Steady in the Storm: Part Two

Real Tools for Real Leadership in Complex Times

Note: While this is part two in the series, it is a stand alone event and anyone can attend even if you were not a participant in part one. 

Spiritual leadership has changed. Congregations are carrying more anxiety. Attention spans are shorter. Conflict escalates more quickly. The world outside the sanctuary does not stay outside anymore. In this climate, inspiration alone is not enough.

Ministers need practical tools. Clear frameworks. Science that explains what is happening in the room. Skills that can be used immediately.

Steady in the Storm: Part Two is a six-month leadership immersion designed to equip ministers for the realities of this moment. Each session integrates nervous system science, trauma awareness, resilient systems thinking, and innovation strategy with the depth and integrity of spiritual leadership.

This is applied learning. Every gathering includes concrete exercises, leadership tools, and integration practices that can be implemented immediately in services, board meetings, classes, and pastoral care settings.

The goal is simple: to help ministers lead with clarity, grounded presence, and courage in the times we are living in.


Program Format

  • Duration: Six months

  • Schedule: Monthly gatherings on second Tuesdays

  • Length: One hour of teaching plus open conversation

  • Location: Live on Zoom

  • Recordings: Available to all registered participants

  • Contribution: No fixed fee. Love offerings to Unity South Central Region are gratefully received.

Program Outcomes

  • Understand the biological factors influencing behavior in crisis

  • Lead with greater emotional intelligence

  • Build psychologically safer spiritual environments

  • Implement innovative ministry models

  • Sustain their own leadership energy

  • Guide communities with both tenderness and authority

...I listen to the recordings (sometimes multiple times) and I find them invaluable. You speak right to the heart of what it is to minister to people in difficult times...to minister to people who are hurting, even as we ourselves are in pain and trying to make sense of our world. I just wanted to say thank you, and let you know that the work you are doing is important and appreciated.
— Melinda Allen, Sr. Minister, Unity of Farmers Branch

Schedule

2nd Tuesdays, March to August, 12:00–1:15 p.m. MT / 1:00–2:15 p.m. CT

March 10, 2026

The Regulated Leader: Nervous System Science for Spiritual Stability

  • How the nervous system shapes congregational tone

  • The difference between urgency and grounded response

  • Micro-practices that restore executive functioning

  • How to become a calming presence during collective anxiety

Tools Provided: Two-minute resets, breath ratios for cognitive clarity, and real-time grounding techniques for high-pressure moments.

April 14, 2026
(Pre-recorded Session)

Trauma-Aware Ministry: Leading Without Causing Harm

  • Behavioral signs of trauma activation

  • Language that increases psychological safety

  • How to structure gatherings that reduce overwhelm

  • How spiritual bypassing can undermine trust

Application: Designing services, classes, and meetings that support nervous system safety while maintaining spiritual depth.

May 12, 2026

The Future Church: Innovation Without Losing the Sacred

  • Hybrid community models that foster belonging

  • Small-group structures for high connection

  • Intergenerational ministry design

  • Community partnerships beyond traditional walls

  • Measuring impact with clarity

Framework Provided: A simple innovation model for piloting new ideas without exhausting leadership teams.

June 9, 2026

Resilient Systems: Preventing Leader Burnout Before It Begins

  • The science of sustainable leadership energy

  • Decision filters that reduce fatigue

  • Boundary practices that remain compassionate

  • Strategies for distributing leadership effectively

Focus: Understanding the difference between sacrifice and stewardship in long-term ministry.

July 14, 2026

Collective Courage: Guiding Communities Through Polarized Times

  • Dialogue structures that reduce reactivity

  • Facilitation methods for difficult conversations

  • Techniques that keep groups relational rather than positional

  • Discernment around when to speak and when to shepherd reflection

August 11, 2026

Becoming an Antifragile Community

  • Characteristics of antifragile organizations

  • Ritual as a stabilizing force

  • Storytelling as a tool for communal resilience

  • Long-range leadership vision

Integration: A closing synthesis session to identify next steps and leadership commitments.

