For this month’s newsletter, I defer my space to Bishop Larry Wohlrabe, who serves the Northwestern Minnesota Synod of the ELCA.  He recently wrote a series of articles on the marks of healthy congregations.  I found this article particularly insightful in relationship to our recent congregational meeting, where we voted to distribute large bequests totaling over $100,000.  Notice in the article that the top trigger for anxiety in a congregation is money, but not just too little.  A large bequest can also trigger anxiety.  In my opinion, the membership at Hope did a good job of regulating stress and responding to the decisions that come when unexpected blessings arrive.  I hope you enjoy the article as much as I did.

 Grace and peas, Pastor Mark

 

By Bishop Larry Wohlrabe

Thank God for the gift of anxiety!  If we had no anxiety about anything, we’d never climb out of bed in the morning, never get to work on time, never finish an assignment or meet a deadline.  A modest degree of anxiety or stress gets us going in life.

But what about unrelenting anxiety?  What if we continually operate on the high side of anxiety—above the threshold of normal, run-of-the-mill stress?  What if anxiety paralyzes us, stops us in our tracks, overwhelms us?  What then?  The word anxiety comes from a Latin word angere, meaning “to cause pain by squeezing.”  Related words are anger, angst, angina (heart pain).  The image here is telling:  anxiety run amok constricts us, squeezes us, reduces our options and possibilities.  It feels as if the “cords of death” are wrapped around our necks, choking off our oxygen supply (Psalm 18:4).

This is true for organizations as well as individuals.  Congregations are living bodies—vibrant emotional systems of inter-relationships.  Congregations can easily become constricted, limited, “squeezed.”

Peter Steinke contends that there are ten common triggers of anxiety in congregations:

• Money (too little or too much, e.g. a large bequest)
• Changing worship patterns
• Issues around sexuality
• Pastor’s leadership style
• “Old versus new” discussions
• Concern over growth or survival
• Conflicts among church staff or resignation of a staff member
• Being overly focused on internal matters or an external matters
• Suffering some major trauma, tension or transition
• Harm done to a child or the death of a child

Every congregations deals with anxiety.  That’s a given.  The crucial question before us is: will we mindlessly automatically react to anxiety?  Or will we reflectively, thoughtfully respond to anxiety?

When a congregation simply reacts to anxiety we notice things like…

• Folks are constantly critical of one another;
• Persons or groups make threats, engage in manipulation, throw tantrums
• Splinter groups form
• Change is feared and rejected
• Quick fixes are sought, and the path of least resistance is preferred
• People keep secrets and avoid open communication
• Folks get stuck in narrow, “either/or” thinking and thus miss the array of possibilities before them

When a congregation and its leaders learn to regulate their stress and respond to anxiety they:

• Avoid snap judgments and quick fixes
• Take time to gather information and analyze options
• Generate all sorts of possible solutions
• Endure short-term pain for the sake of long-term health
• Commit themselves to living in the unity of Jesus Christ
• Make wise, balanced, thoughtful decisions
• Trust that God will sustain them, guide them and bless their faithful efforts in the midst of anxious times.