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.
In this episode we head all the way over to El Puerto de Santa Maria and interview Bishop Tony Batanero. You will find this interview inspiring as we discuss his conversion to the gospel, his service as a full time missionary in Missouri and Canada. He shares his experience of losing his mother during his mission and how that impacted his testimony. He claims that the best calling in the Church is stake executive secretary. He served in that calling for 6 years and was then called in September of 2015 as the bishop of his ward.
Shawn Hammond is a bishop in Colorado Spring, Colorado. He’s also had the opportunity to serve as a Young Men’s president, elders quorum president, and was also blessed to serve in the California Sacramento Mission in the early 2000’s.
We hear it all the time in sacrament meeting; the invitation, coming from the lectern, to “stand after your name is read.” This means members of your ward are getting a calling. Most callings that are extended to us require no leadership responsibilities.
Adam Barrow is a BYU graduate, accountant, father, past elders quorum president, elders quorum counselor, executive secretary, and currently serves as the secretary in his elders quorum. These are various callings he has received while living in San Francisco, California, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Salt Lake City, Utah.
