Mindful Leader

Dr. George Thompson Explores Church Leadership at the Edge of Somewhere!

 

Welcome to the Mindful Leader podcast hosted by Dennis Shaw, a retired elder from the Mountain Sky Conference of the United Methodist Church. This episode, features Dr. George Thompson, and we focus on leadership development in local churches. Dr. Thompson shares insights from his extensive experience and his book Church on the Edge of Somewhere. exploring the dynamics of church identity, leadership, and the societal influences on congregations.

(The grid that Dennis and Dr. Thompson discuss is shown at the bottom of these show notes.) 

Through engaging dialogue, Dr. Thompson and Dennis discuss the significance of understanding congregations as distinct entities, and how leaders can navigate the complexities of church dynamics. The conversation delves into adaptive leadership, empathetic marginality, and the importance of moving beyond conventional paradigms to inspire meaningful change.

Listeners will gain a deeper understanding of how churches can balance inner commitments with external challenges, explore innovative approaches to congregational leadership, and appreciate the rich, diverse expressions of faith within different community contexts. Join us for an enriching dialogue aimed at empowering church leaders and fostering transformation in today's ever-evolving world.

A link to the book we discussed is HERE. 

Transcript link is HERE.  

Unrelated to this particular podcast, I promised several months ago to share podcasts that animated me, and HERE is a great one on To Kill a Mockingbird.

Dennis email is HERE (and some Podcast services block it out.  It is found HERE if they have blocked it and the HERE at the start of this is not linking.  ).  

The grid we discuss in the show and mentioned above is below ...  

Episode 4: Al Strauss, Chair of Responsible Stewardship

Rev. Al Strauss, Chair of Responsible Stewardship of the Mountain Sky Conference is our guest.  

Al recently accepted the Responsible Stewardship Chair and plans to use his experiences with leading the Task Force on Disaffiliation to help him cast his leadership vision for this Committee.  

Al also serves on the Conference Trustees.  

Al has served in a number of clergy positions in (legacy) Rocky Mountain and Mountain Sky Conferences since 2002.  

This was recorded on June 1, 2023.  

Our next guests will be the three conference co-lay leaders:  Gayla Jo Slauson, Nancy Flint and Barry Welliver.  That recording will take place on June 9, 2023.  If you have any questions send them to me at the email I will show below.  

If you have any comments or observations send them to me -- dennis at mantuan dot org (typed this way to obfuscate the harvest bots who would gather my email address.)  

Episode 2 -- An Interview with Bruce Berger

Bruce Berger is the current President of the Council on Finance and Administration for the Mountain Sky Conference.  

He has served both legacy Rocky Mountain and the new Mountain Sky Conferences.  Bruce worships at Park Hill UMC in Denver.  

If you have any thoughts you wish to share, do not hesitate to send me a note at dennis at mantuan dot org and I will try to answer it as quickly as practicable.  

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Podcast host Dennis Shaw is a musician, marathoner (Boston!), retired military officer, math modeler, and United Methodist Pastor. A keen observer of the human condition, he has degrees in music, quantitative methods (don’t ask!), theology and leadership. He will discuss with other leaders how to become engaged and present in our current leadership opportunities. Critical to leadership is strong self-awareness. Becoming authentic, empathetic, and aware will form the framework of all discussions.

November 11, 2018 -- Serving Means Letting Go

Scripture Readings: Luke 15: 11-12 (yes, short). 

 Big idea:  God calls on people to serve.  I am mindful that the son had a different agenda than serving but what I want to focus on is letting go.  The father let go.  In today’s world, we are served by many and parents, grandparents, friends, have to let go. 

 “In the process of letting go, you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.”  Deepak Chopra

 Part of our task is know when to let go, and when to hang on. 

Season of Pentecost - Job 23 -- The Impact of Bad Theology

Job 23 ... I like Job.  Not easy to preach from but I do think it speaks to us in our humanness.  

Ministry Moment -- A Culture of Growth

Ministry Moment to set the stage for our Fall Stewardship Campaign.  

Season of Pentecost - James -- Are you "All In"? Why Not?

Pentecost 17:  18.09.23

James 3:13 - 4:8a

Pastor Dennis “Big Idea”: 

I decided to take to the area of which wolf will you feed?  Which wisdom will you honor? Played with the idea of what it means to be "all in".  Sometimes it means you are exhausted or tired.  But other times, it means, I am totally with this.  I am "all" in. No guilt.  No shame.  But at the same time, where are you?  

Revealed this service my financial contribution to the church.  Not for guilt, or shame, but to show Marilyn and I are all in.   

Sunday Four of Five Straight RCL Sundays on James

^3:13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. ¹⁵ Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. ¹⁶ For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.

^4:1 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? ² You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures….

⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ^8a Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

 

 

Season of Pentecost -- James -- Our Words

Pentecost 16:  18.09.16

Sunday Three of Five Straight RCL Sundays on James

As I indicate in the reflection, the passage was selected in April or May and then the week consumed me with how words had been misused.  It just seemed appropriate to take the events of the week and move them into the reflection.  My purpose was not to be mean, but to educate and learn.  Please try and listen w/o attaching names to the people.  An adventure in missing the point.  

James 3:1-12

¹ Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. ² For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. ³ If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. ⁴ Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. ⁵ So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. ⁷ For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, ⁸ but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. ¹⁰ From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. ¹¹ Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? ¹² Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

Season of Pentecost -- James -- Avoiding the Stain of the World

Pentecost 15:  18.09.09

Sunday Two of Five Straight RCL Sundays on James

The verse immediately before this passage got my attention -- it had to do with avoiding the stain of the world.  That was the lens by which I explored this passage.  

James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17

¹ My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? ² For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, ³ and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet," ⁴ have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? ⁷ Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

⁸ You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." ⁹ But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. ¹¹ For the one who said, "You shall not commit adultery," also said, "You shall not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹² So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. ¹³ For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

 

Season of Pentecost - James -- Being and Becoming

 

James 1 and his commentary on faith without works is meaningless.  True.  Context does matter ...