Secrets and church health

While serving as a regional minister in our judicatory one of my churches had a series of pastoral changes in a short period of time. I found out from the second pastor that the leadership had fired him but told him to announce he was resigning, and they would provide him with a severance package. I heard the story and called the pastor to confirm it. He admitted it was true but begged me to not say anything because he and his family were able to live in the parsonage while he sought another church. I had previously heard similar stories about this church and its board.

To protect this pastor I waited until he moved to another church and left the parsonage before calling the head of the lay leadership. I asked if what I had been told was true, and he admitted it was. I then said that I felt this church had a lot of secrets that were being kept from the membership. After a long pause he admitted this was also true. He had just assumed his leadership position and assured me he was going to address it.

One of the problems in keeping secrets is that they really do not remain secrets for very long. People know when things are not right. I retired soon after this event occurred in this church and do not know how the church is doing today, but at the time they had lost over half of their congregation. I told that lay leader something I've told many congregations: A CHURCH IS ONLY AS HEALTHY AS THE SECRETS IT KEEPS.

How many churches have covered up pastoral affairs "for the sake of the ministry?" How many have covered up financial irregularities for the same supposed reason? How many church boards have fired the pastor and bribed him or her with financial incentives to announce to the congregation that they felt "led by the Lord to take another church?"

I repeat that a church will only be as healthy as the secrets it keeps. Some churches have a lot of bodies buried, and I'm not referring to the graveyard that surrounds the church. Board meetings are filled with anger, tension and fear that people will learn the secrets that are being maintained. 

When I was first saved I was a member of a church where the leaders wanted the pastor out. It was not uncommon to see the deacons and the pastor go into a room after a Sunday morning service for a meeting. After a few months, the pastor left. Sometime later I was chosen to be a deacon in that church and was elected secretary. When I received the secretary's record book I thought I would finally find out what went on in those meetings. However, when I opened the book I found that all the pages from that time period had been torn out. The church was not a healthy church, and it still wasn't when I left a couple of years later.

An unhealthy church can never be a growing church, and if it did grow, it would grow to be even more unhealthy. When people walk into an unhealthy church, they can feel the tension. While they may not know what's going on, they know something is not right in this church. 

It's never easy to publicly announce misconduct when it occurs, but it's necessary. Like a doctor telling patient he or she has cancer, it's not easy for the doctor but the patient must know there's a problem, and there's a treatment plan. As painful as it might be for a congregation to hear there's a problem, it's far better to announce it and offer a plan to address it. I will repeat: A church is only as healthy as the secrets it keeps.