June 1, 2022

This week’s General Conference update is a podcast with Todd Nelson and Taylor Zimmerman who dive into the “why” of our conversations, study, and listening period. It boils down to something Gordon T. Smith said in his book Listening to God in Times of Choice: “It takes time to nurture a community of authenticity and discernment. It takes time to develop the trust necessary for the honest and openness such a community requires. But it is time well invested. For a discerning community has a tremendous capacity to free and enable people to mature in faith and discernment.”

They also unpack the vital need for a chair 2 mindset and questions. Ray Dalio, in his book Principles, gets at it by saying, “Knowing that I could be painfully wrong, and also being curious about why other smart people saw things differently, prompted me to look at things through the eyes of others as well as my own. This allowed me to see many more dimensions than if I saw things just through my own eyes.” Moving to a chair 2 mindset with a different set of questions is key in discerning together.

The First UMC Leadership podcast can be found here and on Apple Podcasts. New episodes will be released every other week as First United Methodist Church of Lexington journeys through its time of discernment.

If you ever desire to go back to read or listen to something, you can now find it on our website in one easy to use place by clicking here or going to (http://lextogether.org/generalconference). As always, thanks for listening and please let Todd, Chad, Carol, Taylor or Jennifer know if you have questions. You can do that here.