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More to the Story with Dr. Andy Miller III is a podcast exploring theology in the orthodox Wesleyan tradition. Hear engaging interviews and musings from Dr. Miller each week.
Transcript:
I am so glad to be back with another interview with one of the candidates for the interim Bishop position that as part of one of the legislative paths for the global Methodist Church. And so I'm delighted to welcome Leah, Hiddy Gregory, who's from the Mid Texas Conference, Leah welcome to the Podcast.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm I'm excited to to meet you and to get to share about this journey that we're all on at the moment headed to Costa Rica.
Andy Miller III: Indeed, it's coming very fast. And so we're looking forward to getting there. I just sat on a legislative committee yesterday and just reminded of of how fast all this is happening, and even what's happening in the scope of Methodism as a whole hundreds of years. And here we are, just in a couple of years a denomination is emerging, and you and I have been in the same room a few times, but I have not been able to get across the room to meet you. So I'm glad that I had this opportunity to podcast just to engage you a little bit.
Leah Hidde Gregory: That's right. This is great. So so glad for this
Leah Hidde Gregory: venue that we're able to do this.
Andy Miller III: Yeah, and I know that you you have a I saw you at our annual conference from Mississippi, West Tennessee. That was one of the places. But you've been traveling around visiting various conferences as a speaker before we get into kind of the formal question. Just tell us a little about that process and what you've seen in the global Methodist church. I imagine that that's a part of even your willingness to accept this nomination.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Absolutely. So. I've actually spoken at 9 different annual conferences at this point and it has been so amazing to realize that
Leah Hidde Gregory: while every conference is very different, every conference is also very much the same. There is this power of the presence of the Holy Spirit that just falls on the room. There is the unity, because we're we're coming with like minds like hearts seeking to be faithful in the Lord.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I have been moved at every single one of the conferences that I've gone to to absolute tears. It has been amazing. We have all this anxiety building around General Conference, because that's all we know is to have anxiety around General Conference. That's what it's always been for me my whole life.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And I think we're going to get to Costa Rica. And we're going to experience what we've experienced in the annual conferences. And it's just going to be this outpouring of the Holy spirit, and we're going to watch God work in ways we never dreamed.
Andy Miller III: Man. Amen! I'm looking forward to it.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And about that.
Andy Miller III: Well, Leah, one of the ways I'd like to get to know you is just here in your testimony, but I am going to put a timer on, so I'd.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Okay.
Andy Miller III: Minutes. If you give a 2 min version of how you came to know Jesus.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Absolutely so. There has never been a season or a time in my life that I did not know that Jesus loved me.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I am incredibly blessed. I am a 6th generation pastor, and so I was born and raised in a parsonage. I was in church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night you name it. I was there. I gave my life to Christ. When I was 9 years old I got baptized, and then I spent the next 11 years, wondering if I did it right, because nothing ever changed like I had studied and learned about Paul and that Damascus Road, and how he was changed from Saul to Paul, and
Leah Hidde Gregory: I was looking for that, and that never happened in my life.
Leah Hidde Gregory: But then I found my way to a Methodist Church in downtown Tulsa.
Leah Hidde Gregory: and while I was there in my college years, I went down one Sunday for communion, and I knelt, and I had got to know the pastor through his son, who was my age, and he knelt down, and he said, Leah, this is the body and the blood of Christ broken and shed for you.
Leah Hidde Gregory: and in that moment I received assurance. It was the John Wesley Aldersgate moment of my heart being strangely warmed like I had worried all that time. I hadn't done it right that somehow I hadn't reached out to God. But in that moment I knew I was God's beloved, and so that is my journey into faith. I have been Methodist ever since, and that is a long and winding journey that's got me to here. There's no way to do that in 2 min.
Andy Miller III: I'm sorry. Well, you have 30 seconds. You can say whatever.
Leah Hidde Gregory: No, that's all right. That's right. Just know. That's how I came to find Christ.