Register using the link above to access the video recordings from Steady in the Storm Part I.

  • The first step in Steady in the Storm is coming home to yourself. This month invites you to pause long enough to hear your own soul again. With so many voices asking for your guidance, it’s easy to lose track of your own needs, longings, and limits. In this opening session, we’ll name the invisible weight many spiritual leaders carry and gently begin to lay some of it down. You’ll explore what’s draining your light, and what still sparks it. Through reflection, connection, and soulful honesty, you’ll begin creating space within yourself for truth, rest, and clarity. You don’t need to fix it all. You just need to be real, and to be received. This is where Steady in the Storm begins—with your own sacred inner terrain.

  • This month in Steady in the Storm is all about cultivating stability from the inside out. When everything around you feels uncertain, your practices become more than habits, they become lifelines. You’ll create a personalized Resilience Plan, not as another item on your to-do list, but as a sacred agreement with yourself. Together, we’ll explore breathwork, grounding, emotional check-ins, and energetic maintenance as ways to come back to center. This is about honoring your body and spirit as holy ground. With gentle intention, you’ll begin to rebuild your inner sanctuary, anchored not in productivity, but in presence.

  • Steady in the Storm this month reminds you that you’re not just a leader, you’re a soul who also needs tending. Ministry asks much of you, but it should never require self-abandonment. We’ll explore soul-care that goes beyond bubble baths and burnout prevention. You’ll practice sacred boundaries, energetic hygiene, and daily rhythms that restore you without apology. Through shared wisdom and compassionate self-reflection, you’ll begin to reclaim your right to rest, your need for space, and the beauty of simply being a human who serves from fullness, not depletion.

  • This month’s work in Steady in the Storm centers on how to guide others through uncertainty without losing your own grounding. Fear is contagious, but so is calm. You’ll explore how to recognize fear dynamics in your community, meet anxiety with grace, and model spiritual steadiness without bypassing real emotion. We’ll discuss grief literacy, hopefulness, and how to hold sacred space that invites healing. You don’t have to have all the answers, but you do have to be real, rooted, and open-hearted. This month equips you to do just that.

  • In Steady in the Storm, this is where we say: the old ways are crumbling, and maybe that’s sacred too. This month invites you to drop the burden of doing it all and to listen instead to what Spirit wants to co-create with you next. We’ll reimagine ministry models rooted in authenticity, sacred pragmatism, and creative expression. You’ll practice visioning, name your evolving truth, and gain tools to support that truth in your leadership. Your path forward doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s. It just needs to feel real to you. Let’s make space for what’s ready to emerge.

  • We complete Steady in the Storm not with an ending, but with a sacred integration. This final month is devoted to harvesting insight, witnessing transformation, and deepening spiritual connection with fellow leaders. You’ll be invited into rich reflection, gentle ceremony, and honest dialogue about what you’re carrying into the new year. You’ll walk away steadier, clearer, and more connected than when you began.

Facilitator

Now in her thirtieth year of ministry, Rev. Dr. Ahriana Platten has spent decades inside sanctuaries, boardrooms, retreat centers, and moments of quiet pastoral crisis. She knows what it is to lead when times are uncertain and what it is to guide when the old rules no longer apply.

  • A spiritual anthropologist by instinct and training, she studies what makes communities flourish and what quietly fractures them. Her work integrates neuroscience, systems thinking, ritual intelligence, and lived ministry experience. Not as theory. As practice.

    Ahriana is a business consultant, connection programming specialist, best-selling author, and master ceremonialist. She has designed leadership immersions, sabbatical retreats, guided congregations through transition, and helped ministers build structures that protect both vision and vitality.

    She teaches the way she leads: grounded, precise, and honest about the times we are living in.

Rev. Dr. Ahriana Platten

Meeting Location

We’ll be meeting on Zoom. Please arrive early to check your technology. Register for Steady in the Storm to receive email reminders with the Zoom link.

Cost

There is no fee for any of the Steady in the Storm sessions. Your love offerings are appreciated to support this program.