Four Guiding Principles for Managing a Polarized Congregation
Managing polarization requires living with ambiguity and paradox.
Susan Beaumont
Fixing a Toxic Team
Transforming the culture of a toxic team is hard work, and it begins with looking at the team’s behavioral norms.
Navigating the Congregation’s Reaction to a Firing
Terminating a staff member is difficult under the best of circumstances. When the congregation gets reactive in response to the termination, leadership becomes especially tricky. Five guiding principles can help you navigate the turbulence than follows a dismissal.
Eight Tips for Managing Part-Time Staff
Part-time employment relationships are on the rise. Many congregations are converting full-time positions into part-time roles due to declining budgets and the rising cost of benefits. Part-timers offer many advantages to a staff team, but they also pose unique supervisory challenges.
Letting Go of This Pastor and Preparing for the Next
A pastoral transition is announced. One era of leadership winds down as the promise of a new one beckons. People are naturally drawn to the excitement of beginnings; however, a healthy beginning with a new pastor depends on a good ending with the exiting pastor. The problem is, people avoid and minimize the losses associated with endings.
Five Ways Female Leaders Undermine Themselves
In our culture, power accrues more easily to men than women, so women need to be especially savvy about how to use their power. But instead, women leaders often undermine themselves.
Am I Relevant?
“My worry is that I am not relevant.” I asked fifty denominational leaders to share their deepest worries, and only one brave soul had raised his hand. “No matter what I do,” he said, “the church is likely to continue its decline. My deepest worry is that I have chosen to invest my life in something insignificant—that my vocation has become irrelevant.”