Andy Miller III: Gotcha. I love it. I love that that picture, and and I share it with you. I'm a 6th generation pastor. That's a unique and unique calling we we want to give a maybe maybe it's a part of that too long of answer. But your own call to ministry, and and where that's taken. You like, where you, where you've been appointed. Those type of things.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Sure. So I am
Leah Hidde Gregory: actually started out as a pastor's wife for 11 years.
Andy Miller III: Okay.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And I had heard the call through disciple Bible that I was to be a a pastor, but I went to see my pastor, and it was a different time, you know. It was 35 years ago now, and my pastor, my husband, was feeling the same call, and my pastor says, I don't know that you're both called into ministry. I think maybe you're called to support him, and maybe you're called to be a pastor's wife.
Andy Miller III: Hmm.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And so I was like, yes, that means I'm I'm off the hook right like that. That was a weighty thought for for me to be going into ministry, and so
Leah Hidde Gregory: I spent 11 years while he went to seminary, and all of that. We pastored 2 small churches up in Oklahoma. Then he was on staff at a large church here in the North Texas Conference. Okay? And then one Sunday he left
Leah Hidde Gregory: He! He came to me and he said, I just need to let you know something. I'm gay.
Leah Hidde Gregory: and I no longer want to be in ministry, and I no longer want this life.
Andy Miller III: Oh, my!
Leah Hidde Gregory: And I found myself very much a pastor with a pastor's wife
Leah Hidde Gregory: that was longing to be a pastor. And I. I
Leah Hidde Gregory: went through a series of depression and and sadness, because I thought all of that had come to an end for me.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I was pregnant with our second child when he left, and we had a a 3 year old at that time. And so I began taking him to church because I needed that support network, and I found a wonderful church, and it was pastored by a female who was single. And so I went to her one day. I'm sorry this is way more than 2 min.
Andy Miller III: Please! Oh, I.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I can still do.
Andy Miller III: I had no idea I did not know this at all, so.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Oh, okay, good deal. Yeah. If you see.
Andy Miller III: Mouth drop. I mean, I'm sure you're used to people being surprised. But thank you for sharing this.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Yeah, absolutely. So I went to her and I said, Look, I was called to be a pastor's wife. My pastor told me this, and I would like to
Leah Hidde Gregory: be able to hang on just one second. Sorry
Leah Hidde Gregory: I would love to be able. We speak in sonic drinks.
Andy Miller III: Oh, there you go!
Leah Hidde Gregory: That's right.
Andy Miller III: Very. Texas. Yeah. Yeah.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I said, I can help you.
Leah Hidde Gregory: You don't have a pastor's wife. I am a pastor's wife. Let me help you with that.
Andy Miller III: Right.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And
Leah Hidde Gregory: she says, I don't think you're called to be a pastor's wife. If you want to get plugged into the church, you do that. You do whatever you feel like you need to do. But I'm I don't think that's where you're calling is. And I remember just thinking, no, you don't understand. I was really good at it. I baked the I I did the bulletin. I listened to sermons on Saturday night to make sure they were good. I am a great pastor's wife
Leah Hidde Gregory: and I got plugged into the church, and about 6 months later I went to the communion rail, and I started crying again. It was at communion where I felt assurance, but it was at the communion rail, and she knelt down and she said, Is everything okay with the divorce. And I said, Oh, the divorce is final. We're fine. We're finding our way through co-parenting and and loving each other through all of this, and she said, then why are you crying? And I said, because I'm supposed to be doing what you're doing, and I can't, because I'm divorced.
Andy Miller III: Oh, wow!
Leah Hidde Gregory: And she said, Come, see me tomorrow.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And that started me on a journey over 25 years ago. That has led to where I'm at today. It. It was a calling that I I probably had from a young child I loved play in the chancel area of the church I loved preach to the stuffed animals. I didn't identify that. I went through disciple Bible, and I knew I had a call, but I I found a way
Leah Hidde Gregory: to to do that as a pastor's wife, and then I I was probably preaching in my 1st small rural church about 6 weeks, and I went. This is exactly why God put me on this planet.
Andy Miller III: Wow!
Leah Hidde Gregory: I mean. I knew without a doubt, that that was what I was supposed to be doing. So.
Andy Miller III: I love it. I love it.
