As the saying goes, “You’re as healthy as your secrets.” We all have them. Sometimes it’s something stupid we said or did, and other times it’s something stupid someone said or did to us. We just don’t feel like talking about it, not to our best friend or spouse or even a counselor. We just don’t want to go there, and there are times when that’s best.
But we can’t throw a shroud over everything in our lives. Some facts about us are public knowledge, and others can be discovered without too much digging. Just go on the internet and type your own name into a search engine. That stuff’s out there?
But I don’t want to write about personal secrets, but about church secrets. How forthcoming should the leaders of a church be about vital information?
When I was a kid, our church had a small wooden board nailed to the wall at the front of the worship center. The board listed numbers that changed every week: last Sunday’s attendance for Sunday School, morning worship, and maybe evening worship, too. And if the offering receipts weren’t listed on the board, they were placed in the bulletin.
What was the thinking behind these displays?
It was: “This church is open about information. Many of you are members here. Members have a right to know how their church is doing. Rather than have you pull the information out of us, we’re going to lay it out there for everyone to see.”
Was this thinking wise? Well, if a church wasn’t doing very well, the evidence was right there in black and white. The average person could track the church’s progress or regress. That might affect their own attendance, or giving, or morale. It was a risk to put those numbers out there.
But since my childhood, I’ve been in many other churches that listed either the attendance or the giving in the bulletin – or both. More churches list the giving than the attendance, but many still do it.
Is this healthy or not?
Some would say, “No, it’s not healthy. It’s making people focus on the wrong things. When we come to church on a Sunday, we should laser beam all our attention on the Lord. We shouldn’t spend any time counting noses or funds. Besides, I don’t really want to know those statistics anyway.”
But others would say, “Yes, it’s healthy. It means the leaders are open about our church, whether we’re on the upswing or going through a rough patch. And besides, if we value membership here, our members always have a right to know how the church is doing at any given time. May as well just lay the information out there.”
I do not presume to have the final answer on this issue, but I know where I come down: on the side of transparency. Let me make four arguments for it:
First, transparency is modeled in Scripture. The Bible is full of numbers, from the ages of the patriarchs in Genesis to the number of Israelites leaving Egypt through the growth of the church in Jerusalem. How much poorer would we be if the Bible never gave us any of those figures?
In addition, the people in Scripture are transparent about their feelings. Moses didn’t want to obey God’s call and go to Egypt. Elijah didn’t want to leave the cave and fulfil the Lord’s next assignment. David ran the gamut of human emotions in the Psalms, often within a few verses. Paul practically bled out when he wrote 2 Corinthians (we wouldn’t have most of the NT epistles if all the church problems were edited out), and the Gospel writers give us hidden glimpses of Jesus’ true emotional state (think the cleansing of the Temple, Gethsemane, and His words from the cross). If the Bible was simply a book of duties and commands without human emotion, how could we even relate to it? The genius of Scripture is how open it is about God, human sinfulness, and what it cost Jesus for our redemption.
Second, transparency means that we keep our members informed. As the commercial used to say, “Membership has its privileges.” Some churches either play down membership or don’t have it at all. When our pastor gave his annual “State of the Church” message last January, he dazzled all of us with a bunch of numbers, but he never mentioned any membership statistics. Most Calvary Chapels don’t have membership, either. For some, membership is institutional rather than missional and separates a congregation into “haves” and “have-nots.” If a church doesn’t have or value membership, then its leaders might be justified in keeping information from the congregation.
But if a church does have membership, its leaders must share certain key data with its members.
For example, even if a church doesn’t publish its giving statistics, members have a right at any given time to know how the giving is going. They should be able to contact the church office or a board member for that information. It should not be kept from them. If the leaders are worried about what the member will do with that information, could that serve as evidence that the leaders have something to hide?
In addition, members have the right to know the decisions (not deliberations) that a church board is making. Members have a right to attend board meetings and to examine board minutes. While most members will never take advantage of these opportunities, remember: membership has its privileges.
