A number of years ago, a colleague and I were in a kind of leadership stalemate. We were co-pastors of a church, each on equal par with the other in terms of authority and direction-setting. We were good friends and very cordial with one another, but after about five years in ministry together we found ourselves looking toward the future of our church from divergent perspectives. Both perspectives had grounds and valid reasoning behind them, but each would lead the congregation in a different direction. We talked with the church board about these differing directions, but got no resolution.