Mindful Leader

My guest, Zach Bechtold, Pastor at Bozeman UMC and I talk about the potential role of the "Conference" in the UMC.  

The Annual Conference is a component part of the structure of the United Methodist Church.  Mountain Sky Conference is vast in geography:  all of Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and one county in Idaho. I posit, that besides it administrative role, it should also be the key developer of leadership, lay and clergy, in our area.

Draft paper I mention in the show is HERE.  Those that have heard me speak at Annual Conference are probably not surprised that I am a believer when it comes in the positive net benefit from the conference.  

My conversation with Co-Lay Leader Gayla Jo Slauson is HERE and my conversation with District Superintendent Mark Calhoun is HERE. (I do put a "chapter" mark at about 37 minutes and again at 38:22 to see if I could help you find his thoughts.)

Zach has his own, excellent, podcast -- Bearded Theologians.  

This is a quick biography and theological exposition of the German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer:  1906 to 1945.  Such a short life with so much good crammed into it.  

A movie about his life is coming out in November and the 80th anniversary of his execution by the Nazis will be in April, 2025.  

HERE is a 15 minute "play" I performed using DB's words to create how he might have reflected on his life as he awaited execution.  It is of course, midrash.  

This Podcast is a little "inside baseball" and focuses on both General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Charlotte this Spring as well as Jurisdictional Conference in Washington State in August.  

My guest for this podcast is District Superintendent, Mark Calhoun.  Mark is a thoughtful observer of all things United Methodist.  

If you like it, forward it to someone, or more than one!  

This is Mark Calhoun's second visit and his first Mindful Leader Podcast is HERE. Mark's' first conversation focused on context and how much that matters in our local church leadership.  

Discussion with Lonnie Brooks, Alaska Conference Lay Delegate to General Conference, about Regionalization is HERE.  

Conversation with Gayla Jo Slauson, Lay Delegate to General Conference from Mountain Sky Conference, is HERE.  

I mention, positively I hope, Jeremy Smith and his blog Hacking Christianity.  The blog I specifically addressed is HERE.   

HERE is a Chart I created of Episcopal Elections in the West since 1968.  I think it is quite telling.  

Send me a note:  [email protected] if you want to discuss.  

Kent Ingram spent 41 years in leadership of the United Methodist Church in Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Colorado.  Kent has excelled wherever he has been.  His last fifteen (or so) years in ministry was at Colorado Springs First UMC, a high steeple, downtown church.  

Our conversation is wide ranging and is a look at history and how that shapes our present.  In reality, Kent sees a period of leadership uncertainty because we don't know what we are going to look like win the near future, let along the distant.  

HERE is a link to a thought Kent wrote for Wesley Theological Seminary in 2012 that is quite good.  

HERE is a link on a talk I had last year (this podcast says several months, it was more like nine) with Danish Pastor Tomas Risager that Kent and I briefly discuss in context.  

I am going to change the routine a little bit and start posting on Sunday afternoons.  This Podcast will be published on July 14th (Bastille Day!)  

Our topic is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion -- often shortened to the initials DEI.

My guest is Cody Nielsen.  Cody's Bio is HERE.  I was made familiar with Cody's work through Hilltop UMC (Sandy, Utah) lay person, Bob Scarborough (and Bob's LinkedIn page is HERE.).

 I am mindful that some hear the topic of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and might (I did say some!) push away and not listen.  Please don't!  I strongly encourage a mindful listen here.  Cody does a great job of framing some thoughts on DEI that are ways to be mindful in your leadership.    

More information is available on Convergence Strategies HERE.  

I do have a few outtakes at the end.  Provided for amusement and/or information.  Will start doing that ....

Send me a note if you want -- dennis at (@ sign) mantuan dot (.) org (written that way to thwart bots.  If this spoke to you, share it with another person!  

Leadership on the Line is a classic leadership text.  

Originally published in 2002, it was updated in 2017.  

Martin Linsky and Ron Heifetz are the authors.  They introduce the framework of Adaptive Leadership.  Leadership is rarely a prescribed recipe that comes down from "on high."  Rather, it depends on context and the local situation.  

Excellent book.  Just excellent.  

Transcript is HERE.  (May require some Microsoft registrations, sorry.)

If you have thoughts send me a note here -- dennis at mantuan dot org (written that way to thwart bots.)

Our guest is Angela Willingham, Vice President for Development at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D. C.  Angela's LinkedIn page is HERE. 

During our discussion Angela mentions Move Management in her approach to fundraising.  Some information on that is HERE.  (Googling 'moves management' is recommended as this is a rich topic.)

My goal with Mindful Leader is to discuss for local church consumption and use, both clergy and laity, topics that are seasonal or always timely.  If you think in terms of forests, deciduous (seasonal) and evergreens.  I pray this is an evergreen topic:  always in season.  

Mindful Leader is available on iTunes, Spotify and other apps:  I use Overcast but there are many options.  

If you have a comment you wish to share with me, send me a note HERE.  

This is again, about the United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte this late April/early May.  

In our last conversation, we talked about potential changes to the election, tenure, and deployment of bishops.  A link to that Podcast is HERE.  

This episode we discuss a different concept that will get a lot of discussion at General Conference:  Regionalization.  My guest is Lonnie Brooks, a lay member of the Alaska Conference.  Lonnie is a keen observer of Methodist polity.  I think you will find him informative and optimistic.  

Lonnie is a 1962 Graduate of Georgia Tech and worked as an Electrical Engineer.  He is retired and is a long time member of St. John's UMC in Anchorage, Alaska.  

"In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity." During the show we mention that as a quote sometimes attributed to John Wesley that he didn't say:  A thought piece on the origin is HERE.

Gayla Jo Slauson is both a Co-Lay Leader of the Mountain Sky Conference of the United Methodist Church and a Delegate to General Conference meeting in Charlotte, NC in late April/early May, 2024.  Gayla Jo's LinkedIn page is HERE.  

My first Podcast where I talk with Gayla Jo Slauson is HERE.  

I make the point in the Podcast at least PART of what we are talking about is proposed, it has not yet happened.  

If you have thoughts -- send them to me at dennis @ mantuan . org with the spaces there edited out.  (Written that way to confuse the email harvesting bots.).  

This is part 2 of Mindful Leader Episode 19.  Link to part 1 is HERE.  These two podcasts were recorded in one session and were released on January 29th, 2024 and February 5th, 2024.  

My original plan in October was to use a Fifth Monday to have my friend John Plant interview me.  John has been a faithful listener to my early Podcast work.  The events of October 7th altered that plan. John and I thus jointly produced a conversation on Israel, Gaza, and what was going on in October.  

This podcast is thus the delayed October Podcast.

My good friend John Plant is a retired US Army Colonel.  He is a graduate of the University of Toledo with a BA in Political Science and an MA in Public Administration.  Further, he has a PhD from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.  He lives in North Carolina and is a devoted follower of Jesus Christ.  His LinkedIn account is HERE.  We talk weekly. 

Between the two of us, John and I have over 50 years of military service, a laboratory of leadership development.  

My LinkedIn page is HERE.  

My guest for the Podcast to be released on February 19th is Gayla Jo Slauson, A Lay Delegate to General Conference in Charlotte, NC.