The Koinonia Way

Churches today face a deep health crisis. No, I'm not referring to the rising cost of healthcare, or the obesity epidemic (though both are troubling). I have in mind the problem of pastoral burnout, and the congregational cultures that foster this disease.

The symptoms of pastoral burnout have been well-documented over the last 25 years: ministerial dropout rates approaching 50 percent, rising use of antidepressants, obesity, hypertension, and more.

The symptoms of pastoral burnout have been well-documented over the last 25 years: ministerial dropout rates approaching 50 percent, rising use of antidepressants, obesity, hypertension, and more. While programs like Duke Divinity School's Clergy Health Initiative and the Lily Endowment's National Clergy Renewal Program have emerged over the last 15 years to raise awareness and work to foster healthier clergy, there seems to be less effort focused on addressing the other side of the equation—promoting healthier congregational cultures that do not burn out their clergy, leaders, and members.

Fred Lehr's book Clergy Burnout is a helpful resource for thinking about how the culture of a congregation contributes to the health of a church. Lehr uses the pointed language of codependency to describe the conditions that contribute to pastoral burnout. Congregations that expect their pastors to over-perform are often enabled to do less work than we have been called to do as members of Christ's body. Lehr suggests that the journey from unhealthy congregations to healthy ones is marked by a shift in the clergy/laity relationship from codependency to interdependence.

In our recent book Slow Church, John Pattison and I offered a vision of what it means for churches to mature as healthy, interdependent communities. Recognizing the ways that our brokenness as individuals, churches, and societies manifest in congregations, we believe in God's transforming power—and in the possibility of cultivating congregations that are healthier for pastors and laity.

I believe that changing how we understand and function together as local church communities might set us on a journey toward healthier, interdependent congregations.

The language of fellowship

First, let's examine the sort of language and images we use to describe our life in the local church. The language of "going to church" (versus "being the church" or "belonging to a church") inclines us to think of church as a religious community where the clergy are professionals who do the work and churchgoers are basically consumers of religious goods and services. It's not difficult to see how this consumerist notion of church feeds into codependency and burnout.

In addition to language of being and belonging, the New Testament word koinonia is a term used to describe healthy, interdependent congregations. Although typically translated into English as "fellowship" (and reduced from there into images of chit-chat over a meal or coffee), this word had a much richer definition in the New Testament world. Perhaps it could be better translated in our age as "sharing in common."

In addition to language of being and belonging, the New Testament word 'koinonia' is a term used to describe healthy, interdependent congregations.

If indeed God is calling us as churches into a deeper life of sharing, then how do we talk about and organize our life together in ways that orient us out of a faith defined largely by passive consumption and toward a faith marked by engaged participation in the koinonia of the local church? How can we foster communities that share in common?

Broadening "vocation"

When we speak of Christian vocation, we often do so with a very narrow definition of that term, one that we contrast to a secular vocation. In this typical usage, a Christian vocation might be a calling to be a pastor, a worship leader or a missionary, but a calling to any other sort of work outside the church would be a secular vocation. This way of defining vocation, however, reflects the sorts of fragmentation that defines our times, highlighting not only the chasm between sacred and secular, but also the divide between church and business.

If we start with the biblical convictions that God is at work reconciling all things (Col. 1:19-20) and that God calls us into that reconciling work (2 Cor. 5:17-20), then we must broaden our definition of Christian vocation. We should seek to discern our individual callings within the scope of a new creation—in which our primary vocation is to be ambassadors of God's all-encompassing reconciliation.

Leaders have the resources in the members of our congregations—not only to lighten the load of our paid church staff, but also to launch new initiatives, some of which might not even occur to our paid staff.

The Apostle Paul also notes in Ephesians 4:7-8 that we have all been given gifts suitable for our calling. God has blessed the people of God abundantly with gifts. Indeed, it is not just pastors, missionaries, and church staff who have a Christian vocation, but rather, every church member has been given skills and talents that can be utilized in the work of the church. Entrepreneurs can help create jobs that benefit not only those who need work, but also the neighborhood. Artists can help us imagine new ways of being together. Plumbers, electricians, and others in the building trades are essential for re-structuring the built environment to provide good, affordable housing and to draw people closer to one another. Doctors, nurses and others in the medical trades not only treat our illnesses but can also help us imagine healthier ways of living and being together. Everyone has skills that can bear witness to God's reconciliation in our neighborhoods. The role of the church (not just the pastor or church staff ) is to orchestrate these gifts to direct our neighbors' attention to God's reconciling love.

