Things that Make Me Suspicious

Here are some things (in no particular order) I find some of you are doing in your congregations that make me suspicious of your self-declared congregational health:

• You say you don’t need a congregational covenant.
• And you are still excusing the bad behavior of that one member.
• You want more families but children go directly to classes, not worship.
• You want more families but you have no intergenerational events.
• You don’t seem to like each other very much.
• Taking donations and pledges electronically is welcome, but no one can be paid or reimbursed electronically.
• The process to get a check written, signed, and sent requires multiple forms, multiple steps, and 6-8 weeks.
• No one seems to know how anything gets done; your response is “ask the admin.”
• You call yourself ‘historically lay led’ but you’ve had a minister consistently since 1830.
• You celebrate all the justice work you’ve done, but most of it requires the minister to lead, often alone.
• You say all are welcome, as long as they don’t say ‘God’ or ‘prayer’ or ‘Jesus’ from the pulpit.
• You struggle to spend money today on staff and programming that will help you grow because you’re afraid of not having money for staff and programs in some imagined future.
• You spend more time criticizing the facilitators, coaches, and consultants you’ve hired than following the process you hired them to help you through.
• You evaluate your ministers and staff through a corporate lens.
• All of your social events are fundraisers.
• No one stays in coffee hour because they don’t want to be asked to do yet another thing.
• New congregants are told they have to ‘get our culture’ with no discussion about what that culture is.
• You don’t treat others as though you center Love.

I hate it when I see these things happening, because they are counter-productive to what it means to be in a faith community. Especially when none of these things are hard to fix. They do, however, take focus, and intention, and a willingness to be each day a little better.

Come on, folks. Isn’t your congregation worth the time and effort?