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Friday, August 03, 2018

What You Don’t Know About Your Church’s Past Can Kill You


Many pastors begin a new assignment and get blindsided by issues they never expected. When that happens, it can be deadly. I’ve found that creating a genogram of your church, called a family diagram in psychology, can yield much insight into how people may have perpetuated unhealthy patterns in a church. It’s simply taking a bird’s eye view of your church’s past, looking for connections, and drawing them out. One of my books, People Pleasing Pastors: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Approval Motivated Leadership illustrates the process if you want to dig deeper.

I wish I had known about family diagrams before I began to pastor. If I had seen how dysfunctional batons pass from one leader or significant stakeholder to the next, I could have avoided a lot of grief—or least prepared myself to handle those issues better. Read More

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