The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Leading Your Church in Chaos: 5 Steps to Survive and Thrive
Crisis doesn't knock politely at your church's door—it kicks it in without warning. Whether it's a leadership scandal, church split, natural disaster, or financial impropriety, how you respond in those critical first moments will shape your ministry's future.
This episode unpacks four essential steps for navigating church crisis with wisdom and pastoral sensitivity. We start with immediate response and assessment—gathering accurate information within the first 24-48 hours, thinking like a shepherd for your flock, and quickly assembling a trusted crisis response team. The spotlight often finds unexpected leaders during crisis, so being prepared to step up is crucial.
Communication becomes your lifeline during turbulent times. As we explore in depth, silence breeds suspicion, while transparent, compassionate communication builds trust. Remember, you're not merely managing public relations—you're shepherding hearts. Using multiple communication channels with appropriate frequency ensures your message reaches everyone who needs it.
No leader should face crisis alone. We discuss the importance of seeking outside wisdom from experienced mentors, denominational leaders, or specialized ministries who've walked this difficult path before. The ancient wisdom rings true: plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed. Similarly, prioritizing pastoral care becomes essential as wounded people tend to wander without support. Your presence, availability, and genuine care will help your congregation navigate their pain.
Ready to strengthen your church's crisis response? Create communication templates and care maps before you need them. Remember that every crisis, while painful, presents opportunities for necessary growth and renewal. Reach out to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com if you need guidance—we're here to help your church move toward health, even in the most challenging circumstances.
Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com
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What do you do when crisis strikes your church, that, whether it's a scandal, a split, a natural disaster like a hurricane or a tornado or an earthquake, or maybe it's a deep leadership fracture how do you lead in those moments that tragedy strikes? Because the way that you lead will define your ministry moving forward. And today we're going to talk through five practical and pastoral steps that every church leader should know when it comes to leading through crisis with wisdom and grace and resilience. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes. I am one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and I'm your host right here on the Healthy Church Staff podcast. What do you do when your church is falling apart and everybody's looking at you for answers? As we said, it might be a moral failure, maybe it's a financial scandal, some kind of a community's tragedy. It could even be a painful church split. Crises don't just knock at your door. They kick your door in and in that moment you really have seconds to decide what kind of leader you're going to be. Let's talk through that Four steps, four pastoral steps that you can do when that crisis hits. And this could happen. Maybe you've already been through it, but maybe you've not been through a crisis. But let me tell you, crisis they don't put themselves on your calendar three weeks in advance. You wake up and boom, they're there. So four things, all right. First step immediate response and assessment. You need to take action, but you don't need to panic, okay.
Speaker 1:So when a crisis hits, your first 24 to 48 hours are very critical. Don't freeze. You got to start by gathering accurate information and, yes, it's going to take longer than 24 to 48 hours to get all the accurate information. But in that first 24 to 48 hours, you need to determine, okay, to the best of your ability, what actually happened and what is the scope and what is the scale of what just happened. Okay, you need to think like a shepherd. Is the flock safe? What do they need to hear from me right now? Take control of what you can control, which is your presence and your tone and your posture. Okay.
Speaker 1:So assemble a small crisis response team as soon as possible. Don't go it alone. Find people that you know and you trust and maybe it's a scandal involving a senior leader, maybe a senior pastor that had a moral failure or something, and you're not the person that normally communicates these things. Guess what. This crisis has put you on a pedestal and put the spotlight right on you, so you need to do this within the first 24 to 48 hours. If you're the one that finds themselves as the board chair or the person that's second in command or in charge, you need to start doing this and thinking like a shepherd immediately in that first 24 to 48 hours and assemble around yourself a small call it whatever you want. I like to call it a crisis response team, but that would be your first step and it's very critical that you get on that boom immediately as soon as you know that this is going to be an issue. Okay, that's step one.
Speaker 1:Step number two is how you communicate. You need to communicate with clarity and with compassion, because people need truth and they need to hear your tone. In a crisis, silence breeds suspicion, even if you are not involved in the crisis and hopefully not if you are involved in the crisis you shouldn't be leading the response to the crisis. Maybe I should say that as a side note, but even if you're not in control or you weren't in control, there are going to be people that look at you, even if you had nothing to do with it, with some suspicion. So you need to be transparent about what you know and what you're doing and what's next. But remember, you're not a PR manager, you're a pastor, you're a church leader, so you need to speak to people's hearts, you need to acknowledge their fear, you have to validate your pain because, quite frankly, you're probably going through those same fears and pains that they are, and you need to remind them that this does not surprise God. God is still at work, even in this horrible crisis or situation. Okay, so, use multiple channels. You've got email, you've got video, you've got Sunday updates, you've got even one-on-one conversation all of those things that frequency matters, and using multiple channels really does make a difference. Okay, so that's. Step number two is communication.
