Susan Beaumont. How to Lead When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going: Leading in a Liminal Season. An Alban Institute Book. (Lanham, MD: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2019).
The first time I met Susan Beaumont was at the Alban Consultant Training in Peachtree, Georgia. She was joining the staff of the Alban Institute to replace Gil Rendle. She would focus on large churches. As I read through this book, I was reminded about the various conversations that the Alban Institute consulting staff would have over the years with each other and with participants. This book also reflects what Susan brought to the conversation as well as what she learned over the years as an Alban consultant.
Beaumont brings two new aspects to the conversation in this book. The first aspect the is the disconnect between the spiritual and the organizational lives of congregations. Organizational work is replacing the spiritual center of the congregation. Beaumont participated in the Shalem Institute signing up for the spiritual guidance program. As Beaumont writes in the preface, “This is when I claimed a subtle but important vocational shift, discerning that I was called to function as a spiritual director to the organizations I served, not the leaders of those organizations.” These are important paradigm shifts for the author.
The other new aspect the author brings into the conversation is liminality from Victor Turner’s essays as well as William Bridges Managing Transitions and his writing and thinking on liminality. Beaumont asserts that “The premise of this book is that traditional leadership stances and practices do not serve as well in liminal seasons. An alternative way of being and a different body of work are needed to negotiate liminality.” I resonate to this focus on liminality as someone who spent twenty years serving as an Intentional Interim Pastor. With these past few months, we as a nation and as a world have entered into a liminal time that neither the author nor any of us would have ever guessed.
The first chapter, “An Introduction to Liminality,” sets the tone for the rest of the book. Beaumont does a superb job telling the reader what liminality is and isn’t. She integrates the biblical story and case study into this conversation on liminality. We as the Church are living in a liminal epoch. The author continues: “The basic models and processes that define Church are being deconstructed. They are crumbling around us. Some new ways are emerging, but we do not know what the new world order will be, what forms of institutional church, if any, will remain” (p. 8). During our lifetimes we will journey through this liminal epoch not knowing what the next epoch will look like.
What is the role of leadership in the liminal age? “The primary work in leading people through the liminal phase is to normalize the experience and to frame/define the season as acceptable and even desirable” (p. 12). This is where adaptive leadership comes into play. Communitas may emerge during this liminal period. “Communitas is a Latin noun referring to an unstructured community in which people are equal. It also describes the very spirit of the community itself. Victor Turner adopted this term to talk about what happens when the old identity and structures die” (p. 14). How does communitas relate to the liminal season? As the author writes, “Liminal seasons are thin spaces, where the presence of the divine is palpable. Liminal seasons are ripe opportunities for communities of faith to deepen their practices of group discernment, to watch for the movement of God” (p. 16).
Beaumont talks about the susceptibility of the structure and the people during this liminal season. I resonate with one term that Turner introduces in the personified form of the trickster. These tricksters are “. . . dangerous figures who look like charismatic leaders but are incapable of living well in the community. Tricksters promote confusion and chaos by sowing discord” (p. 16).
We are living into the liminal season, and we will not see the season known as reorientation. In such a time, presence is more important than how we function. What does the leader do during this liminal season? “An effective leader must help individuals and groups remain in a liminal state for the to appropriately suited to their emerging identity” (p.19). What has been true of transitional pastors is now true of all pastors because all pastors are liminal. “We are liminal leaders, charged with taking the Church through this scary season of disorientation, disengagement, and disenchantment” (p. 21). Transitional pastors have something to share with other pastors/
Chapter one established what liminality is. Chapter two discusses leadership more specifically “Leading with Presence.” Beaumont asserts that “Throughout this book, the term Presence will be used to define a leadership stance born of the authentic self, unencumbered by ego, and led by the Divine. One who is leading with Presence is free to explore the questions: Who am I? What is being called forth from this organization? How, then, shall I lead” (p. 23)? On Beaumont draws on Otto Scharmer and the Presencing Institute at MIT. The author integrates Presencing with Christ. “We see things more fully and attend to our environment more authentically when we open ourselves to Christ consciousness. This is the essence of becoming our true selves” (p. 29).
With Chapter 3, “Tending the Soul of the Institution,” Beaumont fleshes out the role of the leader and the spiritual tending of the soul of the congregation. Beaumont believes that “Today, the Church and the institutions that make up the Church are in a liminal state. An era of thriving has come to an end, and a new way of being is not yet clear” (p. 58). The author encourages the leaders of the congregation to tend the soul of the Church.
With Chapter 4, “Deepening Group Discernment,” Beaumont outlines a spiritual discernment process for the congregation. Congregational leadership focuses so much on a planning process such as we find in the business world that we forget the spiritual dimension for the soul of the church. What is spiritual discernment? “Discernment is a quality of attentiveness to God that, over time, develops our sense of God’s heart and purpose in the moment. In communal discernment, we move beyond the personal to see what God is up to within the collective whole” (p. 68). The author has a helpful table on page 72 where she describes the differences between decision-making and discernment. The author suggests a communal discernment process led by a moderator that includes the following steps: Framing; Grounding; Shedding; Listening; Exploring; Weighing; Choosing; Testing.
Chapter 5, “Shaping Institutional Memory,” works with narrative therapy as well as narrative leadership. Remembering and how we remember are important aspects in the narrative account. Beaumont writes, “Memory is central to self-awareness and other-awareness. Theologian Mirolsav Volf reminds us that when we sever ourselves from memory, we lose our identity, particularly the part of our identity that is rooted in God” (p. 96). The author also draws appreciative inquiry into the narrative process.
Chapter 6, “Clarifying Purpose,” moves the reader into the significance of Dialog, Presence, purpose and meaning. As we explore identity in this liminal season, we need to remember “When the identity of an organization is in flux, some parts of the old identity have died. New passions and skills are emerging. Leaders must attend to these shifts, naming what has ended, clarifying what is arising, resourcing what seems to be emerging” (p, 114). Scharmer’s work on Presence is important to this conversation. These are the basic dialog questions the author lays out for the reader: Who Do We Serve? (Exploring Context); What Do We Stand For? (Exploring Values); What Are We Called To Do Next? (Exploring Purpose).
Chapter 7, “Engaging Emergence,” answers the question we all ask when we travel on a long journey: “Are We There Yet?” and brings the reader to the end of the book. As Beaumont observes, “In a liminal season, the only way forward is through the uncertainty and chaos. The leader’s challenge is not to eliminate the ambiguity and chaos, but to embrace emergence – and stand with people during their confusion” (p. 134). This chapter is a great introduction to the conversation on emergence as laid out by Otto Scharmer. This conversation helps explain Emergence and Theory U adding a religious dimension to the secular conversation.
I would commend this book not only to the Intentional Interim Pastor but also to every pastor and church leader living into this liminal season. I would hope that the author would add an article about the post COVID 19 world to another edition of this book. This liminal season she discusses is here to stay for our lifetimes. This book adds to our conversation about the world of the church today.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Great on Kindle
Great Experience. Great Value.
Putting our best book forward
Each Great on Kindle book offers a great reading experience, at a better value than print to keep your wallet happy.
Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Get the free Kindle app: 
Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2020
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2024
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2020
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2021
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2020
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2020
Top reviews from other countries
David White
Excellent guidebook for church leadership in difficult times such as the current pandemic.
Reviewed in Canada on October 3, 2021
ADC
Great book appalling delivery
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 19, 2022