Helping Stakes & Wards Work Together to Create Awesome Church Activities | A How I Lead Interview with Jenna Rhoads
Leading Saints Podcast
Leading Saints
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2023
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jenna Rhoads currently serves as stake activities director, ward nursery leader, and temple ordinance worker. She has loved planning ways to gather the saints, create a fun relaxed environment, and provide a great place for missionary opportunities. Jenna’s previous church callings have mostly been with the young women and the youth. She loves Girls’ Camp and has only missed about four years since she was 12 years old. She has also been a Gospel Doctrine teacher, which prepared her to teach four years of Seminary. Jenna and her husband, Daryl Rhoads, have been married for 30 years and raised their family of four in Las Vegas, where they have enjoyed a fun, full life together. She studied education and worked as a substitute teacher before working as a cosmetologist for 17 years. Her next adventure is to get a degree in Business Management so that when her husband retires from the police department they can start a business together.
Highlights
02:50 Jenna’s story and background 05:00 Jenna describes her ward and stake in Las Vegas, Nevada. She serves as a stake activities director. 07:00 Jenna describes what she does as a stake activities director and how her calling came to be. She began something called first Friday, which is basically a huge hangout. 12:00 Working with the stake presidency to plan activities and budgeting for the activities 14:40 Ideas for stake activities. Everything from dancing, movie nights, fall festivals, and service projects. 22:15 Jenna’s advice is to not focus on the fluff and remember that you don’t have to do anything extravagant. Each person on the committee had their niche. 25:20 First Fridays were to help the stake gather again after covid. However, they shifted gears and are only doing three stake activities a year and Jenna goes around to the wards and helps them in their ward activities. 28:00 CHARITY. Christ gathered everyone and made people feel like they belonged. It’s charitable to create an activity that makes people feel like they belong. 33:30 UNITY. Come as you are and be a part of it. 36:30 MISSIONARY WORK. It’s easier to invite people to an activity. It’s a more comfortable atmosphere and place to connect. Plus everyone loves free food. 39:50 GIRLS CAMP. Invite people that want to be there. One bad apple spoils the bunch. Jenna shares how they create experiences for the girls. 41:50 Marketing stake activities. Use several ways to advertise. 44:00 What’s next for Jenna’s stake? They want to focus on doing more interfaith activities. 48:00 Jenna shares her final testimony and what being a leader has taught her.
Links
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Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Reyna and Elena Aburto, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Julie Beck, Brad Wilcox, Jody Moore, Tony Overbay, John H. Groberg, Elaine Dalton, Tad R. Callister, Lynn G. Robbins, 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.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Obviously you've come to the leading Saints podcast because you love podcasts and you love |
| 0:11.5 | consuming content in this manner listening to a |
| 0:15.2 | pre-recorded conversation or interview or presentation and we get a lot of good |
| 0:20.0 | stuff here but nothing compares to an in-person retreat experience. This is one thing I've learned in the last few years that we are infusing into our leading Saints content is the need for in-person experiences also known as retreats. |
| 0:34.1 | So leading Saints has started putting on retreats. |
| 0:37.3 | Well for men, women, we're going to play around with couples retreats and |
| 0:40.9 | well we'll try it all, but retreats are a transformational |
| 0:43.6 | experience and I implore you to go check out leading Saints.org slash |
| 0:48.9 | gathering where we list all of the upcoming retreats. Some are open to register, others you can get on a waiting list, |
| 0:55.6 | but we would love to have you at the next in-person retreat. |
| 0:59.3 | Now if you can't afford it, if there may be, if you price out of these opportunities. |
| 1:03.5 | Don't worry, we have very generous donors willing to put up money |
| 1:06.6 | for scholarships. |
| 1:08.2 | So either go there, check it out, register, |
| 1:10.9 | or apply for a scholarship, |
| 1:12.0 | and we'd love to have you the next |
| 1:13.1 | gathering Saints retreat put on by leading Saints. So go to leading Saints |
| 1:17.8 | dot org slash gathering to check out the upcoming gathering Saints |
| 1:20.9 | retreats. It's a how I lead episode where we reach out to the everyday leaders in the world and ask them, |
| 1:31.0 | how was it that you lead tell the world give us your |
| 1:33.7 | tricks your your tips your tactics everything you know and maybe somebody out there who's |
| 1:38.2 | desperate to magnify their calling but they don't know how to do that well maybe they can listen to this and |
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