Many of the tasks that pastors do could be done as well (if not better) by members of the congregation. Visiting the sick, handling finances and administration for the church, extending hospitality, representing the church in neighborhood meetings—all of these sorts of work could be shared by members of the congregation. Even worship planning or preaching, activities that a pastor might want to stay involved in, can be shared. Leaders have the resources in the members of our congregations—not only to lighten the load of our paid church staff, but also to launch new initiatives, some of which might not even occur to our paid staff.

Here at Englewood Christian Church on the Near Eastside of Indianapolis, a church of about 200 adult members, we have only two paid pastors and two administrative staff members. However, we have a daycare that hires about 20 people in full- and part-time positions and a separate community development non-profit that employs about 15 people in a variety of small businesses from traditional community development to bookkeeping, to publishing and bookselling, to landscaping, to managing a recreational facility. Englewood also does a variety of food-related work—community gardening and beekeeping—without staff-people specifically paid for this work.

If someone in our church has passion and skill for a particular ministry, we should empower her or him to do so.

Each of these endeavors began with people who were gifted to do a particular kind of work and an opportunity in the church or neighborhood that made it fiscally viable. We also have about a dozen other members who work for organizations in our neighborhood that regularly partner with our church—a doctor who works for the local health clinic, several people who work or have worked for our local food co-op, etc. And when speaking of the work of the church, I cannot overlook the group of half-a-dozen retired men who show up daily at the church building and do whatever odd jobs need to be done: painting, taking out trash and recycling, driving people to doctor's appointments, and so on. We are involved in a wide range of work, much of which goes beyond what most churches do, but we are able to do so because we are attentive to the gifts of our members and the opportunities in our neighborhood, and because our members are willing to devote themselves whole-heartedly to the work of the church in all its manifold forms.

But back to burnout—does this broadening of vocation and ministry only increase the amount of work and coordination that is required of pastoral staff? This concern might be valid, depending on how this transition is made by a church. So with that in mind, how can we foster this practice in a way that lightens an overworked pastor's load?

Empowering the church

Authoritarian leadership (leadership that always needs to be in control) is not only a death knell for churches; it reveals a lack of trust in God's guidance. Empowering our brothers and sisters—out of our trust of one another and of God—offers a compelling alternative to the sort of control that fosters anxiety and burnout.

The skills and leadership of a pastor are vitally important in the church community, but so are the skills and passions of the other members. We all have been gifted for the work to which we all have been called .

If someone in our church has passion and skill for a particular ministry, we should empower her or him to do so. We should not be reckless in this empowerment, but start small and move slowly (the temptation to power lurks in all our hearts—good reason for acting cautiously). A healthy initiative is one that is deeply connected with the life of the church, while allowing for others to enter into the work as it grows. Once we have empowered a person or group to begin work, we should allow them to lead this work as it grows over time.

We also need to cultivate the mindset of "this is our church" (and not just the pastor or staff's church). Doing and overseeing the work, and imagining ways of growing and flourishing in the future, will create diversity of ministry as we join God in his reconciliation—and a much more vibrant, engaged community than one steered on a tight course by authoritarian leaders.

Moving slowly

Although many of us (me included) feel the urgency for the sort of healthy, engaged congregations described here, we need to be cautious. Moving too fast in this direction will stir up problems that will have to be dealt with. The sort of trust that is required to make the shift to interdependent church communities takes time to cultivate.

The skills and leadership of a pastor are vitally important in the church community, but so are the skills and passions of the other members. We all have been gifted for the work to which we all have been called . A different, healthier, way of being church is possible, but it will require stretching our imaginations, being willing to work diligently and sharing together in the work of embodying Christ in our neighborhood.

C. Christopher Smith is co-author of Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus (IVP Books, 2014) and editor for The Englewood Review of Books.