An Unorthodox, Reluctant Leader | An Interview with Loren Spendlove

Loren Spendlove served as a young missionary in Brazil, then found himself speaking Portuguese again as a missionary couple with his wife Tina—this time in Mozambique. They later returned to Mozambique as mission leaders. Loren and Tina served as missionaries again in Brazil and as Kennedy Center teachers in Guangzhou, China, and Loren served as a branch president in Bethlehem, Palestine. Loren has an MA in Jewish Studies from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a PhD in Education, an MBA, and is a Certified Management Accountant and Certified in Financial Management. He has worked in corporate financial management, as a teacher in accounting and finance, and operated his own business for 20 years. Highlights 02:00 Introduction to the topic of the podcast and Loren Spendlove 03:50 Loren Spendlove, an atypical mission president and person 06:30 The unusual story of getting called as mission president to Mozambique 22:00 Loren’s first experience being a mission president with not having much leadership experience. He had to be ordained a High Priest. 26:40 Loren talks about serving in the church as a divorcee 28:20 We have a hard time differentiating culture from gospel. We want to impose our ideas onto other individuals. 31:30 The first step is to discover your culture and see how it impacts your view of the gospel 34:20 Orthodoxy keeps us all in line but there is also room to innovate. Depending on the culture and area we might need to change some things. 43:15 Principles vs rules. What works for the area that you are in? 46:40 One thing that Loren taught his missionaries was that their true obedience was to the Spirit of God and not to the written word. The Spirit always trumps the written word. 50:00 Differentiate between questioning and doubting. Question everything and doubt nothing. Questioning is not knowing and trying to discover and research. Doubting always starts as negative and normally ends negative too. 57:00 As mission president, Loren decided it would be more beneficial to de-emphasize baptisms and stop reporting them to the missionaries. They started reporting sacrament meeting attendance because that’s what they really wanted to focus on. 1:00:00 “Instead of being a forceful mission president, I decided that I was going to be a gospel teacher.” 1:01:15 The purpose of the zone conferences was to become a better follower of Jesus Christ. Becoming a better missionary will be an automatic result of becoming a better follower of Christ. Loren focused on the doctrine as a mission president. 1:05:30 Doctrine isn’t invented but it’s still being discovered. The restoration is still ongoing. 1:08:10 How can we study the gospel better? 1:12:00 Times where Loren felt the Spirit the strongest 1:16:00 Loren’s final thoughts and testimony on being a follower and leader of Jesus Christ Links Changing our Perspective on Addressing Welfare Needs | An Interview with Blair and Cindy PackardThe Interpreter FoundationBook of Mormon CentralAcademia Read the TRANSCRIPT of this podcastListen on YouTubeGet 14-day access to the Core Leader Library The Leading Saints Podcast has ranked in the top 20 Christianity podcasts in iTunes, gets over 500,000 listens each month, and has over 10 million total downloads as part of nonprofit Leading Saints’ mission to help latter-day saints be better prepared to lead. Learn more and listen to any of the past episodes for free at LeadingSaints.org. Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Julie Beck, Brad Wilcox, Jody Moore, Tony Overbay, John H. Groberg, Elaine Dalton, Tad R. Callister, J. Devn Cornish, Dennis B. Neuenschwander, Anthony Sweat, John Hilton III, Barbara Morgan Gardner, Blair Hodges, Whitney Johnson, Ryan Gottfredson, Greg McKeown, DeAnna Murphy, Michael Goodman, Richard Ostler, Ganel-Lyn Condie, and many more in over 500 episodes. Discover podcasts, articles, virtual conferences, and live events related to callings such as the bishopric, Relief Society, elders quorum, Primary, youth leadership, stake leadership, ward mission, ward council, young adults, ministering, and teaching.