Resources on Congregational Anxiety from the Congregational Resource Guide

Collins, James C., and Jerry I. Porras. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras assert that companies "need to change in response to a changing world, while simultaneously preserving their core values and purpose." Such an assertion might apply to congregations as well. The authors compared 18 visionary companies with the same number of control companies to determine what factors create visionary companies "built to last." One key principle among visionary organizations: "clock building, not time telling." While "time-telling" organizations last as long as a great idea or charismatic leader, "clock-building" organizations last beyond the tenure of a particular project or leader. Another key principle: "Try a lot of stuff and keep what works." Many organizations stumble on major success through trial and error, experimentation, and risk taking. Similarly, congregations that are not afraid to use their gifts, and to let God reveal what works, will generate new vitality. This book provides valuable insights for congregations seeking to build an enduring purpose. The paperback version is highly recommended because the introduction explains how these principles apply to nonprofit organizations such as congregations.

Cosgrove, Charles H., and Dennis D. Hatfield. Church Conflict: The Hidden Systems behind the Fights. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994.

Applying family systems theory to the local church, Church Conflict helps conflict-ridden congregations to heal and mature by changing the way they understand themselves as God’s family. Using family systems theory, authors Charles Cosgrove and Dennis Hatfield help church leaders to discover the problems, issues, and unhealthy behaviors in the wider church family that are often behind individual problems, issues, and misbehavior. Since the way a church handles conflict can make or break its ministry, this resource is a valuable aid to church leaders for resolving conflicts in the congregation and training church members to handle conflict in a healthy way.

Farber-Robertson, Anita, with Meredith Brook Handspicker and David Whiman. Learning while Leading: Increasing Your Effectiveness in Ministry. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2000.

This book is based on the assumptions that effective leadership requires honest self-examination and that this is a difficult task because we have blind spots concerning the impact of our behavior and the thinking underlying it. As a result, our actions are often inconsistent with our most dearly held values and we are either unaware of this inconsistency or plagued with feelings of shame about it. The aim of Learning while Leading is to provide tools for identifying inconsistencies between our values and our actions, and for discovering and correcting the erroneous thinking that has made these inconsistencies possible. The ultimate goal of this endeavor is to enable us to become more fully aligned with our deepest values and beliefs, reclaiming the true source of religious authority. This is an important book for anyone interested in real change and growth both in themselves and in the communities or institutions they serve.

Fisher, Roger, William Ury, and Bruce Patton. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In, 2nd ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.

Secular advice for negotiation, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In is a useful resource for those involved in congregational decision making. The book is based on answering a common question in church work: what is the best way for people to deal with their differences? The authors suggest a process of "principled negotiation," or viewing those we are negotiating with as partners and looking for mutual gains whenever possible. The authors go on to address problems in negotiating, including what to do if those we are negotiating with are more powerful than we are or use unfair tactics, and what to do if they won’t negotiate. In their last chapter, the authors list the 10 most common questions about principled negotiation and answer them in some depth.

Friedman, Edwin H. Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue. New York: Guilford Publications, 1985.

Friedman—for 25 years a congregational rabbi, family therapist, and counselor to clergy of numerous faiths—describes in detail how families do and don’t work. He applies the prism of family systems theory to both the congregational family and families in a congregation, focusing on the powerful position of clergy for enabling family development around life-cycle events and associated rituals. Friedman centers on behavior rather than on labeled individuals, and he demands our attention to process rather than to an "identified problem." Friedman’s work is at the very core of understanding leadership work with both the static and the changing "family."

Friedman, Edwin H. Reinventing Leadership (video). New York: Guilford Publications, 1996.

Edwin Friedman, a rabbi in the Reformed tradition and a family systems therapist, applied the insights of family systems to understanding the dynamics of congregations in his book Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue. This video presentation builds on that work by describing how communities become dysfunctional when they are gripped by anxiety and how such communities tend to sabotage healthy leadership. The video goes on to describe the qualities required in leaders in order to overcome the sabotage. The video will prove useful to leadership groups and in classes with clergy and laity who exercise leadership roles in church and society. (Duration: 40 minutes.)

May, Gerald G. Addiction and Grace. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.

This is a powerful and highly readable text that bears reading and rereading by both pastoral caregivers and those who come to them for guidance. Author Gerald Mays explores the forces (especially addictions) that limit human freedom and the means for transcending them. Underlying the book is the premise that all of us have an innate longing or "sacred hunger" for communion with God. Unfortunately, this hunger attaches itself to any number of substances (drugs, food, money) or other phenomena (achievement, approval, intimacy), and the downward cycle of addiction begins. The author deftly describes the stages through which attachment becomes addiction, the factors that indicate addiction is present, and the psychological, neurological, and theological natures of addiction. He then discusses a way out of addiction—through grace. While we cannot summon or control grace, May suggests we can make room for grace to enter our lives—through prayer and by living faithfully as best we can, with a commitment to honesty, dignity, community, responsibility, and simplicity.

Parsons, George, and Speed B. Leas. Understanding Your Congregation as a System: The Manual. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 1993.

In this application of systems theory, congregational leaders can explore the forces at work and examine their systemic implications in six key areas: strategy, process, pastoral and lay leadership, authority, relatedness, and learning. The manual provides an overview of systems theory, complete instructions for administering and scoring the Congregational Systems Inventory (available separately), and guidance for interpreting and explaining the inventory results through the examination of sample scores. One focus of the book is to help congregations live in the tension between stability and change by encouraging adaptation to demographic and development changes without incurring too much stress and conflict.

Steinke, Peter L. How Your Church Family Works: Understanding Congregations as Emotional Systems. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 1993.

As an accompaniment to Edwin Friedman’s Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue, this book suggests that interrelatedness produces anxiety and other emotions, but that the anxiety inherent in interrelatedness provides opportunities for change and growth. Author Peter Steinke encourages leaders to be in relationships that neither diminish their own integrity nor intrude on the integrity of others. Healthy responses to congregational struggles, he says, include focusing on self, not others; strength, not weakness; process, not content; challenge, not comfort; integrity, not unity; system, not symptom; and direction, not condition. This book is a valuable resource for congregational leaders.

Steinke, Peter L. Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 1996.

Applying the insights of systems theory to congregational life, Steinke argues that the most effective way to nurture congregational health is by shifting the focus from single individuals or issues to the way the congregation functions as a whole. The author discusses ten principles of health, how anxiety can affect a congregation, and the crucial role that leaders play in congregational functioning. In this era of emphasis on congregational growth, Steinke asserts that a declining congregation can also be healthy. Easily understandable, this book contains helpful illustrations from congregational life as well as reflection and discussion questions at the end of each chapter.

Weiser, Conrad W. Healers Harmed & Harmful. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994.

In Healers Harmed & Harmful, Conrad Weiser examines the roots of misconduct among clergy, counselors, and other "healers" from the perspective of contemporary clinical psychology. The premise of this publication is that the harmful or inappropriate actions of adults are manifestations of unprocessed damage from childhood. Such damage, Weiser says, can distort perceptions of reality, create an inability to accurately distinguish one’s own boundaries or those of others, and interfere with the establishment of healthy relationships. This book explores a wide range of harmful behaviors that can result from unresolved psychic wounds. While not a therapeutic how-to manual for restructuring the self, this book does provide ways for clergy to discern whether they or their colleagues are significantly wounded, how these wounds might be manifesting themselves, and whether they are at risk for misconduct.