Pastors Hitting the Res(e)t Button

There is only a one-letter difference between “rest” and “reset” but there is a world of difference in outcomes. Pastors wouldn’t be blamed if they need to rest. We’re all facing COVID exhaustion.

But the antidote to exhaustion is not just rest. Hitting the reset button offers an entirely different source of energy and optimizing a God-given opportunity.

In their 2009 article in Harvard Business Review, Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, and Marty Linsky wrote about “Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis”. A crisis, they write has two distinct stages: The Acute Phase and the Adaptive Phase.

The Acute Phase

The emergency, or Acute Phase is the disorienting and almost desperate stage that is like being wheeled into an emergency room. The goal of the Acute Stage is survival. Calm down. Stabilize the situation. Rest. Sleep. Breathe. 

This is the phase that we experienced when the COVID pandemic first hit. 

The Adaptive Phase

The Adaptive Phase comes next—if you choose to enter it. The Adaptive Phase is when “the emergency has passed, but a high-stakes, if somewhat less urgent, set of challenges remains. Having recovered from the surgery, how does the patient prevent another attack?”

The Adaptive Phase is when a pastor chooses to utilize the shock of the crisis to “hit the organizational reset button.” It’s the moment to look deeply at the underlying issues that people have not had the will to confront before the crisis. It’s the opportunity to bring real, deep change in a congregation.  

Opportunity

Sure, there is a temptation when the immediate crisis calms down to just try to get “back to normal” or to “hunker down” and wait it out, but there is a greater opportunity too. Using the metaphor of patients who come out of the “emergency room” but never make the deeper changes, they write:

“High stakes and uncertainty remain, but the diminished sense of urgency keeps most patients from focusing on the need for adaptation.”

Pastors who practice adaptive leadership do not make this mistake. Instead of hunkering down, they seize the opportunity of moments like the current one to hit the church’s reset button. They use the turbulence of the present to build on and bring closure to the past. In the process, they change key rules of the game, reshape parts of the church, and redefine the work of volunteers. 

And that opportunity, when met with the right training, coaching, and approach to leadership is for many pastors the game-changer. 

So What Should You Do

First, make an honest assessment of where you are as a leader. Maybe you are in the acute phase. Maybe it really still is an emergency for you right now. Then please, please, please. Don’t go it alone. Reach out for support from your ABNWT resources. If nothing else write us. We will connect you to a whole host of coaches, spiritual directors and counsellors we know that love working with pastors. We understand what you are going through and would love to walk with you through it.

Second, if you are finding yourself ready to NOT waste this crisis, then join in a conversation about adaptive leadership called Canoeing the Mountains. Facilitated by Bob Jones and Hailey Armoogan, these three, 90-minute online conversations offer support and equipping. 

This is a once-in-a-century crisis. Let’s make the most of it.

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