The Congregational Consulting Group, organized in 2014 by former consultants of the Alban Institute, is a network of independent consultants. We publish PERSPECTIVES for Congregational Leaders—thoughts on topics of interest to leaders of congregations and other purpose-driven organizations. — Dan Hotchkiss, editor
David Brubaker High-intensity congregational conflict is brutal on congregational leaders. Even though conflict generally emerges from deeper congregational and societal dynamics, members are likely to assume that leaders’ incompetence must be at least partly responsible.
Trust in our institutions—and in our institutional leaders—is crumbling, but there is a bright side: Institutions, it turns out, are deeply fallible human constructions. We were mistaken to ever put our trust in them. As the walls come tumbling down around our institutional infrastructures, the local congregation may emerge as the ideal locale to build genuine community.
I began my current career of teaching and consulting 30 years ago. In those three decades, I’ve watched several valued colleagues burn out, and also have experienced periods of stress and burnout myself. For the multitude of us who work in a “people profession” (and particularly in ministry), the seemingly endless demands of our work—along with family and community needs—can become overwhelming.
In what is certainly the strangest U.S. presidential election since I first voted in 1976, the polarized national political environment is now seeping into our local congregations. Pastors, priests and rabbis have reported pressure from some congregants to “speak to the issues!” and from others to “stay away from politics!” Many congregational leaders are also …
Congregations, like all organizations, are arenas for political activity. While we tend to think of politics as pertaining to governmental entities, the phrase “workplace politics” communicates the reality that political activities occur in multiple organizational settings. Power and authority are negotiated and contested in every organization, thus political activity is also endemic in every organization.
In the last 50 years, much of our new understanding of congregational life emerged from the social sciences, while less attention has been given to the spirituality of congregations and their leaders. Social science has contributed a great deal, but some questions remain stubbornly unanswered. Why can some leaders provide principled leadership for decades while others succumb to ethical lapses? Why are some congregations resilient in the face of setbacks while others fail to bounce back?
Nearly every congregation has a hushed story about one. That “awful meeting” in which participants said terrible things, relationships were shattered, and permanent scars resulted. In their 1999 study of “Breakaway Organizations,” Dyck and Stark found that a “polarizing event” (usually a painful congregational meeting) was almost always the precipitating factor for a congregational schism and the departure of members.