Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach (Paperback)

~ (Author) "This book is about the stewardship of the congregation: how people care for, respond to, and manage their life together..." (more)
Key Phrases: higher medicines, healthy congregations, congregational health, Main Street, The Alban Institute, All Angels (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a book for people who want ideas, not directions; hope, not diagrams; and encouragement, not rigid rules." -- Philip H. Young, Synod of the Pacific, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

"This is a user-friendly, theologically grounded guide to congregational wholeness." -- The Rev. Canon Nancy A. Roosevelt, Episcopal Diocese of Rochester

Product Description

In this sequel to How Your Church Family Works, Steinke takes readers into a deeper exploration of the congregation as an emotional system. Learn ten principles of health, how congregations can adopt new ways of dealing with stress and anxiety, how spiritually and emotionally healthy leaders influence the emotional system, factors that could put your congregation at risk, and more.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 118 pages
• Publisher: Alban Institute (August 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566991730
• ISBN-13: 978-1566991735
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #649,418 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't miss this, August 12, 2006

By	William Pinches "PC(USA) Pastor" (Mason, MI USA) - See all my reviews

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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review, February 16, 2006

By	Kevin D. Summers - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction to family systems applied to congregations, May 23, 1998

By	Dan Hotchkiss "Dan Hotchkiss" (Middleboro, Mass.) - See all my reviews

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