Andy Miller III: That I think I'm so glad that I got out of my normal questions and asked you that one. Thank you. Thanks for thanks for taking that.
Leah Hidde Gregory: No, I'm thankful it is part of my testimony. It is part of the work that God has done in my life, and part of the sanctifying work, how God has just drawn me closer to him and and helped me just to have a deeply intimate relationship that
Leah Hidde Gregory: you know you. Nobody can save you from your testimony, and I'm so glad God didn't save me from that testimony. I I need that testimony in my life.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And I need to share that testimony because I never share it, that somebody doesn't reach out and say, Oh, man, that's just happened to my daughter or my son.
Andy Miller III: Yeah, sure. Sure.
Leah Hidde Gregory: You talk to them so.
Andy Miller III: Yeah, yeah. Well, I imagine there's more to the story because a sonic, those watching on Youtube just saw a sonic drink hover over there.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Right.
Andy Miller III: Guessing that wasn't your dog who dropped that.
Leah Hidde Gregory: No, that was my husband who who had been running errands, and he just brought me he he was listening to how hoarse I was, so he brought me a sonic drink in. So we've been married 21 years now, and God has blessed us with 3 great kids. We have 2 daughters the daughters that were from my previous marriage. But he he's been daddy for many years, and then our son Will, who is a senior in high school.
Andy Miller III: Wonderful. Okay, beautiful. Thanks for sharing that.
Andy Miller III: One of the points for us as we're in this emerging moment of global Methodism is that there
Andy Miller III: there necessarily is some distinction, I mean, why would we not just join another denominations, merge ourselves with that in? In some have done exactly that some have stayed independent. But I'm curious from you. And this is another timed question the last time. Question, 3 in. Like 3 min or so, what makes a Wesley and Christian, a Wesley and Christian.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So for me. We are warm-hearted.
Leah Hidde Gregory: and we also use our brains. So we are a faith of head and heart both right.
Leah Hidde Gregory: and we are a group of people who seek holiness.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Okay? So it's not just come to church and look at the back of somebody's head.
Leah Hidde Gregory: We are a people. When we, when we say we are Wesleyan, we are seeking that deep relationship with God, we know that sanctifying grace is a gift from God, but we practice the means of grace that worship, practicing the sacraments, prayer, searching the Scriptures, not reading your Bible, reading. Your Bible is not bad, but that's not what
Leah Hidde Gregory: it's searching the Scriptures. Fasting, fellowship, that conferencing when when we do those things, we put ourselves in places where we can't help but trip over God's sanctifying grace. So when we say we're Wesleyan, we are saying we are not passive Christians.
Andy Miller III: Amen!
Leah Hidde Gregory: We want to be doing the work of God. We also have acts of mercy that we do where we know we find God. You know, when I work a food pantry, I've run 2 food pantries at 2 different churches that I pastored.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I saw Christ there.
Leah Hidde Gregory: and it was powerful. And so we're not. We're not passive Christians. Not that there's anything wrong with those that choose to be passive Christians. The Wesleyan movement, though, is a, is a movement we are seeking God we are seeking. And and I think that's 1 of the things that we've kind of gotten out of touch with, that I'm in hopes that we get back in touch with.
Leah Hidde Gregory: But for me, a Wesley and Christian is somebody that's warm hearted that that either has experienced that alder escape moment, or they are seeking that alder scape moment.
Andy Miller III: And.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And they're seeking to grow more and more to be Christlike.
Andy Miller III: That's great. And look at that! It's 1 min and 48 seconds. You.
Leah Hidde Gregory: There you go!
Andy Miller III: Look at that. Yeah, I think that's a real.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I'm not known for having an economy of words. So that's really good.
Andy Miller III: Yeah, take it when you can take it. And you have this. I I like that. You slid in there acts of mercy acts, acts of piety. I love love that emphasis that we have that as well. You know, Leah, there's an interesting moment for us within global Methodism that there's this. And I just acknowledge that there's 3 different options, which is what should happen. And the option that brings us together today about this interim, Bishop, is one option. There's another option.
