Do Team-Building Groups even do Trust Falls anymore? I’m trying to picture 70+ year old church elders at a retreat falling backwards into a group and hoping to avoid a broken bone.
And this is not about trust. It’s about slapstick humor/something painful about to happen.
Institutional trust is low these days, and the Church is right there on the low end. Between unchecked clergy abuse and run of the mill hypocrisy, people don’t trust The Church. Maybe we trust our congregational pastors but there are many folks who don’t even trust their pastors. According to this 2018 Forbes survey, nurses are still considered quite trustworthy probably because they literally have our backs.
Imagine a culture of trust in the institution you serve. This is what I’m hoping to convey today when our Presbytery meets for one of its quarterly gatherings today. I believe that:
- if we are as transparent as possible,
- if we tell the truth,
- if we seek to partner with and not control,
- if we focus on relationships instead of regulations,
- if we treat each other with respect and kindness
. . . trust – even in church institutions – will grow. And we don’t do this for ourselves. We do it to expand the reign of God. God gets more done if we trust each other.
Happy Tuesday.
Images from a corporate trust fall and from Forbes.
A Church for Starving Artists 