Eric Shuster is the author of 3 books, (1) Catholic Roots, Mormon Harvest (2) The Biblical Roots of Mormonism (3) Where Are the Christians? He currently serves as bishops in a small farming community in Taylor, Texas. He was raised devout Catholics, married a former nun, and joined the LDS Church 26 years ago.
In this episode Bishop Shuster briefly shares his conversion story and what inspired him to write books.
He also shares what his experience was like as a young elders quorum president and his progression through church leadership. He has a remarkable perspective of home teaching and how to organize assignments for your quorum.
We also discuss, bishop’s calendar organization, ward assignments, Family History Olympics, and avoiding the “same ten people”.
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 interview I sit down again with Liz Wiseman who has been such a wonderful resource for Leading Saints and I truly consider her a great friend and mentor.
Liz recently spoke at a BYU Forum and spoke wonderfully about the power of rookie smarts and how what one knows can be a disadvantage to a growing leader. She discusses how learning how to learn is more important than the content of what one is learning.
She also shares some rich stories of what she learned from Lee Perry (Dean of BYU School of Business, and son of L. Tom Perry), when she was a student at BYU, why her husband was recently called to a bishopric, and how to focus on being a hungry, and humble leader.
There’s a lot of information here and it is definitely worth a thorough listen.
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.
In this episode we meet again with member of North Star, a non-profit organization that is a faith-affirming resource for Latter-day Saints addressing sexual orientation or gender identity, and who desire to live in harmony with the teachings of Jesus Christ and the doctrines and values of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
On March 17-19, North Star is having a conference in Provo, Utah. A portion of that conference will be dedicated to helping Church leaders understand this delicate subject. We hope this episode gives you a clear understanding of why all leaders should attend this fantastic conference.
This is a review of an episode recorded last April 2015. I am posting this here so that it can be reviewed by the podcast audience prior to the release of Part 2 and Part 3 which will be posted in a few days.
To read and review the original see here: https://leadingsaints.org/how-to-support-gay-members-in-your-lds-ward/
Bishop Brandon Leavitt was called as bishop 8 months ago, and has grown greatly. He is from Logandale, Nevada (close to Las Vegas) and works in the road construction industry.
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.