Andy Miller III: This is called the Hybrid or Florida plan, and I'm interviewing Jay. Who's Jay Tharrell? Who's a you know principal spokesperson of that, I suppose? And then, of course, you could just stick with the transitional book of discipline like, what's happened like with how bishops. Webb and Jones are working at this point.
Andy Miller III: but you have been nominated for this process, and you accepted the nomination. So I'm just curious. Why is it. Why, why were you willing to step up and and
Andy Miller III: say that you're willing to serve in this leadership role?
Leah Hidde Gregory: So I have several things, and and it always has to start for me with that moment. i i i didn't even realize that until you just asked me that of kneeling before the Lord.
Andy Miller III: Okay.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So on my ordination night. My dad had died 3 months ahead of that, and he was supposed to be one of the pastors that laid hands on me, and so I was not in a great mood the night of my ordination. I just wanted to get up there, and I didn't want to cry, and I just wanted to get my stole. Get my Bible and go. Sit down. Bishop Lowry put his hands on my head. Let's just
Leah Hidde Gregory: we're going to get through this, and we're not going to cry. That was my whole goal for the night.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And as I knelt there
Leah Hidde Gregory: I felt a whirlwind like I was in this tremendous whirlwind.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And I look up and you can see it on the video. I'm looking up at Bishop Lowry like, are you experiencing this? Because I'm experiencing this? And I heard God specifically say to me, Isaiah, 55. My ways are not your ways. Turn my people back to me.
Leah Hidde Gregory: That has been since my ordination. My mission and my purpose is to help the people who call themselves Methodist to reclaim who they are as Methodist.
Leah Hidde Gregory: and to turn their hearts back to God and away from a secularized Methodism, and to find themselves back in an orthodox
Leah Hidde Gregory: traditional Wesleyan movement.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And so that is, that's very much part of me. So that's that Holy Spirit moment.
Leah Hidde Gregory: In our previous denomination it was rare that somebody had
Leah Hidde Gregory: conference level experience from the traditional side. That just is not usually who got.
Andy Miller III: Yeah, that's right.
Leah Hidde Gregory: In those places I was blessed to be in the Central Texas Conference and to serve under Bishop Mike Lowry. So I spent 6 years on his Cabinet. 5 of those years I was Dean of the Cabinet. I served as a district superintendent, and then in New Church Start and church revitalization and church growth.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And so I feel like I have some skill sets that perhaps others have not had that experience. Now for some that's really good news for some they're like, well, we don't need that. We don't want that. And that's okay, too. So you know, that's up to the body of of what they want to do right. But for me, I thought I have a skill set that might could help. I have some institutional memory of where we've come from, and why some things work, and we're good there, because not everything was bad. I know we we sometimes think it was, but not everything was bad.
Leah Hidde Gregory: what were some of the good things? And and then what? As we're building new to have somebody that has that that understanding. So for me, when I said yes to this. I have a son that's a senior. It's really not the best time in my life for me to be doing this. But when I received the nomination for
Leah Hidde Gregory: from my delegation my agreement was that I wouldn't pull my name out, that I would say yes, and I said, Well, I'm not going to campaign. I'm not going to do all of that, but I won't pull my name out, and so I I that's kind of been my commitment
Leah Hidde Gregory: And then, when I was approved by the Tlc. That was when I went, oh, wait, I'm gonna have to like, really think this through what this means for my life, and what this means for Mid Texas, because mid Texas is is my heart and soul. Right now, we. We have a hundred 21,000 square miles in mid Texas. There are 21 million people, and there are about 13 million who have no relationship with Jesus Christ at all.
Leah Hidde Gregory: We have an awakening occurring where churches are experiencing baptisms almost weekly. People are coming to faith. I don't want to do anything to hamper that awakening. And so for me, I had to say, Okay, is there a way for me to do
Leah Hidde Gregory: mid Texas part time? And so that made this appealing, and then to do the general superintendency half time in these 2 years. And so for me, that would be what?
Leah Hidde Gregory: What made it work. And so we'll see, because I know there are some who are bringing it and say, no. These need to be 6 full time positions.
