Four Interventions For Successfully Treating Church Enshrinement Syndrome

by Mark Tidsworth, Founder and Team Leader

I wish I could tell you stories from live church situations wherein Church Enshrinement Syndrome is currently in place. Since many have come to me through recent confidential coaching, I’m not at liberty to share them. But this is exactly how my awareness about the constraining power of enshrinement has been recently raised (you know who you are). Even so, I’m delighted to share with you that many of these pastors and church leaders are demonstrating exceptional courage, addressing the issues at hand, choosing mission over maintenance. Very encouraging developments these are indeed.

What I can publicly share are these four effective interventions church leaders use to treat CES when they find their church is infected.

Learn To Recognize Shrine-Forming Dynamics

If you read my last article about diagnosis (https://www.pinnlead.com/blog/2022/8/9/diagnosing-church-enshrinement-syndrome) you know that recognizing CES is the first step toward treatment. But simply recognizing its presence is not enough. Church leaders need to understand the dynamics driving CES.

Though certainly every church’s dynamics are unique, there is one powerful dynamic influencing every church right now: GRIEF. There is the general low-grade grief in every church system just below the surface due to the exceptional volatility in our world. Every church must deal with this grief in some way. But when it comes to CES, there are two more specific griefs contributing energy to this syndrome – personal and corporate grief. Personal grief is the accumulated and unprocessed grief of older persons who are experiencing significant losses; like the death of a spouse, declining physical health, and the loss of their friends. Unsurprisingly, these persons are sometimes driven to latch onto something in the church system to help them anchor while the grief-swirl is in full swing. Corporate grief refers to the sadness accompanying the loss of people who used to be part of one’s church, along with the loss of “the kind” of church one used to be. Personal and corporate grief, when unaddressed and unresolved, often give energy to the human tendency to seek stability during crisis, manifesting as CES. If you don’t think these dynamics are powerful, perhaps you haven’t been in church leadership long or often. Go there carefully, yet go there you must, in order to liberate your church for missional advancement.

Choose Missionally-Focused Driving Questions

Every church is asking and answering one big question, followed by a subset of smaller questions. In churches where CES has become part of the culture, the context was prepared for welcoming CES partly because of mission-drift, focusing on the wrong questions, allowing them to drive church purpose. Here’s what I mean.

Since people in churches are generally caring, they don’t want to upset or offend others who have a stake in their church. This is simply decent human caring. At the same time, left unexamined, this caring can go to extremes, becoming the driving force in the church, resulting in church leaders consistently asking, “How can we avoid upsetting or offending anyone, especially those who will speak up and make noise when they are upset?” Over time, a culture arises in these churches which is focused on avoiding upset.

One might think this is innocuous or insignificant, but it’s not. The problem is that the true mission of the church drops down the priority list.

Fortunately, we have seen coaching clients and other leaders in their churches rise to the occasion, choosing and promoting the right questions. “How can we be about God’s mission to transform us, our church, and our community?” Now there’s a question that draws energy in the right direction.

Preserving shrines has little to do with the mission of God. Shifting the question toward mission opens the door to un-enshrining and un-freezing what’s been off limits due to CES.

Courageously Confront CES

Often, the first two aforementioned interventions suffice for treating CES… but not always. As I mentioned, we have current coaching clients dealing with active cases of CES in their churches. I can also share that I’m impressed with how the leadership of these churches are dealing with CES. Sometimes it’s the pastor alone, but more often it’s the pastor who draws in lay leadership to activate the leadership of the church to respond.

With patience and care, there may come a time when CES requires direct confrontation. Now wait a minute, the word confrontation may sound harsh. When skilled church leaders do it, confrontation often is not harsh – firm, but not harsh. I’ve seen pastors arrange meetings with certain persons in the church, along with the personnel chair (whatever this position is named in your church), directly addressing the issue. I’ve seen groups of church leaders each take part of the problem, addressing it individually. However it’s specifically approached, these church leaders are directly confronting CES. When the first two interventions are in place, they stand on a strong foundation to identify the inconsistency between enshrinement activity and missional movement.

Accept the Loss of Those Who Prefer Shrines Over Mission

Gladly, I can report that plenty of those who were infected with CES are able to move toward healing and recovery when church leaders carefully intervene. They enter rehabilitation, so to speak, laying aside enshrining activity.

On the other hand, there are those who prefer shrines over the mission of the church. Rather than share the building as a ministry asset, they prefer to protect its pristine qualities, preserving its use just for us. Rather than help that staff person move toward retirement or find another place to serve, they rather bow at this person’s feet, neglecting the call to join God’s transformational mission. Rather than break up with the pastor long gone, they rather hold onto that relationship, avoiding this current reality with its challenges.

Those determined to resist healing and growth are likely to leave your church when you implement interventions 1-3. Church leaders need to recognize this, accepting the possibility of member-loss when they don’t allow CES to drive their churches.

Just for the record, these kinds of losses, though not preferred, are acceptable. This is the right reason for people to leave a church…because it’s pursuing God’s mission. Accept these losses and move on in faith, hope, and love.

When still unsure how to address CES in your congregation, call on Pinnacle coaches and consultants. We listen closely, then collaboratively design a treatment plan, walking with you through the intervention and treatment process.

May we become greater expressions of the body of Christ as we go, faithfully engaging with the God who is constantly creating new life.