Managing Tension

Last week at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit, one of the talks that was most relevant to me was one given by Andy Stanley called “The Upside of Tension.” He argued that every organization has problems that shouldn’t be solved and tensions that shouldn’t be resolved. It’s not a case of either/or, but managing the tension of both/and. 

For example:
•    Family Life and Work
•    Leadership and Management
•    Grace and Truth
•    Growth in Numbers and Depth in Discipleship
•    In a small group it might be between . . . Community Building and Bible Study

For me this topic was particularly timely because I’ve been working with several different ministry areas to plan a small group leader retreat for September that we’re really jazzed about. (Read more about it here.) 

HSM, Adult Ministries, and The Table are coming together for a retreat that we think is going to be a huge intergenerational win for the kingdom. We’re majoring on inspiration, discipleship, and transferable principles for leadership that will benefit all of us. 

HOWEVER, although we have a common goal and shared values, there are also unique needs for each ministry, so we’ve had to work together to respect each other’s needs and come up with creative solutions.

For example, Student Ministries doesn’t think this will be a win for their leaders unless it’s an overnight deal, but Adult Ministries has a lot of leaders with little kids for whom an overnight is not realistic. As a result we found a great place close enough for those who can’t stay over, but with the option for those who can.

Three of Stanley’s points that I think have been especially helpful are:

• Continually give value to both sides.
• Don’t weigh in too heavily based on your personal biases (be able to argue both sides).
• Don’t allow strong personalities to win.

What about you? What different healthy tensions are you managing in your leadership context?

Laura Crosby

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