Blog
Congregations 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 […]
Read MoreThe large church is known for the quality and depth of its programming, and for the exhaustion of its staff team. It’s true, every one of my client congregations is functioning with a burned out staff team, and pastors on the brink of exhaustion. We assume that a growing and thriving church is always adding […]
Read MoreBoard leaders long for meaningful meetings. Instead, many participate in mind-numbing meetings that repetitively chase topics, with little forward momentum. Agendas are rigidly structured around the receipt of reports, with little work that actually impacts the future of the congregation. What would it take to foster more fruitful board conversations? Recently, I observed a board […]
Read MoreSize Matters…at least it does in the world of congregations. Don’t get me wrong. The size of a congregation doesn’t automatically make it any more or less impactful. Small churches and large churches can be equally effective in ministry. However, a congregation’s perception of its size, and how it functions in relationship to that perception…that […]
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