Season 19: Leading in This Moment | Episode 6
What It Takes to Lead Now
Overview
What does faithful leadership look like when the landscape is shifting faster than anyone can teach us to keep up? In this season finale of the Igniting Imagination® podcast, host Rev. Lisa Greenwood sets aside the usual interview format for a genuine conversation with her colleague, Rev. Dr. Blair Thompson, chief learning and innovation officer at Wesleyan Impact Partners and Texas Methodist Foundation, where she helps church leaders navigate change through discernment, learning, and innovation.
Looking back across a season of conversations about loans, grants, property, generosity, and organizational health, Lisa and Blair notice that the surface topics keep giving way to the same deeper question: God, what are you calling us to do right now? Together they trace the themes that surfaced again and again: the movement from anxiety and scarcity toward curiosity and hope, the invitation to see the church not as a building but as its people, and the quiet courage it takes to prune what is familiar so something new can grow.
This is a warm, reflective exchange between two leaders who are still asking questions themselves. Listen as Lisa and Blair explore why listening has become a sacred leadership practice, how learning journeys open the imagination in ways a strategy deck never could, and why the joy of the Lord might be one of the most prophetic gifts a leader can offer in this moment.
Meet Our Guest
Rev. Dr. Blair Thompson
Rev. Dr. Blair Thompson is chief learning and innovation officer at Wesleyan Impact Partners and Texas Methodist Foundation. She leads a portfolio of initiatives funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. — including Courageous Congregations Collaborative (C3), Courageous Leadership Imperative (CLI), Phygital Preaching Fellows, and the All the Good You Can Storytelling Initiative — alongside additional cohorts for clergy and nonprofit leaders. She also facilitates the UMC District Superintendent cohort and is the creator and producer of the Igniting Imagination® podcast.
An ordained Elder in the Horizon Texas Conference, Blair is a speaker, writer, preacher, and facilitator focused on expanding imagination, discerning purpose, and developing leaders across the Wesleyan ecosystem.
Before joining TMF in 2020, she served for over a decade in pastoral ministry in Texas and Kansas. She holds an M.Div. and D.Min. from Perkins School of Theology, where she studied pilgrimage as a formative practice for clergy leadership.
Show Notes
Rev. Dr. Blair Thompson is chief learning and innovation officer at Wesleyan Impact Partners and Texas Methodist Foundation. She leads a portfolio of initiatives funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. — including Courageous Congregations Collaborative (C3), Courageous Leadership Imperative (CLI), Phygital Preaching Fellows, and the All the Good You Can Storytelling Initiative — alongside additional cohorts for clergy and nonprofit leaders. She also facilitates the UMC District Superintendent cohort and is the creator and producer of the Igniting Imagination® podcast.
An ordained Elder in the Horizon Texas Conference, Blair is a speaker, writer, preacher, and facilitator focused on expanding imagination, discerning purpose, and developing leaders across the Wesleyan ecosystem.
Before joining TMF in 2020, she served for over a decade in pastoral ministry in Texas and Kansas. She holds an M.Div. and D.Min. from Perkins School of Theology, where she studied pilgrimage as a formative practice for clergy leadership.
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