Family Systems & Church Leadership
Summer 2025
Societal Emotional Process and Church Leadership in These Times
- Thursdays, June 26, July 31, and August 21 from 1-3:00 pm CDT
- In-person at Oak Knoll Lutheran Church, 600 Hopkins Crossroad, Hopkins, MN
- Zoom participation is also available
- $100 for all sessions or $40 per session
To participate, please email Rev. Wendy Vie Trittin, revwendyvie@gmail.com.
Dr. Murray Bowen theorized in the 1960s that all societies have periods of regression and that the United States was currently experiencing one. As he continued his work developing Family Systems Theory, he incorporated the concept of societal regression into his theory. Later, the idea was named Societal Emotional Process to describe the automatic and thoughtless emotional reactivity occurring in times such as ours.
In keeping with his theory that the family is the emotional unit, not an individual, he speculated that in the 1960s, families could no longer contain their anxiety, and it spilled out and involved institutions such as schools, the police, courts and judges, legislative bodies, and political leaders, resulting in regression. Currently, it seems to me that we have reached the point of Societal Emotional Process where anxiety has fully enveloped everything, including the highest levels of government, where it is now amplified, reversed, and projected back onto families and individuals. In short, leaders have abdicated their roles of anxiety containment and are now a source.
Rabbi Edwin Friedman applied Dr. Bowen’s Family Systems Theory to church and synagogue leadership in the 1980s. In his application of the theory, Friedman spoke of church leaders working at the intersection of three families: The leader’s family, the congregation functioning as a family, and each family in the church.
Bowen’s approach provides a unique perspective for church leaders to observe Societal Emotional Process. In the session on June 26, leaders are invited to reflect on the level of functioning in their families. Similarly, on July 31, the group will discuss their congregations, and on August 21, the emphasis will be on observations of families within congregations. The goal of Bowen Family System Theory is leadership by self-differentiation in families and organizations, through a less-anxious presence and thoughtful principles.
Please join this important work at this critical time.
Pastor Wendy Vie Trittin is an ordained pastor of the ELCA and its St. Paul Area Synod, as well as a Spirituality Guide and Life Coach. She is a member of Spiritual Directors International, Clergy Voyagers, and the Minnesota Jung Association. One-on-one sessions with Wendy Vie are easily scheduled.