You may recognize Chris Allen’s name because he was the author of the previous post called Encouraging Young Men to Lead. Again, Chris Allen is a Young Men President in Sandy, Utah. He works for a local blood laboratory and enjoys being with his family when he isn’t mountain biking. He has years of experience in the Young Men program and shares a fascinating approach to helping young men become leaders in his ward.
After Chris wrote that awesome article I asked him to stick around and let me interview him to learn his tactics for leading the Young Men program. What came to the surface was fascinating. Below you will find his keys to leadership, but we also discuss his interesting approach to biannual visits and how that has helped him build trust with the young men in his ward. He also shared the importance of boarders and transitions.
I was sitting in one of those 7:00-am-and-I’m-way-too-tired-to-be-here priesthood training meetings, listening to the stake president teach. I was struggling to pay attention until a single phrase focused my thoughts and brought the promptings of the spirit on me like floodwater bursting over a levee. The stake president said, “If a young man has to come to you at the start of Priesthood meeting to find out what the plan for the upcoming mutual activity is, you’re not doing your job right.” This simple phrase changed the way I lead my young men.
I’ve been serving in the YM program pretty much continually since I turned twelve, whether formally or informally and my leadership of young men has changed dramatically over the years. I used to try leading them from the front of the room where I could speak and teach and share my wisdom and knowledge in a strong and authoritative manner. As my understanding of young men and their needs has matured, I now lead from the back of the room.
In 2013 the bishop and ward missionaries of the College Station Ward in Texas had an inspiration. They wanted to infuse the internet with positive messages of Jesus Christ that would help the world understand the Mormon Church better. That led to the creation of Aggieland Mormons and now they have created hundreds of posts that is spreading the good word and making it easier for LDS members to share content about the Church.
In this interview I talk with Bishop Nate Sharp and former member of the College Station Ward, Brother Andrew Devey. We discuss their journey of stimulating the ward missionary program through this blogging effort and how it has helped excite their ward about missionary work.
This is a fantastic interview for bishops, ward missionaries, and ward council to listen to and consider ways you can start being a digital ward missionary.
Glenn Wright is a Sunday School president in Saratoga Springs, UT. In this interview we discuss his focused approach to really making an impact in his ward Sunday School program. His ward is also participating in a Church pilot program to test out adjustments to the ward teaching that should be rolled out next year.
Every Sunday School presidency and bishopric should listen to this episode. It’s inspiring and informative to learn about how he is magnifying his calling and to also learn about upcoming changes to the Sunday School curriculum.
Being a ward mission leader (WML) can be an exhilarating experience. If you desire, you can learn how the Lord wants missionary work to go forward in your ward and you can become an instrument in His hands. Being a participant on the front lines of the Atonement with all the highs and lows that go along with this great work…now that is really living!
Cindy Burt is a counselor in her ward young women’s program in Kirkland, Washington. She has also served as a Relief Society president, stake Young Women’s President, and seminary teacher. She joined the LDS Church at 26 soon after she married her husband.
We have all done it, said to ourselves, I’m just going to go ahead and do this task because it’s easier for me to just handle it. Or we might say, Oh, Brother Smith is so busy. Let me do that task for him. I think it’s a natural feeling for those in leadership roles to want to take the best care of their people. We often feel like asking someone to take a task or assignment is in some way unkind. Becoming more comfortable with delegation is just like any skill, it’s learned. Learning to delegate is a skill that takes time and practice. I have found these 3 simple steps extremely helpful.
In the LDS church, leadership sometimes comes with formal responsibility through a calling or assignment. Someone newly called to positions like, bishop, Relief Society president, or ward mission leader, might find themselves subject to a life of limited time. The reality is, most callings in the church will take as much time as you are willing to give—even more if you aren’t careful. Every minute that callings takes rarely seem wasted. That is what is so hard about time management in church callings; it always feel like time well spent.
In this How I Lead interview we talk with Tommy Haws who is a stake president in the Gallup, New Mexico area. His stake covers 10,000 square miles! He presides over 5 wards and 7 branches that meet in 11 buildings. President Haws has years of leadership experience, serving as elders quorum president 3 times, a councilor in a stake presidency, and then a bishop before he was asked to serve as the stake president.
We first discuss the unique challenges he faces with a ward so large and with so many units. We talk about the native-american branches and his approach to unity a stake with such diversity.
Jacob Khalil is a student at Brigham Young majoring in Vocal Performance. He grew up in a home with a Mormon mother and a Muslim father. In order to respect his father’s request, Jacob didn’t get baptized until he was 18 years old and could make the decision as a legal adult.
In this interview we discuss how Jacob’s parents, youth leaders, and other members of his ward influenced him during his youth. We talk about best practices a leader can make when faced with a situation where a child cannot be baptized until they are an adult.
