Transparency is an interesting and strange beast, especially in the church. In general, great leaders and organizations are very transparent. That said, every organization must have some level of confidentiality and a certain amount of secrets. The balance is not easy, mostly because those in the church or organization do not all agree on what should be transparent and what should not be transparent. The other challenge is that many leaders are afraid of transparency, especially personally. We have a cultural message that showing weakness is wrong. We have a narrative in Christianity that leaders who are transparent hurt their leadership and those they are leading. We have a fear in ourselves of what might happen to us or how our transparency might be used against us if we choose to be transparent. As a result, most either allow the organization to dictate their level of transparency or refuse to be transparent at all. What healthy ministries, leaders and organizations need is a well thought out, clear, intentional level of transparency balanced with appropriate confidentiality. As a pastor and leader, I am learning that this is much easier said than done.