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
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