Describe Your Concept and Style of Leadership

Recently, I was reading Job and a passage I had skimmed over in the past beckoned me. It is the scene right before Job’s three friends show up and sit with him in sackcloth and ash. It is the moment when Job’s wife asks, “Are you still clinging to your integrity?” There was plenty going on (dis-ease, disaster, dismay) that could have granted Job permission to choose a different path– but he did not, and we witness in this narrative the many ways he clung to his integrity.

Clinging to integrity is the essence and demonstration of faithful leadership. Integrity grounded in the mission of God, Biblical narrative and Wesleyan identity is the foundation from which I lead. We have all been leading in and through challenging circumstances and many of us have grown weary – not of the mission – but of the tensions and troubles we’ve seen. I beg permission to assert one inviolate truth: Our deep longing for God and for the vital witness of The United Methodist Church will be fulfilled as by God’s grace we stand firm and cling to our deeply rooted spiritual and missional integrity.

As the Father loved me, I too have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete. This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you. John 15:9-12 (CEB)

To remain in Christ’s love, I engage in sacred listening. I have a daily practice where from 4:30-7:30 each morning, I enter sacred, set-apart time. This is my time of day when I shower, center, read, meditate, journal, and pray. This is the most disciplined part of my life - and the most important.

As I stay accountable in my leadership, I ask God three questions every day: “How may I glorify you?”, “How might I point others to Christ?” and (at the end of the day) “Did I love?”. I measure outcomes/actions against the Three Simple Rules and know that God speaks to me in that. I also trust my gut (the Holy Spirit spends time in my guts). Christian conferencing, cohort work, and collaboration are also ways in which I practice leadership; I lead within and with community.

I am an INTJ (Myers Briggs). I am an 3W4 (Enneagram). I am a high D on the DISC Inventory. My Strengthsfinder includes: Ideation, Strategic, Learner, Self-Assurance, Achiever. I am a visionary who is passionate about Jesus, justice, and quality leadership. I am trained in conflict mediation and am skilled in having difficult conversations and doing hard things.

I believe in the fruit of team leadership but am not afraid to step out on my own as priest and prophet when necessary. The task of every spiritual leader is to stay true to your own journey, your unique call, and the values and vision you bring into your leadership. I believe the best way to become a community of transformation is through a willingness to lead together as a spiritual community. Each needs to know their personal core values (mine include: seeing the image of God in all, integrity, loyalty, responsibility, and spiritual connectedness) and the core values of their institution.

My leadership style is guided by the Four Greats of Scripture: The Great Commandment/Shema (Matt. 22:36-60/Deut. 6:4-9); The Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20); The Great Requirement (Micah 6:7-8); and, The Great Invitation (Acts 1 & 2).

Describe Your Gifts and Graces

I am empathetic and compassionate. I cling to my integrity. I am loyal. I am open to other points of view and willing to discern toward consensus with groups/individuals. I am able to come alongside clergy and laity in creating personal development plans for their flourishing in ministry.

I am engaged in meaningful relationships and ministry on the margins – I am compelled to see others who are often overlooked. I can speak the truth in love and see ways to move through log jams of personal preference toward missional priorities. I can build diverse teams that lead well together.

As I reflect on my guiding principles as a disciple and leader in The United Methodist Church, I am unapologetically Wesleyan and so in love with Jesus and his ministry marked by compassion, grace and justice. I have the ability to inspire others to live lives of significance as we work for "kingdom on earth as it is in heaven" through active discipleship as we respond to the suffering in the world. I am committed to developing leaders (clergy and laity) to grow into the very best versions of themselves so that they can be at their very best for God. I am a Gethsemane Christian (John 17): I hear Jesus’ prayer in the garden as a rallying cry for each of us that our strongest desire would be that of connection - connection to God and to each other - and our common identifier would be that of love.

Describe How You Have Experienced the Call to the Episcopacy and How God has Prepared You for the Episcopacy

I have a deep longing to know and serve God, a solid track record of experience with people on the margins, and am committed to leading in and being the church that is fully inclusive, stands against racism, stewards creation care, and confronts injustice in all its forms. I am grateful for the privilege to be engaged in this critical and transformational work and have experienced the outworking's of evangelism and discipleship at their absolute best.

Serving as Assistant to the Bishop and as Director of Clergy & Leadership Excellence has been filled with challenges and possibilities. In Iowa, we moved into a shared relationship with The Dakotas Conference when Bishop Laurie Haller was assigned to two episcopal areas. That brought with it significant adaptive challenges and shared possibilities. We led through the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy, the announcement of a May 1 launch of the GMC, and experienced the heartbreak of disaffiliation conversations while countering misinformation and disinformation being shared about the now and future United Methodist Church. During the pandemic, our leaders grew weary, and some even made decisions that brought harm to self and others. I knew deep in my bones I was doing the work God had called me to do.

None of us anticipated Bishop Haller’s accident in early 2022 that resulted in medical leave. All of us have been grateful for Bishop Deborah Kiesey (ret.) and her leadership during this in-between time. Through it all, I was handed increasingly more ecclesial, administrative and leadership responsibilities and to be honest, I thought there was no way I would ever want to become a bishop on purpose. I have watched episcopal leaders doing their absolute best leading the church in and through some horrible and challenging situations as they guard the faith, order, liturgy, doctrine, and discipline of the Church. And I was content with and challenged by my roles and responsibilities.

Nonetheless, the wrestling began. My colleagues around the Cabinet table, laity and clergy of the Iowa Conference, and ministry partners from the greater Connection began offering words of encouragement toward discernment. And I remained a hard “No.” And then late in July at Lake Junaluska, I was at a GBHEM event with Directors of Connectional Ministries, District Superintendents, and other leaders from the Connection when in a series of three key moments – I knew I was called for here and now. It was a call that did not guarantee election to the episcopal office – it was a call that asked me to open myself to the process. And to lay aside my doubts. “Why not you? Why not now?” was the whisper that became a shout.

I didn’t grow up in The United Methodist Church. My first decade of life I was in an unchurched home; I knew the poverty and ostracism that came with trailer park living. After my adoption, I was baptized and confirmed in the Presbyterian Church, USA. At the age of ten I received a clear call into ministry. Eventually, I found my way to Morningside College (now Morningside University), which is a United Methodist-related institution and found my spiritual home at nearby Grace United Methodist Church in Sioux City, Iowa. Through a group known as Plowshares, I discovered the both/and joy of personal piety and social holiness. My junior year I enrolled in a class on the unpublished poetry of Charles Wesley and fell in love with grace and the Wesleyan way of thinking about God and the human condition. In my dorm I experienced my own heart-warming moment and shortly thereafter became United Methodist.

After college, I was in the Army – whether I was assigned in the continental U.S. or deployed overseas, I would look for the cross and flame and find my way to my faith community. When I divorced and my daughter was not yet a year old, it was the people of The United Methodist Church who stepped up and modeled acceptance, care, and community.

Throughout my ministry, God has shown up opening doors and asking of me to lead and love. God has consistently given me opportunity to raise up clergy and laity in holiness of heart and life ministries. I have been given the privilege of serving in “turn-around” ministries and am committed to being part of the “turn-around” revisioning and restructuring of an even more vital and vibrant United Methodist future. God has called me into The United Methodist Church and into this moment. I am no longer wrestling; I have no doubt that God has called me to enter this process for such a time as this.