Behavioral Covenants
The journey of revitalization is both adventurous and treacherous. During the adventurous part of the journey, you can just feel the love, baby. I wish I could sing it like Barry White!
It is during the treacherous part of the journey that a Behavioral Covenant really comes into play. How do we walk in hand in hand when we can’t see eye to eye? The Behavioral Covenant answers that question.
A Behavioral Covenant is the conversation before the conversation. It is the conversation about how we are going to have the conversation.
The journey of revitalization at first looks very exciting and some churches rush into it. But it is much better to go slow than to go fast. Before you begin the journey, spend some time developing a Behavioral Covenant. You will be glad you did, when the going gets tough later on.
The chemistry factor is huge while on the journey of revitalization.
Keep these things in mind when creating a Behavior Covenant:
- Let the Behavioral Covenant flow out of Word and Spirit.
- Invite everyone to have a say. People are down on what they are not up on.
- Develop this Covenant while the sun is shining rather than when the storm is raging.
- Look at the samples but make it specific to your congregation. One congregation was being ripped apart by vicious emails. So they decided to include something about face to face communication.
- Preach on each point in a sermon series. Tell stories of exemplary behavior.
- Hold a service of consecration.
- Read out loud the Behavioral Covenant before every congregational and leadership meeting. Inculcate this into the DNA of your church.
- Be prepared for push back. “Why do we need a behavioral Covenant? We’re all Christians here! Besides, all of this is in the Constitution and Bylaws.” My response would be something like… “Did you ever see Christians behaving badly at a congregational business meeting or engaging in parking lot conversations that thwart the decisions the congregation just made in the business meeting?”
- Know that you are not alone. Across the ECC, churches are seeing the wisdom of Behavioral Covenants and are moving forward.
- As the name suggests, Behavioral Covenants focus on behaviors, not motives.
I invite you to send me your Behavioral Covenant. We are collecting samples so that others can benefit from the work God is doing in your church.
May 21st, 2009 at 5:20 pm
[...] course any tool like Veritas can be used appropriately or inappropriately. This is why we stress behavioral covenants so much and the need for a Veritas [...]
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Behavioral covenants are a worthy thing to adopt. They are valuable only to the degree they are internalized and begin to do their work in the hearts and minds of the congregants. Keep them simple, brief, memorable and they have a chance. Get vague, flowery and obscure, and well, not so much. Keep after it!