perceptions with a model that we all had lifelong experience (the human body) and new insights emerged. In fact, we had the tools to work through our issues once we understood the problems and how they impacted each other. It was great.

Peter Steinke offers a look at what makes for a healthy congregation from the perspective of systems theory. There are other books that, in my opinion, do a much better job articulating just what, exactly, systems theory looks like (especially Peter Senge's book The Fifth Discipline), but this is helpful in applying systems theory specifically to congregations. Steinke identifies what "health" looks like in congregations (it is not the absence of illness, but rather the way the body responds to the illness), and how to promote it. I was particularly amused by the story of "Mr. Schmidt" on page 18, and particularly helped by the discussion of the functioning of the human brain on pages 64-66. I loved this paragraph on page 70: "How many congregations believe they are in the 'we exist for ourselves' business rather than the 'we are in mission to the community, even the world' business? How many congregations confuse 'the way we have done things for decades' with the 'larger apostolic purposes'? How many congregations mistake the means for the ends?" But the heart and soul of the book is about creating a healthy congregation, understood as an emotional system. This book, along with Peter Steinke's other book How Your Church Family Works and Edwin Friedman's Generation to Generation, present basic theoretical concepts that every congregational leader ought to absorb if they truly want their congregation (and the people in it) to become healthier.

Steinke's Healthy Congregations begins where his first volume, "How Your Church Family Works," left off. He presents ten principles of health, how to deal with corporate anxiety, and the role of spiritually and emotionally healthy leaders in influencing the church's emotional competence. Of particular value is his discussion of Infectious Anxiety (pp. 55-67), where problems such as murmuring, gossip, secrets, accusations, and triangulation are discussed.