Church leaders usually see themselves as custodians, charged with looking after something of value to the congregation.

Highest energy tends to go toward facilities: making sure through planning, funding and staffing (paid and volunteer) that the beloved facilities stay usable.

Some church leaders also see themselves as custodians of the congregation’s history and traditions, assets that define the congregation for many people.

Clergy often hope that leaders will be custodians of their careers, their well-being and their families. Sometimes this happens.

Wise leaders understand themselves as custodians of mission and ministry, charged with engaging constituents in Godly work so that lives can be transformed and society made whole.

Finally, church leaders have a fiduciary responsibility to handle the church’s funds and assets with honesty and an eye to long-term viability.

That’s a lot of custodial work. It stretches most leadership teams, who don’t necessarily have skills in all of these areas. That stretching tends to make the work rewarding, though it often leads to fatigue and conflict.

There is, however, one more custodial duty that church leaders must take seriously – more seriously, in my opinion, than many do. That is custodianship of the congregation’s narrative. By narrative I mean the story by which the congregation is known, the values intrinsic to that story, and ways this story either attracts or repels other people.

Politicians try to invent a good narrative for themselves and a negative narrative for their opponents. The same is true in less toxic venues. Amazon, for instance, suddenly found itself dealing with a narrative that it was a terrible place to work. The University is Missouri has found itself painted as racially insensitive at the highest levels.

Social media can take a narrative and run with it – reinforce, criticize, condemn, applaud, distort, lie, and always amplify.

A church has a narrative as important to it as any narrative is to a politician, enterprise or institution. The narrative tends to be what people know about the church. Facilities say a little, but a narrative involving people, events, mission, failures, scandals, conflict, charismatic leaders tends to say a lot more.

A narrative requires monitoring and tending. Rather than rest on what you think to be true about your church, be interested also in what others know about you. They will act on their perceptions, rather than on yours. If they think you are, say, a bunch of angry white folks with money, then that is who you are to them until they learn differently.

Here are seven important steps in being custodian of a narrative:

1. Know what the narrative is – how you are known. Ask, listen, read.

2.Be curious about why the narrative is what it is, especially if the narrative is negative or seems at odds with what you think to be true. How did people come to that conclusion? What data, what stories, what rumors, what news led to that understanding?

3. Be assertive, not defensive, is challenging a harmful narrative. Don’t criticize those who see you negatively. Instead, tell them a different story.

4. Be honest: naming failures, naming conflicts, showing yourselves capable of dealing with anything, not needing to spin but confident that your fundamental story is a good one.

5. Be strategic about getting a better narrative out. Use all available media, from newspaper articles to social media posts. Ask your constituents to help by informing their friends. Gather relevant facts, and get them out there.

6. Focus on God’s grace, not your superiority. Remember Paul’s counsel: don’t brag about yourselves, but proclaim Christ crucified.

7. If the narrative about you is negative, and deservedly so, then strive to live a better narrative. Correct what you can, reach higher, reach outside your walls, form new collaborations.

A congregation’s narrative is a precious treasure. It deserves leaders’ best possible custodianship.

About the Author

Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the publisher of Fresh Day online magazine, author of On a Journey and two national newspaper columns. His website is Church Wellness – Morning Walk Media