Customer Reviews

Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach

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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.

This book is a helpful introduction to the area of systems thinking. It offers a concise picture of how to understand congregational health from an organic perspective. Having little exposure to systems thinking, I found this book enlightening and thought provoking.
A systems approach to church health perceives and evaluates the connectedness between every relational part of the church. The particular case studies provided in each chapter helped illuminate the applicability of systems thinking to congregational life.
The following terms were of benefit and interest to me: reactive behavior, vision, and self-differentiation. Reactive behavior can corrupt the health of a congregation if leaders reciprocate attacks with like responses of anger and hostility. This is a helpful call for leaders to be steady and mature in handling difficult circumstances.
Vision or shared vision is the immune defense system of an institution or church. This concept helps leaders realize the importance of people sharing and owning the vision of the institution or church.
Self-differentiation is concerned with defining what is self or not self. It is focused upon what is native to the system and what is foreign. To differentiate is to stay the course with reactive people and at the same time stay in touch with them even when relationships become difficult.
Beyond finding help from the previous terms, I found a systems approach to be more dialogical and less hierarchical than much of the leadership material commonly found for church leaders. Health, according to systems thinking, is about attitudes, moods, and choices that are managed well by leaders in times of difficulty. A systems approach encourages leaders to be the key stewards of health in the church.
Finally, as I thought about the positive direction and focus of a systems approach to church health, I could not help thinking about Natural Church Development and how it focuses on the `minimum factor' or the problem area. A systems approach, on the other hand, focuses upon strength, options, and resources. I believe leaders using either of these church health philosophies-a systems approach or Natural Church Development-need to keep a balance between realism and idealism and strength and weakness.
A systems approach is a worthwhile study that can lead people into a greater awareness of how to make an organization relationally stronger and healthier.

Steinke, Peter L., Healthy Congregations, Hearndon, Virginia, The Alban Institute, 1996.

Healthy Congregations is an engaging book. The author focuses on the similarities between the physical body and how it functions and the body of Christ and how it functions in relationship systems. Steinke states, "We relate to one another in the ways biological cells respond to one another." In other words, all parts interact and impact each other.

Steinke is concerned with establishing and defining what is responsible and enlightened behavior and how this healthy way of interrelating is the key to good health in a congregation. He sets out to identify those interactions which most empower health and those interactions which most enable the disease process. He concludes that health happens when people take personal responsibility for their own actions and behaviors, as well as for their own health.

His chapter entitled "Infectious Anxiety" is an excellent overview of gossiping, whispering, blaming, faultfinding and triangulation. He states that, "Secrets support immaturity. Underground murmurers in a community are usually insecure, dependent and childish people" (59). He goes on to declare that the leader who remains silent about these behaviors, in essence, enables it. He concludes that, "A healthy congregation is one that actively and responsibly addresses or heals its disturbances, not one with an absence of troubles" (10).

Review the discussion questions at the end of each chapter as they are the practical application of his content. The author had fun writing this book. He gets his message across by way of his analogous insight into the physical body as it parallels with the body of Christ.

The latest book to apply family systems to the congregation is Healthy Congregations, by Peter Steinke, a student of the late Rabbi Edwin Friedman. Steinke approaches his subject positively - how do healthy congregations behave?

Congregational health begins with mature, self-differentiated leaders. Leaders in an anxious system (as all systems are, from time to time) must avoid becoming overly concerned with solving others' problems or assuaging their anxiety. Anyone who has served in congregational leadership knows how difficult this can be. Steinke holds out the faith that leaders who model good immune functioning can in time be the "salvation" of their congregations.

Steinke's account of congregational maladies ring true, and his prescriptions are pragmatic. Healthy Congregations is a worthy sequel to Steinke's previous Alban volume, How Your Congregational Family Works.

Dan Hotchkiss, senior consultant for the Alban Institute

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.

I have a masters (MS) in Systems Theory applied to computer systems and educational systems. The title of the book caught my eye since I had never seen the systems approach used to explain or predict or manipulate organizations as churches. Very good overview but a bit simplistic and subjective. I expected a bit more objectivity from the label "a systems approach". Definitely not written for those with expertise on systems theory.

Peter L. Steinke's "Healthy Congregations" is a helpful approach to congregational health and welfare based on a systems paradigm: how the aggregate functions as an expression of its individual parts. This book is not a "how to" in regard to the achievement of an end; it is an approach to a greater understanding of the means that lead to an end, i.e., congregational health. The dynamics of stewardship, wholeness, health, and disease are interwoven to accentuate Steinke's main thesis - health is a byproduct of the subsidiary parts' working together to achieve and maintain balance.
In his introduction, Steinke aptly states that "health is not the absence of disease." Much more than a eutopic state void of contagions, health is the ongoing drive to address foreign disturbances and heal any damages to the body. Especially intriguing is his understanding of immunology and its accompanying vernacular. Coming from a science background, this is an appreciated referent. Steinke's chapter entitled "Infectious Anxiety" is an enlightening one that highlights various means of infection via anxiety's viral-like manifestations. Consequently, health is determined more by response than by prevention.
This book includes insightful summaries of both individual and corporate case studies that cause the reader to ponder the author's basic premise regarding congregational health. In each instance, the maxim of "healthy individuals create healthy churches" can be delineated. The health of individuals, both clergy and laity, is a large determinant of the health of the aggregate unit. Wise leaders, as the author states, help cultivate an environment of health and posture the body for growth and vitality. These leaders understand the quote included in the text from Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Every member serves the whole body, either to its health or to its destruction."

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 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.

This is an excellent book for churches in all stages of growth that want to build upon the energy and Spirit that is their congregation and community. It presents a comprehensive picture and offers practical suggestions for what can go wrong and what can go right with church leadership - boards and ministers, congregations, and communities. As an added bonus, it is delivered in a concise and easy to read format.