By Jonathan Howe
The past few weeks have been quite eventful for the communications teams at Cracker Barrel and United Airlines. In case you’ve missed it, Cracker Barrel faced a deluge of complaints following the firing of a server named Nanette Reid. Her husband posted about it on the Cracker Barrel corporate Facebook page, and Internet pranksters created the #BradsWife movement.
Then a video surfaced this week of a passenger on a United Airlines flight being physically “re-accommodated.” Mainstream news and social media sites have been filled with stories and hot takes on everything from the passenger’s past (in which many stories had incorrect information) to the standard airline practice of overbooking.
Both companies are still fighting these crises, and from many (or most?) perspectives, they are losing the battle when it comes to public opinion. These companies will likely recover over time. They will likely hire PR firms to win back customers and improve their public reputation. It’s what big companies do.
But what if this had been your church? What if your church was faced with a scandal or legal issue that called for crisis communications? Are you prepared? Some are, but many churches are not. And their responses to crises often fall into three categories:
- They ignore the reality and severity of the problem. Too many times, churches try and fail to “keep things in the family.” They intentionally share little, if any, information, and what is shared is ambiguous or intentionally deceitful. It is not uncommon for the victim to be portrayed as the perpetrator by the church’s messaging. “This is an internal church matter that is being dealt with by our leadership” is often a quote you will hear from churches that respond this way. Still, some even refuse to address the issue altogether. This response is wrong and should never be an option—especially for churches.
- They admit wrongdoing has occurred but take a defensive posture. Unfortunately, this is the most common response I see from churches. The church often acknowledges the offense, but tries to rationalize the action or their response. A typical response you will hear from these churches is “While we acknowledge the incident occurred, certain procedures were not followed which led to this unfortunate circumstance.” The church refuses to take ownership of the issue and tries to pass the blame. Like the previous response, this is one churches shouldn’t consider.
- They admit to the incident, apologize for the harm it has done to their witness, and apply corrective measures. I wish more churches took this route. These churches realize the severity of the issues at hand. They understand that the witness and reputation of the church in the community has been damaged. They realize that even with all their policies and procedures in place, things happened, and they happened on their watch. They apologize sincerely for the damage done. They refuse to ignore the fact that it will take time to recover. They also expect some people will leave church and understand why. In short, they face the issue with grace and humility. These churches are led well, and they often overcome crises in the end without the need for big PR firms or fancy marketing campaigns. The gospel is enough for these churches.
How would your church respond in a time of crisis? Have you seen an example of a church that faced a crisis with humility and grace?
#1 Like the time the Senior Pastor commented, “What’s the big deal? This happens all the time.” That was when our choir childcare provider was arrested for sexually molesting little children.
We kept him far away from the press and the parents. Fortunately for the church, none of the choir kids were victims, but it was a traumatic mess. In the end, it was handled extremely well by the elders and other staff.
Bingo
Bro. Howe, you make some excellent points, but I think the context in which a crisis arises will impact what is an appropriate response. For example, if the church crisis involves a moral failing by a pastor the church’s response should take into account the impact its messaging will have on innocent victims such as the person’s family. Complete, total candor might exacerbate the harm and shame the family already feels. While I certainly don’t advocate being intentionally deceitful there are occasions when sharing all the details could be equally harmful. In Hebrews we are taught to trust and obey our leaders because they will be called to give an account. There are times when we must do just that, recognizing that not every detail about a crisis need be disclosed. These issues are never easy. Thank you for raising this for discussion.
That’s a fair point, and I would agree. Also note, apologies don’t have to include lurid details. I’m also referring more to public crises rather than internal issues in the church. Yes, a pastor having an affair in a “family matter,” but leadership can provide enough details while still maintaining protection for the families involved.
I recently saw a church have even more problems in the long run because the pastors affair wasn’t clearly explained that it crossed lines to exclude him from ministry at the church. People misunderstood the leadership direction as “bullying the pastor” or “forcing him out” when in fact the pastor had quite obviously disqualified himself from the pulpit in that church. Because the church wasn’t honest in its communication, it’s in worse shape now. They tried to control the story which meant that rumors abounded and truth was never really known.
Depending on the situation and circumstances, a public response to a crisis is governed, not by the church and its leadership, but by legal counsel and the insurer.
That’s a good point.
Crisis is a good moment to reveal if you have a good two-way radio with God. Do you do the perfectly right thing during a crisis? Well, if your two-way radio with God is good, then, well, that can happen.
How do you get a good-working radio system? By getting out bad doctrine and by then getting in good doctrine. This tunes your two-way radio with God. A test of this system, is how creative are your solutions? God is the most creative thing. So the more creative and excellent your solutions, the better your two-way radio works.
How do you learn how to get this optimal set-up going (and teach congregants!) in life? By studying http://www.inthatdayteachings, which is a system to take folk from milk Churchianity (which has no or little faith in two-way radios with God) to meat Christianity (wherein the radios work!)… so that Christ-in-You happens more often than not!
While I agree that mature discretion and wise leadership must take account of a crisis and handle Biblically and legally, I would argue that focusing on essentials would go a long way to NOT having to face this issue. Here are some shortcuts, culture issues, and general observations about how churches get into a crisis.
1. Leadership character: not who owns the biggest business or who contributes the most money or who is the polished speaker or who can sway opinions nor the best accountant or financial planner. Last year during the council selection at our church, we questioned a number of candidates-one had very racists comments on Facebook, one woman was about as phony as you can be ( but my goodness-she was a partner at an accounting firm!), one man had repeatedly mislead the church in the past as a leader, and more. Character, humbleness, transparency, truthfulness, never uses slick words to disguise intention, never misleads, prays, fasts, and is faithful to the best of their ability.
2. Transparency about all things and stop treating the congregation like children. We are all adults. We know absolutely when you are using terminology and language to avoid stating truths. We know ” spin” when we see it. We know when you are giving us only part of the facts. We know when you are exhibiting avoidance behavior.. We know and it diminishes you as well as all the church leadership and brings you down to the level of behavior that we work with everyday in an unbelieving workplace.
3. There are actually very few legal things to hide behind. Again, many of us work as leaders in corporate America and some of us are lawyers. I have seen church leaders use “legal” again and again to avoid having honest direct dialogue.
4. Stop rushing past the issue to a fix and then not allowing people to process, grieve, cry, get angry or do whatever they need to do emotionally to get past the crisis. Let the church have time to heal. It will be longer and messier than you will want to admit. If you don’t it will only eat the church from the inside out and impede the future.
5. Do NOT ever mix up victims and perpertrators. This is the scandal of the church today. Acknowledge spiritual power of pastors and leaders and if it has been misused-then say so. Pray, fast, and lament over what has transpired in your midst. Jesus is.
6. Stop. Stop ministry, stop programs, and stop anything unnecessary for a season. Refocus your dependence on God alone.
I in no way am implying that churches can prevent all and any crisis but we should be the most humble truthful and transparent group of people the world has ever encountered when we do.