Gossip in the Church

Does being “in the know” about what may (or may not) be going on in the church make you feel important? Does it give you a sense of power to have the entire scoop? Do you feel the urge to seek out these kinds of tidbits in your life?

If you are in a leadership position, and rumor and gossip are part of your life, you probably need to think about what that’s doing to your witness as a believer in Christ and leader in the church. This tendency to enjoy hearing and spreading gossip is hurting you, and you may want to think about that.

If you love hearing gossip but seldom pass it on, you may justify this to yourself by saying, “but I never spread it.” Even so, the fact that you tolerate this behavior and allow yourself to listen to gossip from others promotes a certain culture within your department and the church

When you participate in a conversation based on gossip, you diminish your own credibility as a leader. People no longer see you as completely trustworthy.In the human mind, if someone is listening to our speculations about a brother and sister in Christ or in the church, the listener evidently agrees with us.

Moreover, he or she can’t really be trusted with sensitive information. When you get to the point that you are not completely trusted with confidential information, then you lose your effectiveness as a leader. Most of the time, when we are talking about someone who is not present to tell their side of the story, we are engaging in gossip.

When you are giving information, this is acceptable and expected. When you start speculating on “why” something is the way it is, it becomes gossip and rumor and quickly has the power to be highly hurtful and even de-rail someone’s effectiveness, like YOURS.

Idle talk comes back to haunt you. You are a leader and Christ follower, and leadership need to be one level above the fray.

When you encounter a group of the body gossiping, don’t participate. Don’t even tolerate it. Advise them to stop, by saying something like, “You know it’s not good to be spreading that kind of stuff because we don’t know all the details (reasons), and it’s not really any of our business.” Then, you can quickly change the subject to something else more positive or Christ-related.

When you do this consistently, those under your leadership will get the idea that gossip is not acceptable. They may still engage in gossip from time to time, but if you are modeling and demonstrating the Christ like way to handle information and making it clear gossip is not acceptable, the level of gossip and rumor will gradually diminish.

When that happens the Church becomes less toxic and more productive.