Greg Trimble is a very popular blogger that produces great content around LDS culture (see gregtrimble.com). Part of that content includes leadership articles, teaching articles, and some inspiring words for those serving full-time missions. I had the opportunity to interview him for the Leading Saints podcast about leadership and what inspires him to write about leadership. It turned out to be a great discussion and I look forward to sharing with you his perspectives about being a stake Sunday School president (spoiler alert: it’s more than ringing the bell).
Like any Mormon boy who was raised going to a church with an indoor gymnasium, I love playing basketball. It was one of the focuses of my teenage years and it taught me many life lessons. One of the great things about basketball is you can learn so much about the character and personality of individuals that are on the court. A manager would have an easier decision about whom to hire by watching them play a pick-up basketball game compared to a sit-down interview. The only problem is, this would require each person you interview to have fundamental basketball skills. Many would look like confused rodeo clowns if you pushed them onto the hardwood.
Jeff Case is a clinical psychologist, former elders quorum president, return missionary, and gay Mormon. In this interview we primarily focus on the basics a ward leader need to understand about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, personality disorders, suicide, and other mental illnesses. It’s a fascinating discussion with best practices of how to help these individuals find a place in the walls of the church and really feel apart of the ward.
We take a few minutes at the end of the episode to discuss what life is like being a gay, married (to a woman), active Mormon.
Ross Richey is originally from North Ogden, Utah. He is currently serving as a high priest group leader in South Salt Lake, Utah. In this episode Ross shares his 5 principles of leadership and other unique perspectives on leadership.
Dan Clark is an award winning motivational speaker and best selling author. He has traveled to 59 countries in the world motivating the masses to create a life of significance. He has also served as a Young Single Adult (YSA) bishop (twice). I first came across Dan’s speaking ability when I listened to his BYU Devotional. It inspired me to be a better leader in the Church and it inspired me to get him on the podcast as soon as possible. After a few miraculous encounters, I was able to meet Dan and he willingly agreed to sit down with me for an interview.
This is definitely one of the top 3 interviews I have done on Leading Saints and I am excited to share it with you. We discuss his young football career at the University of Utah, how he became a motivational speaker, his time teaching public speaking at BYU, how he was called as a YSA bishop, what he learned from that calling, how to run a linger-longer, how to increase the rate of marriage in a YSA ward, how to increase the quality of teaching in a ward, the power of stories and how to record them, and other basic guidance for public speaking in church.
Scott Hall lives in Taylorsville, Utah and was recently released as bishop after a call to serve in a stake presidency (with my brother). He is a successful real estate agent and is supported by a wonderful wife and 6 children. We talked about his few years serving as bishop and most importantly, how to stay awake in church when everyone is watching you.
He talks highly of the examples he has had in his life and the many leadership lessons they have taught him.
5 Leadership Principles:
Stop Trying to Fix It
Personal Worthiness
Example (Father, Husband)
Learning the Names of Members
My Wife
Links:
How to Remember Names
Interview with Chad Francom
LDSCallings.com
In this episode we hear from Trent Lee in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has rich experience as an instructor, teaching Gospel Doctrine, early morning seminary, ward mission leader, and currently serves on his stake’s high council.
We start off the interview by sharing both of our personal experiences of with Elder Oaks and how that influenced us as leaders.
Trent’s Leadership Principles:
What I learned from Elder Nash
Presidency meetings
Monthly home teaching PPI’s
How and what to report for home teaching numbers
Family mission plan
Every six months stake conference is a symbolic mile marker for most stake presidencies. When one ends the next one is ready to be planned for. Having the experience of going through my first stake conference as a member of the stake presidency, I realized what a hectic time it is for stake presidencies as they plan each detail. Not to mention we had a visiting authority that makes you feel like you are being graded each step of the way.
With so many items to consider when planning a stake conference, stake leaders can be left holding their breath when the weekend arrives, hoping that people actually show up.
I’d like to share with you a strategy we used to assure that people showed up to stake conference. It’s hard to say what works and what doesn’t, but we were very pleased by the results and we calculated that we had about 20% more people in attendance then prior stake conferences.
In this episodes we continue the conversation with leaders from North Star as we focus on Brigit Pack’s story of finding peace and faith in her home and in her Church. Her spouse was born Ryan, but now prefer the name Ann. Ann is a transgender Mormon and Brigit tells her story of how leaders are working on finding a place for Ann in their LDS ward.
It’s an inspiring discussion that will definitely help other leaders understand available resources and where to start in loving transgender members of their ward.
Recently I was reminded of Elder Holland’s April 1998 General Conference talk titled “A Teacher Come From God”. It is a talk that was given soon after President Hinckley expressed that each member of the Church needs a friend, a responsibility, and nourishment by the good word of God. I took the time to listen to the talk, which led to me reading the talk, which led to me reading the talk again. It’s an Elder Holland classic, but what talk of his isn’t an Elder Holland classic?
As I read this talk I was captivated by his phrasing, including, “Are we really nurturing our [members] in a way that will sustain them when the stresses of life appear? Or are we giving them a kind of theological Twinkie—spiritually empty calaries?”
