Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
In this sequel to How Your Church Family Works, Peter Steinke takes readers into a deeper exploration of the congregation as an emotional system. He outlines the factors that put congregations at risk for anxiety and conflict. Learn ten principles of health, how congregations can adopt new ways of dealing with stress and anxiety, as well as how spiritually and emotionally healthy leaders influence the emotional system. Featuring a new preface and a fresh redesign, this book is a classic work by one of the most respected names in congregational consulting.
Key Features
- Examines what makes a congregation “healthy”
- Discusses risk factors of conflict in the church
- Explains how to deal with issues as they arise in the congregation
Contents
- Part 1: Wholeness
- Life Is All of a Piece
- Ten Principles of Health
- Promoting Healthy Congregations
- Part 2: Disease Process
- Congregations at Risk
- Infectious Anxiety
- The Coconut Captivity of the Church
- Part 3: Health Resources
- The Higher Medicines
- The Immune Congregation
- An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Intervention
Top Highlights
“A healthy congregation is one that actively and responsibly addresses or heals its disturbances, not one with an absence of troubles.” (Page 13)
“Some loops use information to amplify. They create” (Page 9)
“Mind, heart, and strength are three parts of a whole. Love is comprehensive. If you love God only with your mind (cognitive) and do not love God with your heart (devotion, compassion) and your strength (commitment), your love is incomplete.” (Page 5)
“Health is a process, not a thing or state. It is ongoing, dynamic, and ever changing. Health is a direction, not a destination, a once-and-for-all property.” (Page 27)
“Comparable to the brain’s functioning in the body is the functioning of the leaders in the congregation. They are in the position to influence the emotional field in far reaching ways. A healthy body relies on proper channels from the brain to the body parts as well as commitment from individual cells to do the will of the head. A similar arrangement is found in healthy organizations between leaders and followers.” (Page 23)
About Peter L. Steinke
Peter L. Steinke is an internationally respected congregational systems consultant who has also served as a parish pastor, an educator, and a therapist for clergy. He is the author of the best-selling books How Your Church Fmaily Works and Healthy Congregations.