Members are not entitled to know all information. By law, pastors cannot discuss the identity or issues of those they counsel, and certain information about personnel cannot be shared, either. But members are entitled to have enough information.
For example, if I’m a pastor, and I publish the giving numbers in the bulletin every Sunday, and we’re falling further behind budget, some people will be upset, and some might even stop giving because, they reason, we’re on a sinking ship.
But, if I don’t publish the numbers during the year, I have to share them sometime. If I wait until the end of the year, and then the church finds out we’re tens of thousands of dollars in the hole, that could destroy the trust bond between us. The members will ask, “Why didn’t you share this information with us sooner? We could have increased our giving or done something about it!”
I’d rather just lay the information out there for everybody to see. So what? What are we afraid of?
It’s amazing to me. I hear Christians lambasting the government for not being forthcoming when it comes to government spending and debt, but how open are our churches?
Third, transparency increases ownership. Since information is still power, the more data people have, the better decisions they can make in their own lives and ministries.
When I was a pastor, I used to tell the staff, “Giving isn’t meeting budget right now, so manage your expenses tightly until things turn around.” Conversely, if we just had a huge giving Sunday, I’d tell them, “Okay, if you’ve been holding off on a key expense for a while, this might be the time to pull the trigger.” Don’t we operate on the same basis in our personal lives?
Years ago, Win Arn and his Center for American Church Growth published a little book on church ratios. The book was crammed full of fascinating information (based on research) that was invaluable for church leaders. For example, the average Christian will get to know 64 people (I think that was the right number) in a church regardless of size. In other words, no one should expect to befriend everyone in a church above 64 people. Rather than keep those goodies to myself (so I could be the fount of all wisdom), I’d share that information with as many church leaders as possible. I wanted them to feel responsible for the church’s success as well. It’s elitism when leaders assume that people can’t handle the truth.
Finally, transparency reduces conflict. In our culture, as we all know by now, when a crime has been committed, the coverup is deemed worse than the crime itself. We have seen this with Watergate, the Monica Lewinsky situation, and now the Barry Bonds perjury trial. The same reality is true in churches.
The more information that a church’s leaders give its people, the less anyone will be able to say, “You’re engaging in a coverup!” (Which only leads to people sniffing around trying to find out what’s being hidden.) If I’m regularly sharing information with leaders and the congregation, I never have to worry about anyone claiming that I’m hiding things.
Our pastor does a great job of keeping the congregation informed of key matters on a regular basis. After his message, he’ll frequently take five minutes to share something he wants us to know about the church. He’s extremely honest in what he says, and as a former pastor, I resonate with him. He treats us all like adults, not children, and we respond in a likeminded fashion.
Whether you agree or disagree with me, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this matter – because I’ve been as transparent as I know how to be!
I liked what you said – just the word transparency is a beautiful clean word if you think of it that way. Transparency, clean, clear, flowing water. That is how are lives should be, clean, clear and flowing. Hiding nothing from no one. I believe if people were more transparent we would operate in a much honest way. Thanks for helping us to be transparent.
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Well, we’ve always tried to be that way, haven’t we? It served us well for a long, long time. Thanks for modeling openness and honesty all your life.
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I love transparency, but numbers are the least of the problems facing the church. How about a board or congregational meeting where there was apparent transparency only to have “part 2” of the meeting take place in the parking lot? How about pastors who put in lots of hours but do not accomplish a lot. How about long time members who do not hold any elective office but put pressure on the church members and pastor to get their way? These are the things that need transparency IMHO.
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Hey Jarol, I’m with you all the way. There is a definite trend these days away from church leaders revealing very much to the congregation about anything, numbers just being a visible example. But I agree with you on all the rest of it. So many Christians seem to have an inability to share how they really feel at the appropriate time. I’ve witnessed many of those Part 2 meetings, by the way! And your last comment about members pressuring to get their way? Welcome to my former world. Hope you’re doing well.
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