Redirection

Tim Southwick — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 16:49:09 +0000

Tim Stevens, Executive Pastor at Willow Creek, shared his journey from serving at a small church in South Bend, Indiana, to stepping into leadership at Willow Creek during a season of immense organizational trauma. He highlighted the challenges of leading through crises including COVID, staff turnover, and community unrest, emphasizing the necessity of intentional culture-building, relational leadership, and embracing change. Tim stressed that massive shifts are inevitable and required, and that aligning a team around shared values, vision, and mission is critical for long-term impact and cohesion.

Key Takeaways:

Embrace Necessary Shifts: Change is painful but essential. Leaders must guide their teams through structural, cultural, and procedural shifts to align with evolving needs.
Define and Live Values: Clearly articulate team values (e.g., “believe the best in each other” and “commit to candor”) and consistently integrate them into onboarding, performance reviews, and daily interactions to foster belonging and unity.
Build Relational Equity: For creatives or team members seeking influence, focus on trust-building, servant leadership, and demonstrating initiative to gain credibility and support from leadership.
Strategic Hiring Decisions: Hire from within to maintain healthy culture, but bring in new perspectives when a cultural shift is needed. Leverage networks and search firms strategically to find the right fit for evolving organizational needs.

The post Redirection appeared first on SALT Community.

Structure Your Creative Team For Success

Micheal — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 17:28:59 +0000

Let’s be honest–leading creatives is hard work! Many of us weren’t trained to manage a team, balance budgets, or know what to do when the structure isn’t working. Tim Stevens has led teams of feelers and thinkers for more than three decades, and transitioned last year to become the Executive Pastor at Willow Creek Community Church. You’ll pick up on some strategies and practical learnings, but more importantly you’ll be able to dive into your own team challenges with Tim in an interactive session.

Key Takeaways:

Learn how to navigate conflict proactively
Leverage your influence beyond your own department
Determine when it’s time to restructure and how to do it
Lead when you are way over your head and have know idea what you are doing

The post Structure Your Creative Team For Success appeared first on SALT Community.

Tim Stevens Archives - SALT Community

Redirection

Structure Your Creative Team For Success