Principle #2—Break the Power of the Past
Emotionally healthy congregations have a healthy and balanced view of the past. On the one hand, past traditions can provide a foundation for the present mission of the church. But on the other hand, past traditions can keep the church from going forward in ways the further the biblical mission of the church. This chapter in Scazzero’s book responds to the latter unhealthy presence of traditions that stifle and hinder the work of the church. In this blog I want to respond to this perspective, and I invite your feedback.
I want to write this blog by way of five foundational statements that are in response to Scazzero’s chapter on breaking the power of the past. Over the last 25 years, research on congregational life has demonstrated that family systems impact the congregational system. This is very evident when unhealthy family traditions and behaviors are brought into the church.
From a biblical standpoint, the healthy family (husband and wife relationship in Ephesians 5) is held up as a beautiful example of what the church can be like. Keeping this in mind as the biblical model will help us look at the five foundational statements.
Foundational statement #1—Traditions in and of themselves are not wrong. Traditions, whether in home or church, are supposed to provide a solid foundation for identity and purpose. Too often, home and church does not stop to re-affirm those healthy traditions. Take Thanksgiving, for example, which is coming up in about a month. So many wonderful traditions in families revolve around this holiday. These traditions form the bonding memories that give our families meaning and purpose. The same thing is true in the church.
Foundational statement #2—unexamined traditions unknowingly and unintentionally slip into a category of “sacred tradition” that is almost considered Bible. “This is the way we do it, so do not question it.” I heard this growing up. I have seen and heard this in the church through the years. I remember one time as a teenager my mother said to me, “You know what your problem is? You ask too many questions!” But I have always believed that healthy family systems and healthy church systems encourage the honest inquiry, the honest question that truly wants to know why things are the way they are.
Foundational statement #3—personal family traditions and backgrounds impact the leaders of the church. This really is the thesis of Scazzero’s chapter. When driven people, autocratic people, chaotic people, compulsive people come into leadership positions of the church without taking the time to break the unhealthy patterns of the past, the church suffers. This includes communication patterns, relating patterns, and attitude patterns. If not addressed head on, unhealthy family patterns produce “radioactive fallout” all over the body of Christ.
Foundational statement #4—family systems and church systems are either open or closed with traditional patterns of behavior. This is an extension of foundational statement #3. I have lived long enough to see the catastrophic results of closed systems. A closed system, whether family or church, operates behind closed doors with the message that we will not allow anyone to say anything. A closed system manipulates people into silence. A closed system operates on guilt and fear. The ultimate catastrophe is suicide. Just as a family member can commit suicide, a closed church leadership system can cause a congregation to commit suicide by imploding to the point it has to close its doors.
Foundational statement #5—Personal, unfinished business with one’s own unhealthy family traditions spills over into the church. This is the final statement. What is not addressed at home, is introduced in the life of the church as hurtful, self-centered behavior that becomes toxic. A lot of organizational research and literature has been published since 1999 on toxicity and how people are destroyed in such organizational settings. The church in America has been slow to admit its own congregational expressions of toxicity. The apostle Paul touches on this in 1 Corinthians 11 when he observes, “But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.”
What a challenge the church always has before it! Family and church traditions need to be healthy. Since the church is the family of God, nothing is more healthy than time-tested and often-questioned traditions that provide our identity, practice and collective memory. May God grant us the wisdom and courage to let traditions have their proper place so that we can enthusiastically embrace the ongoing mission of the church!