“God Did Not Call You So He Can Deplete You” | A How I Lead Interview with Jodi Atkinson

Leading Saints Podcast

Leading Saints

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jodi Atkinson was born and raised in Utah, and has lived all over the state. She went to college at Utah Tech University in St. George, Utah, and graduated with an Associates Degree in Science. That was where she met and married her husband, Brian. She then took on her next greatest educational experience as the mother of five children. The family left Utah in 2011 and has since lived in Texas, Illinois, and in the Kansas City, Missouri area for the past seven years. Another adventure awaits, and they will be moving back to St. George this summer. Jodi is excited to go back to college and pursue a degree in Art. She has had many service opportunities within the Church that have enriched her life: Young Women president and advisor, youth Sunday School teacher, Young Women camp director, Primary counselor, Seminary teacher, and stake Young Women president. Jodi currently serves as an enthusiastic Primary teacher.

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Highlights
Jodi emphasizes that youth should not be viewed as problems to be solved but as solutions, advocating for a collaborative approach where youth are actively involved in decision-making through councils. She reflects on her experience, highlighting the need for innovative thinking and adaptability in youth programs and stressing that relationships matter significantly in fostering a supportive environment.

Jodi shares specific examples of how she engaged with youth, such as incorporating their ideas into activities like Young Womens camp and a trek, ensuring they felt heard and valued. Jodi also discusses the importance of ministering and being present in the lives of youth and leaders, which helped build trust and community within the stake, and shares the powerful principle that the Lord does not ask us to serve to deplete us or prove ourselves but to grow and strengthen our connections with Him and others.

05:04 - Jodi's Experience as Stake Young Womens President
05:45 - Unique Demographics of the Shawnee Stake
06:51 - Starting the Calling During COVID
10:40 - Embracing a Clean Slate Mentality
12:27 - The Importance of Youth Councils
16:16 - Letting Youth Lead in Activities
19:43 - Specific Examples of Youth Engagement
22:10 - Trek Experience and Youth Involvement
26:06 - Building Relationships with Youth Leaders
30:01 - Habits for Fostering Relationships
34:52 - The Lord's Purpose in Service
35:10 - Object Lesson on Leadership and Service

The award-winning Leading Saints Podcast is one of the top independent Latter-day Saints podcasts 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, Reyna and Elena Aburto,

Transcript

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0:00.0	Does a youth leader ever feel like they haven't figured out?
0:08.0	This hasn't been my experience.
0:10.0	However, I couldn't be an effective youth leader today without Dan Duckworth's presentation
0:15.0	about going from youth worker to youth mentor.
0:18.0	Mentorship is a key concept to understand when leading youth. In his presentation,
0:22.8	Dan talks about ways to really turn the traditional approach to leading youth on its head. How can
0:28.5	you better know your purpose? How can you find out their life goals? How can you build a relationship
0:33.4	that is transformational rather than simply filling time during the weekly youth activity.
0:38.3	You can watch Dan's presentation in the Young Saints virtual library by going to
0:43.3	LeadingSaints.org slash 14.
0:45.3	You'll get free access for 14 days and that will give you plenty of time to watch Dan's presentation a few times.
0:52.3	Let's give youth the leadership they deserve. It's another how I lead episode where we go somewhere in the universe and interview a leader and simply ask them, how is it that you lead?
1:29.3	And today we're going to the mystical land of Shawnee, Kansas to talk with Jody Atkinson and a big shout out to Stacey DeWitt,
1:36.2	I think I'm saying your name right, who submitted and nominated Jody to be on the How I Lead
1:42.5	series here. This is how we, this is how we do it guys it's not like
1:45.7	i have a directory of all the best leaders in the church we need your help you got to you know
1:51.2	identify these people and and go to leading saints dot org slash contact and let us know so we can
1:56.0	reach out plus i really need to get ahead of schedule on how I lead interviews. And so we're making progress there.
2:02.7	But, you know, it really helped me.
2:04.8	So help me, help you, help you, help me.
2:07.3	Okay.
2:07.8	All right.
	...

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