Leah Hidde Gregory: If if that happens, I'm probably not the girl, if
Leah Hidde Gregory: if they keep it at half time where I can continue to serve in mid Texas and and
Leah Hidde Gregory: share my my experience and my gifts. Then then I'll I'll do that.
Andy Miller III: Gotcha.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So.
Andy Miller III: It would just tell me the geographical boundaries of Mid Texas. I'm just curious for those 2.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So we are on the I. 35. Corridor.
Andy Miller III: Okay.
Leah Hidde Gregory: About 400 miles on either side of
Leah Hidde Gregory: I. 35. From the Red River to the Gulf of Mexico.
Andy Miller III: Okay, wow, gotcha.
Leah Hidde Gregory: We incorporate the Metroplex, Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco Temple, Austin, San Antonio, Corpus, Brownsville, Harlejan.
Andy Miller III: Wow!
Leah Hidde Gregory: And the gallon, all of those.
Andy Miller III: Wow, huge area. Yeah.
Andy Miller III: well, we have. Oh, yeah, several students from your conference. I'm attempting.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Yes.
Andy Miller III: In my class right now, and so I'm really delighted to get to know them. But I'll save that for our conversation in Costa Rica. All right. So one of the things is happening with this proposed legislation is that there would be an assembly of bishops. What do you think that assembly of bishops should work on in the next 2 years. Before full time bishops are elected in 2,026.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So culture eats strategy every single day. Right? So I think we have to get the culture set.
Leah Hidde Gregory: We have come from a place where bishops were set apart
Leah Hidde Gregory: and treated very differently than the regular clergy. It is a shepherd. It is a respectful, a thing that deserves honor and and respect just because of the duty. But I think we have to set the right culture for what it means to be a bishop. It's not about being a king or a queen over a group of people. It's about being a servant. It's not about having an authoritative model. It's about leading from a place of influence, and that influence coming from your relationship with Jesus Christ.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And so for me. This 2 year moment with the Assembly is where we have to get that right. Jeff Greenway is always saying, when you talk about the Episcosy the temperature goes up, and if you've talked to Jeff, I'm sure he has said that exact phrase to you. Yes,
Leah Hidde Gregory: to me if anything has to go right. This is what has to go right. This assembly of bishops should not be a group that gets together to police one another and to handle complaints, but rather it should be a discipleship group, so that they are continually working on their own sanctification and growing closer to God. It should be a a band or a class meeting it. It should be about
Leah Hidde Gregory: making the the word bishop, not a title, but a job description of what it means to serve to be a servant leader out there, teaching and training and preaching and being present.
Leah Hidde Gregory: with those new people. We've got so many young folks coming up into ministry. We need bishops that are are willing to come and walk alongside and spend time, and and just listen and to talk, and so for me it is setting a different culture than we have known in my lifetime
Leah Hidde Gregory: of what it means to be a Bishop and I, I would say it goes back quite a ways. We do not want to have kings and queens. We want to have servant leaders.
Andy Miller III: Yes, absolutely. And it's it's so. People are looking sometimes for a king or a queen, and so there there has to be a way that there is a push back from those leaders.
Leah Hidde Gregory: That's right.
Andy Miller III: Be hard. It's hard.
Leah Hidde Gregory: That's right.
Andy Miller III: Things are nice about being a king or a queen.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Right. The power feels good, but that's
Leah Hidde Gregory: that should not be it. It should 1st be about overseeing the church, making sure doctrinal standards are being taught
Leah Hidde Gregory: helping people. You know, we come from a place of of theological pluralism, and and there's been so many times I feel like I give permission all the time for people to believe what they believe.
Leah Hidde Gregory: you know, because they have been. They've been chastised, or they've been questioned, or or things like that I remember it. I there was one year that our church had 32 professions of faith, and it was a church of like 80, and and everybody's like, Wow! Why? And then I had somebody question me. Well, isn't that
Leah Hidde Gregory: Why is it important for people to profess their faith? And I'm like, well, they're giving their heart to Christ, of course that's important. But they said, Well, isn't that works righteousness? No, not at all. And so we've come from a place where everybody was picking apart and thinking. And and they're
Leah Hidde Gregory: we are a thinking people. But but we have to have leaders who are saying
Leah Hidde Gregory: it is okay for us to be Wesleyan. It is okay for us to be Methodist and to follow those orthodox principles. And so that that's 1 of my hopes for that assembly of the bishops.
