Blog
Who speaks for the congregation’s soul? When it comes to discerning mission, vision and strategic direction, who gets to name the congregation’s giftedness and vocation? Is it the senior clergy leader, the governing board, the congregation, or someone else? By the congregation’s soul, I mean the source of its calling, character, and destiny—the charism, the […]
Read MoreOn airplanes, adults are told to put their mask on before helping others so they will be fully conscious. In churches, adults need to attend to their own spiritual consciousness before they can ably assist children and youth with faith formation. Unfortunately, the way in which we structure our staff teams reinforces semi-conscious adult faith […]
Read More“You like me. You really like me!” Let’s face it. We are all guilty of defining our self-worth by what others think. When people praise us we feel successful. Are we? Courageous and adaptive leadership requires leaning into our own incompetence, and pointing out the incompetence of our congregations. Leading beyond our own competence will […]
Read MoreCongregations today are chronically anxious. When the anxiety of the congregation rises, leaders come under attack. We know this intellectually, but understanding that something will happen and actually riding out the experience are two different things. Every change leadership theory has a name for the leader’s needed presence during times of high anxiety. Edwin Friedman […]
Read MorePEN talk: “Adaptive leadership: What is it, really?” with Susan Beaumont Drawing distinctions between adaptive challenges and technical solutions has become commonplace in congregations seeking to change, perhaps too commonplace. These terms are being overused and misused in ways that diminish their impact. We lull ourselves into thinking that we are being truly adaptive when […]
Read MoreA volunteer agrees to complete a task but fails to deliver, or delivers a less than satisfactory outcome. A leader violates an established behavioral standard. What do you do? How do you redeem the situation? Disappointment is inevitable when people are involved in ministry; but disappointment doesn’t have to be the final word. Delivering an […]
Read MoreIn the world of congregations we are good at planning and doing. We enjoy thinking great thoughts and crafting lofty ministry ideals. We are fair at experimenting with our ideas, and taking tentative steps in the direction of our plans. We are great at running programs, running programs, and running more programs. However, we are […]
Read MoreConsider the last slate of candidates nominated for leadership in your congregation. What attributes were sought when recruiting this group? Perhaps you looked for potential leaders who were: invested, good decision-makers, strategic, prayerful, respected, effective communicators, with strong personal boundaries. How did the actual list of nominees compare to your desired list of attributes? Did […]
Read MoreMost teams in congregational settings assume they are being Spirit-led. They believe that God will be self-disclosing and guide the work of the team, so long as good people gather with good intent. They expect that discernment will happen automatically in the context of good decision making. And so, they demonstrate little intentionality when it […]
Read MoreOrganizations in all walks of life openly plan for leadership transition. The Church is unique in the veil of secrecy that we draw around pastoral transition. We don’t want to watch people grow anxious, so we withhold known information about departure. In doing so, we postpone the hard adaptive work of leadership transition into the […]
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