Some teams have an unwritten rule: stay upbeat. Bad news gets softened. Doubts are saved for the parking lot. The person having a hard year learns to say, “Doing great.”
That looks like health. The Bible suggests otherwise. Roughly a third of the Psalms are laments. The songbook God gave his people is full of complaint, grief, and hard questions, spoken aloud in worship.
Paul tells the church to weep with those who weep. He does not say to cheer them up.
The idea. An always-positive culture silences the people who most need to be heard, and hides the problems the leader most needs to know about. Faith is not pretending things are fine. Faith tells the truth about how bad things are and keeps going.
The action for this week. In your next team meeting, ask, “What is harder right now than we are admitting?” Then wait. Do not fix the first answer. Thank the person who gave the answer.
“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”Romans 12:15, ESV
Jake
P.S. Church teams can find care practices on the For Church Leaders page.