Andy Miller III: Well, and one of the roles that the Assembly bishops will have. And and this model emphasizes the teaching role. Not that the other model is anti teaching.
Leah Hidde Gregory: That's right.
Andy Miller III: Shepherding just just to be clear there. But is the the nature of the inspiration and authority of Scripture. And so, if you could just define what that is for you, and why that's important for this group
Andy Miller III: Methodism.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I actually believe in the infallibility of Scripture, not in a fundamentalist kind of way, but I believe Scripture is perfect.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I believe it speaks from generation to generation. It is the living Word of God.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I believe the canon is closed, and while God speaks to me, I've already shared a couple of times on here. How I feel like God had spoken to me.
Andy Miller III: Yes.
Leah Hidde Gregory: New revelation never, ever replaces
Leah Hidde Gregory: what we have in Scripture, and so you can always lay
Leah Hidde Gregory: as a plumb line Scripture. Next to revelation that you believe God is lifting it up, and you know, if it's God or not, if it aligns with that Scripture. And so for me, I believe everything necessary for salvation is in
Leah Hidde Gregory: in the book, in in the Word of God. Now, I I know there are dualisms. There are places that are not historically correct, you know. But when we approach Scripture we should not be approaching it with a critical lens. We should be approaching Scripture for it to live and breathe and be in our being, and you also have to look at the arc of the entire story.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So you may read one thing in one place and another thing in another place. But what is God doing over the entire ark of Scripture?
Andy Miller III: Yeah, yeah.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So Scripture for me, has the ultimate authority. It is over reason, it is over experience, it is over tradition.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Scripture is primary, and it has the ultimate authority over what our morals are, what.
Leah Hidde Gregory: how, how we lead our lives, how we lead our ministry, and how we do those things.
Andy Miller III: Amen. Yeah, here you use this language, ultimate authority, infallibility. Perfect. Some in the global Methodist, including my seminary, Asbury Seminary from the Luzon, Covenant and Chicago statement on Errandsey, saying, the Bible is without error, and all that it affirms. Would you be comfortable with that language?
Leah Hidde Gregory: I would be probably.
Leah Hidde Gregory: yeah.
Andy Miller III: Yeah. And and I don't say I just I know there are some. Oh, here's here, Leo, as I've not as much as you, but I've gone around and preach, particularly in Mississippi, Alabama area, Georgia. As I've talked to new churches and churches that are interested in affiliate, maybe, who who haven't affiliated the Golden Methodist Church yet when I describe, and as an academic and a seminary administrator, and I and I say and and I,
Andy Miller III: academically and theologically, I'm willing to nuance this and to give more clarity. But when I use the language of inerrancy, I sense that people in the in congregation say.
Andy Miller III: Oh, yeah, I can say that, you know I'm allowed, or or even like what you said.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Permission. Giving right? Yeah.
Andy Miller III: Exactly or perfect. I can say that's perfect. Oh, I can. I can affirm these kind of historical details, and still be somebody who is a Bible believing Christian, so I I found it to be liberating for folks. I know that there are some academics who would disagree.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I know we've got all kinds of of blogs going back and forth.
Andy Miller III: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're a part of that. Yeah.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I have no problem with that. I'm glad we have the discussion. I'm glad we have the discourse. But ultimately we do not worship our Bible. That is not what we're talking about.
Andy Miller III: Event. No. Yeah.
Leah Hidde Gregory: The Bible is how we know God's will.
Andy Miller III: Yeah.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And that's we've we've had these Scriptures since the beginning of the church, and we need.
Andy Miller III: Yeah.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Lean, lean into that.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Not not criticize it. I don't. I I mean.
Andy Miller III: Amen! Amen!
Leah Hidde Gregory: Literature, criticism. Person. That's that's the Bible is not for that.
Andy Miller III: That's right, that's right, and and I don't. I don't think we I if I had a stronger word than inerrancy at a stronger word than perfect. I would use it I would use, because it's that good.
