I was recently listening to an interview on Bronco Mendenhall’s podcast where he was talking to another Division 1 football coach.
By the way, if you haven’t listened to my interview with Bronco Mendenhall, do so ASAP.
Anyway, in this interview, these two coaches talked about the difficulty the transfer portal presents to college coaches.
For those less familiar with college sports, a college athlete has a much easier time today to transfer to another college if his or her playing time and opportunity is more limited than they anticipated.
So if the going gets tough, a college athlete can transfer to another school with little friction, where they can find more opportunity, playing time, or other benefits.
This leads to less-resilient athletes who haven’t pushed through as much adversity, yet pushing through adversity makes for a better individual to have on a team.
Listening to this, I couldn’t help but consider the Latter-day Saint worship experience.
Other faith traditions have a very loose “transfer portal” because congregants can decide one week to drop their pastor/congregation and go down the street to another church to try a new pastor/congregation.
As a Latter-day Saint, this process is almost impossible to do because transferring your membership records from one ward to another (without changing residence) takes special permission and paperwork.
In other words, our “transfer portal” is basically closed.
This dynamic demands a different approach from our leaders.
We can get away with feeding our flock mediocre experiences, and they have to bear it out or stay home.
This makes us more prone to a disengaged or inactive congregation.
It’s a dynamic worth pointing out and sitting with in our leadership council meetings.
We have to push past mediocrity and present an experience and community that no one would want to leave.
Because the transfer portal is closed, we must be more aware of the expectations of our members.
Because the transfer portal is closed, we must admit that attendance numbers tell us very little.
Because the transfer portal is closed, we have to prioritize open communication and have tough conversations.
Because the transfer portal is closed, we must prioritize building relationships over strictly adhering to a traditional religious routine.
Because the transfer portal is closed, we have to commit to a higher level of personal leadership and character development.
The transfer portal is closed, but the leadership opportunity is wide open!
Sincerely,
Kurt Francom
Executive Director
Leading Saints
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