The Sacred Tension
The Pulse Beneath the Pressure
The tension between mission passion and governance structure is not a leadership problem to solve. It is the vital sign of a living organisation.
Leaders of faith-driven organisations carry a weight few others understand. Most interpret this pressure as dysfunction and try to eliminate it. In doing so, they damage the very circulation that keeps their organisation alive.
In The Sacred Tension, Stephen L Baxter introduces a diagnostic framework built on a single, powerful metaphor: organisational blood pressure. Just as a healthy body requires productive tension between a beating heart and a protective skeleton, a healthy organisation requires sustained interplay between mission force and structural capacity.
This book equips chairs, board members, and CEOs to read pressure, diagnose imbalance, and steward the tension that sustains institutional health. Written for leaders who carry weight others cannot see.
How to get The Book
The Sacred Tension is an integral part of the evenings Stephen hosts — a gift placed in the hands of every person who gathers around the table.
The only way to receive a copy is to attend a Sacred Tension event. These are intimate, invitation-only dinners held periodically in cities across Australia — small gatherings of chairs, CEOs and senior leaders of faith-driven organisations who carry similar weight.
If you’ve found your way to this page,
someone who attended thought you might belong in the room.
About Stephen
Stephen L Baxter, MEd, is an elder thought partner to chairs, boards, and CEOs across Australia’s faith-driven sector. With over forty years in leadership across the not-for-profit sector and more than twenty-five years walking alongside senior leaders, his work centres on one thing: trusted accompaniment through complexity.
He and his wife make their home in Sandy Bay, Tasmania, and their family — five children and almost eight grandchildren spanning Tasmania, Melbourne, and Madrid — reflect the same intentional commitment to relationship that marks his work.
