Mindful Leader
Dennis Shaw is a musician, marathoner (Boston!), retired military officer, math modeler, muse, 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. You can access and follow this podcast on Apple, Podbean, Spotify and Amazon Music.
Episodes
Monday Jan 01, 2024
Monday Jan 01, 2024
Our guest is the Reverend Doctor Tom Barlow, Mountain Sky Conference of the United Methodist Church Elder and an Assistant Professor of Methodist Studies at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, CO. Our subject is Evangelism!
Tom's LinkedIn page is HERE. Tom has served in the local church as well as at the University.
We talk some about Thomas ("Tom") G. Bandy, and two of his books are Worship Ways and See, Know, and Serve. An EXCELLENT Ministry Matters article by Bandy is HERE.
Registration for Mountain Sky Conference Churches on MissionInsite (discussed during the podcast) is HERE (about 2/3 of the way down the page). For non Mountain Sky Churches, I suggest a conservation with someone at your Conference office (if United Methodist) about revitalization and Mission Insite.
If this discussion with Tom speaks to you, please forward it to someone else and let them know about it! Normal podcast release schedule is 1st, 3rd and 5th Mondays of the Month.
My email is dennis at (@) mantuan dot (.) org (written like that to confound the bots that steal email addresses).
Monday Dec 18, 2023
Episode 16: Context Matters with Mark Calhoun, Wyoming DS
Monday Dec 18, 2023
Monday Dec 18, 2023
Our guest today is Mark Calhoun, District Superintendent for Wyoming and our topic is context: how important understanding the contextual lay of the landscape is to effective ministry.
I have a world of respect for Mark Calhoun. Mark is extremely thoughtful and always engages his brain before he speaks. He epitomizes mindfulness in a leader.
An unedited Adobe file of the transcript is HERE. Note: Unedited.
Part of Mark's drive towards context emerged from his time at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City. The focus there was on understanding the demographics and the community makeup of the local church. Who is there? What does it look like?
Mark served in Wichita, Kansas before coming home to the Mountain Sky Conference. He was four years in Polson, Montana and eight in Lander, Wyoming before taking the Superintendency in Wyoming in 2020. He has been a gifted connectional leader in those three plus years. Gifted.
Mark mentions he is a Type 2 on the Enneagram, and that is a helper and defined better HERE. If context is important to Mark, and it is, being in relationship is also of importance to him. He works hard at being relational. Easy to state as a goal, much more challenging to live out.
I confess: my heart was strangely warmed when Mark talked about how he felt sitting with people in moments of joy and pain. It is frankly a blessing that we as pastors are called to sit with people in the extremes of life: joy, pain, anxiety. Part of the call.
This podcast was produced on December 12 & 13, for release on December 18, 2023. Please share if it speaks to you.
My next two guests will be the Reverend Doctor Tom Barlow of Iliff School of Theology and Reverend France Davis, Pastor Emeritus of Calvary Baptist in Salt Lake City. Those podcasts will be released on January 1st and 15th respectively. Tom Bandy (with Dr. Barlow) and Black History (with Pastor Davis) will be our starting points for discussion. I will muse a little on things connectional on January 29th. If you have a potential guest for me, send me a note. I would love to hear from you in general.
My email is dennis at (@) mantuan dot (.) org (and written that way to confound harvesting bots.).
Monday Dec 04, 2023
Episode 15: Dreaming and Visioning with Annie Arnoldy
Monday Dec 04, 2023
Monday Dec 04, 2023
This podcast was released on December 4, 2023.
A transcript using Office 365 is HERE. I have not edited it very much. A piece of software has transcribed it. Obvious glitches. Feedback most welcome.
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Our guest today is Annie Arnoldy, Superintendent for Vitality and Connectional Ministry at the Mountain Sky Conference of the United Methodist Church.
I have known Annie since her student days at Colorado State University when we collaborated a little on Youth Ministry. In addition to her studies at CSU, Annie holds a Master in Divinity from the Iliff School of Theology and a Masters Certificate in Organizational Leadership from Denver University. Annie is a Mountain Sky Conference Elder and she entered ministry from Hope UMC in Greenwood Village, CO.
Her local church experience includes Grand Junction First UMC and Highlands Ranch Saint Andrews UMC.
I consider this part 2 of what I expect to be a continuing conversation on the direction of the Mountain Sky Conference in the area of Leadership Development. This conversation focuses on dreaming and visioning. Our first episode where we talked is HERE.
Annie mentioned "Kotter, Inc" --- that is John Kotter. His website is HERE. An excellent book by Kotter is Leading Change and you might see a little bit about it HERE.
The bible verse (Luke 6: 37-38) Annie uses is HERE.
My planned release schedule for all Podcasts is 1st, 3rd, and 5th (four times a year) Mondays.
Please share this with others if you find material here of possible interest, i.e., text, social media, email a link.
You can send notes to me at dennis at mantuan dot org (at is @ and dot is . and written that way to confound bots.)