What happens when a church keeps secrets?

Once, while working with a troubled church in my role as a denominational minister, I discovered that the church leaders had not been truthful with the congregation in the matter. I had suspected the same thing happened in a previous situation in this church, but this time I had the evidence. I contacted one of the key lay leaders and confronted him with the information I had. He admitted it was true. I then said I had the feeling that this was standard procedure in this church and was one of the reasons why the church had lost so many members in recent years. He admitted this was not the first time this had happened.

A church is only as healthy as the secrets it keeps. When church leadership keeps information from the congregation problems will arise. Any time people are not told the facts about a situation they will make up their own facts. These can sometimes be worse than the truth and can easily take on a life of its own. The rumor mill begins to operate, first through the church and then into the community. If the church tries to do damage control by sharing the truth about the situation it then faces the risk of being asked why it didn't tell the truth in the first place.

Any time it is found that church leadership kept important information from the congregation or that it gave out false or incomplete information trust is broken. As I wrote last week, when trust is lost leaders cannot lead. People do not follow those they do not trust. If the pastor is the one at fault, there is a good chance the church will not trust the next pastor either. Even though he or she had nothing to do with the earlier deception the new pastor will have to jump additional hurdles to earn the trust of the congregation.

People vote with their feet and their checkbook when they believe trust has been violated. They may leave for a season or they may never return. Sometimes they drop out of church completely fearing that they will be deceived again at a new church. Sometimes people will remain in the church but give little or nothing to financially support the church. Some will give their money to parachurch ministries or to some other organization they trust and support.

Not only does the church lose some of its members, it also finds it difficult to reach out to new people. If the church is seen as having to try to cover up something the public will also react negatively. Many non-Christians already struggle to trust churches, and if they learn of an attempt by the church to cover up something they will be convinced their lack of trust was justified.

Admittedly, sometimes it's difficult to know how much information to share with the congregation. Sometimes there is the matter of confidentiality which must be protected in most situations. There may be the issue of needing to protect innocent parties who may have been impacted by the situation. When either of these are the case the leaders can explain that there are some details that cannot be shared for these reasons, but then without betraying confidentiality or innocent people the matter can be discussed honestly.

Such discussions are seldom pleasant, but it is far worse to have to admit later that in previous discussions leadership was being less than honest. Honest discussions about matters than impact the church help the church remain healthy and leads to growth. Trying to keep secrets from the congregation leads to an unhealthy environment in the church and often results in decline.