Speaker 1:Step number three is you're probably going to need to get some outside wisdom and guidance, because you've not gone through this before, at least, hopefully, you haven't gone through a crisis like this. But guess what? There are people that know things that you don't know because they've been through it or they've worked with others that have gone through it. So seek that wisdom and seek that guidance, because you're not alone. It may feel like you're alone, you may feel isolated, but you are not alone. Reach out to wise counsel. Maybe other pastors, maybe mentors, maybe reach out to me here at Chemistry, because we work with churches that are going through crisis like this. Maybe it's a denominational leader, maybe it's legal advisors, if needed, but let others speak into those blind spots, those things that you don't know. And then also, it's almost unsaid, should be unsaid, but you need to lean into scripture and prayer and also lean into your people.
Speaker 1:Your role isn't to have all the answers. You need to try and figure out. Like we said in point one, you need to figure out exactly what's going on, but that doesn't mean you're going to have all the answers. So don't pretend to. Your role is to lead others toward the one who does have all the answers. So there's an old proverb that reminds us that plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors, they succeed. So make sure that you get that extra help that you need.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then finally, step number four. We could do a whole month series on this because there's so many details you could get into, but I just wanted to give these. I think these are four steps that, when you hit man if you're listening to this and your crisis just hit this morning these are action steps that you can take right now. Step number four prioritize pastoral care and support. Okay, crises wound people. Your people are hurting right now and guess what? Wounded people wander.
Speaker 1:So be intentional about showing up, sit with the grieving Text, the doubters. Provide counseling, referrals. Mobilize your deacons or your lay leaders or your board members or your other staff members for check-ins. Make them all available to your people, because you have to treat this like a pastoral crisis, because it is in the church. It is a pastoral crisis. This is not a season to launch a new program. It's the season to carry burdens. So when you're going through a crisis, quite honestly, everything else, all the vision, all the financial stuff, everything gets put on hold because you need to tend to the people. And don't forget your staff, because your staff are the public face of your church and quite likely they're hurting in a way that nobody else is and they're trying to hold others up at the same time. So take special care of your staff.
Speaker 1:Here's a bonus thing that I'll share with you. You do need to embrace the opportunity for growth. Okay, every crisis is an invitation. Yes, it's an invitation to grieve. Yes, it's an invitation to heal, but also to grow and you can ask yourself personally. You should be asking yourself personally. You should also be asking for your church what is God telling us in all of this? What is God trying to reveal to us?
Speaker 1:And often a crisis exposes systems or structures or spiritual immaturity that need or needed attention, and you can use this time to prune what isn't healthy, what isn't bearing fruit, and to plant seeds for something new. That's not something to tackle in the first 24 to 48 hours, but it is something that you really need to tackle, because weeping may endure for the night, but joy will come in the morning, and you have to remember that as you go through this. So how do you put all of this into practice? Some tips I have for you is get ready for a crisis even before it happens. Use a crisis communication template for announcements. Create a care map to track people who need support. Again, some of this stuff you should be doing. You should have a plan for this even before there's a crisis, because there may be a crisis sometime. So, when the crisis hits, if you have a template, if you have a care map, a structure for what that looks like, you will be a far step ahead.
Speaker 1:Okay, you cannot lead well. Here's the bottom line for today. You cannot lead well if you're emotionally exhausted, so you need to take breaks, talk to a counselor, get some sleep and be the pastor and be the support that your church, your congregation, needs right now. If you need any help, any questions about maybe coming up with a crisis plan even though you're not in crisis, or maybe a crisis just hit. Maybe you're smack dab in the middle of a crisis and you say, todd, I just need some help. I need to talk to somebody that's seen this in other churches or walked through this with other churches. I'd be happy to talk with you. We have people on our team here that would be happy to work with you and partner with you through this process and through this really tough time. And if it's not us, if you're going through a crisis, I would encourage you to reach out to somebody you trust and ask them to help you walk through this, because this is something that you really should not try and do on your own or just with an inside circle. You really do need to have some outside help to help you through this. So if there's any way that I can help you ever, just reach out to me.
Speaker 1:Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. We're always here to help. We specialize in trying to help churches and church staffs get into a healthy spot and if you're in a crisis, you're going to need a little bit of help to do that. We're here to help you if that situation arises and you want to reach out to us. So podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Thanks so much and I hope this was helpful to you and some practical advice Maybe in the future when a crisis happens. You're just finding this for the very first time. I'm still here. Still here to help you. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom and we're here every day right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Thanks so much for joining me and we'll be right back here tomorrow.
