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10 Questions to Ask Now

By Susan Beaumont & Associates / June 19, 2020 / 0 Comments

We have been reactive. How else can one be during a pandemic? The opinions of outside experts have guided our actions since this all began, and their positions change daily. When to close, how to take church online, protocols to follow before opening. Now, things are slowing down a bit and it is time to […]

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5 Practices for Coaxing Order out of Chaos

By Susan Beaumont & Associates / October 29, 2019 / 0 Comments

Chaos is a natural by-product of innovation. Innovation happens best in conditions of upheaval, disturbance, and dissonance. However, people expect their leaders to keep things calm, predictable, and orderly. How do we coax order out of chaos without squelching innovation? Stages of Innovation Innovation occurs in predictable stages. It begins with a disturbance in the status quo, […]

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How To Lead When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going

By Susan Beaumont & Associates / October 29, 2019 / 2 Comments

How do you lead an organization stuck between an ending and a new beginning—when the old way of doing things no longer works but a way forward is not yet clear? I call such in-between times liminal seasons—threshold times when the continuity of tradition disintegrates and uncertainty about the future fuels doubt and chaos. In a […]

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Disappointed in Your Followers? Try Cultivating Awe!

By Susan Beaumont & Associates / July 18, 2017 / 2 Comments

Every leader has experienced this frustration. You put your best leadership vision and energy foreword but you are met with an uninspired response. You hope for a reaction that is lively, expansive, generous and creative. Instead, your followers are unimaginative, scarcity-minded and inwardly-focused. What’s a leader to do? Turning the tide might be easier than […]

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Don’t Just Talk About Mission-Act With Passion!

By Susan Beaumont & Associates / April 19, 2017 / 2 Comments

Congregations waste precious time forming mission statements that fail to inspire action. Writing a mission statement produces clarity, but rarely generates energy. It’s time to move beyond mission and start focusing on the passion that compels us to make a specific difference. We often think of an individual as having a vocation and an organization […]

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Making Space for Middle Ground

By Susan Beaumont & Associates / March 16, 2017 / 4 Comments

We are a nation divided and those divisions are creeping into congregational life. It grows increasingly difficult to hold an ideological middle ground in politics, theology, or leadership. Pastors climb into pulpits fearful that a simple sermon topic will be interpreted as a political statement. Decision-making is heavy-laden with ideological spin, making it difficult to […]

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Remaining Non-Anxious in Anxious Time

By Susan Beaumont & Associates / November 17, 2016 / 14 Comments

I’ve been watching and listening to pastors these past few weeks. They are bone weary. I can hear it in their voices and see it behind their eyes. It is challenging to marshal a calm and steady presence in the midst of our national political turmoil. In the weeks ahead our leadership bodies will be […]

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Have We Failed?

By Susan Beaumont & Associates / October 4, 2016 / 0 Comments

Barb shared her decision to end the day trip ministry. “I simply can’t organize these trips anymore. We began this ministry to address the loneliness and isolation of older adults. It’s been wildly successful in terms of participation. People love going on these day outings and enrollment fills up immediately. But our funding source is […]

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The Truth About Consensus

By Susan Beaumont & Associates / February 14, 2016 / 0 Comments

“Let’s work by consensus!” is a familiar rallying cry. It feels egalitarian, generative and worthy. So we set aside Robert’s Rules of Order and begin a dialogue where all are encouraged to weigh in. We promise ourselves that we won’t move forward until we’ve reached an agreement that everyone likes. And then the problems begin, […]

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Taming the Bureaucracy Beast

By Susan Beaumont & Associates / October 13, 2015 / 0 Comments

The church needs innovation, experimentation and risk taking.  The church has bureaucracy; inactivity in the name of good order and process. Senseless bureaucracy keeps us endlessly mired in reporting, approval seeking and communication. We end up with repetitive meetings, multiple levels of approval, over-reliance on procedure, and postponed decision making until everyone is informed and […]

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