Family Systems Theory and Congregational Care

About this course

This course introduces students to family systems theory as a framework for understanding congregational life, leadership dynamics, and emotional processes within the church. Drawing from the work of Murray Bowen and subsequent systems thinkers, the course explores how anxiety, triangulation, conflict, role expectation, and patterns of reactivity shape congregational behavior and pastoral leadership.

Building upon prior work in self-knowledge and sustainable ministry, students learn to observe congregations as emotional systems rather than collections of isolated individuals. Attention is given to differentiation of self, boundaries, over-functioning and under-functioning patterns, generational transmission, and the ways anxiety moves through groups. The course emphasizes the pastor’s role not as fixer or rescuer, but as a steady, non-anxious presence within complex relational environments.

Students apply systems concepts to real congregational situations, including leadership transitions, conflict episodes, resistance to change, grief, and community stress. The course integrates theological reflection with systems awareness, exploring how pastoral care, preaching, moderating, and mission leadership are shaped by emotional process.

Designed for Commissioned Ruling Elders serving as congregational pastors, this course equips leaders to navigate congregational complexity with clarity, steadiness, and pastoral wisdom.