Leah Hidde Gregory: It's the plumb line. It.
Andy Miller III: Man.
Leah Hidde Gregory: What everything should be measured against.
Andy Miller III: Hey? That's right. I am with you and I I love how you articulated that
Andy Miller III: so, being in leadership in in some of your roles, too. I didn't know about those in the Conference of Church Revitalization. I'm sure you've thought about some of these things before, but there are probably some things we need to unlearn as a denomination and a movement, and some some things we need to learn.
Andy Miller III: Give us a few of those things that you think we need to unlearn.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So on the denominational level, I'm gonna I'm gonna break this down in some places. Okay, okay, great on the denominational level. We need to learn how to not fight.
Andy Miller III: Yeah.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Need to beat those swords into plow shears, and we need to not look at each other, suspect, but come together with
Leah Hidde Gregory: a heart seeking Christ. Now here's the good news, while we've got anxiety, that I feel is climbing toward general conference. When you go to annual conferences. That's exactly what you experience, and who is going to General Conference.
Andy Miller III: Yes, yes.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Those people right? So I I think while we've got the anxiety, I think we're going to see something totally different. That's joyful. And we're going to be able to rejoice in what is happening in Costa Rica.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So so for me, we've got to learn
Leah Hidde Gregory: to go in seeking God. Now, I'm really encouraged because I've heard of a couple of the legislative committees that are going to begin meeting via Zoom regularly, not to talk about legislation, but to pray.
Andy Miller III: Hmm.
Leah Hidde Gregory: To pray over their work to seek God's work. So we have a rule in mid Texas that we will never, ever do more business than we spend on our spend time on our knees.
Andy Miller III: Wow!
Leah Hidde Gregory: Seeking the Lord. And so that is my heart. That is my desire. That's what what Costa Rica needs to be about. We need to be on our knees seeking God, seeking His presence. Praying, and and I think when we pray, you know we we have a Cabinet meeting every week
Leah Hidde Gregory: via Zoom, and we have a class meeting.
Leah Hidde Gregory: and we don't do any business or any work until we've had that class meeting, because our hearts aren't right until we have. We have shared, and we've had accountable disciple. You know that accountability time together, and we've prayed together.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I think if we can get our legislative committees to do that same kind of work, get to know each other, pray cry out to the Lord. I think that work is going to go so much smoother, and it's going to be so much more perfected. So I'm excited to hear that there are groups that are just getting together and saying, we're just gonna pray. We're gonna we'll work on the legislation. We'll we'll, you know, we'll have certain times that we're just gonna pray over that. So I'm excited about that. So I think we are unlearning that
Leah Hidde Gregory: it's just we got to. We've got to not come fist out every single.
Andy Miller III: Right.
Leah Hidde Gregory: On the local church level. We've got to to stop with the mentality that we live in a limited resource, that everything has to be inwardly focused, and we have to take care of ourselves, and we don't have enough resources.
Leah Hidde Gregory: We serve a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Anything God calls us to do. He will provide for us to do it.
Andy Miller III: And.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So we've got to break out of these molds. I think our financial structure and how we apportion money and and have connectional funding
Leah Hidde Gregory: being so much lower. I've already seen that money going back into ministry. So I see that as being something good
Leah Hidde Gregory: as far as what we need
Leah Hidde Gregory: to learn, or what we need to do. And this is both for the local church and the denomination. We just got to learn to trust God.
Andy Miller III: -
Leah Hidde Gregory: You know, going into general conference before in our previous denomination, you're getting ready and learning Robert's rules of order, and you're pre-writing amendments, and you're doing all these things of man.
Leah Hidde Gregory: and my hope is that we will let down those things. I mean, we gotta be prepared. I'm not saying I'm I'm not knocking those that love that stuff, but we've got to go in with a heart that says, I trust the Lord. So you know, when when you talk about the 3 different possibilities we stick with what's in the current transitional doctrines and disciplines. Or we
Leah Hidde Gregory: we do the Tlc plan or the Florida plan. Here's the thing. I trust God to perfect it, and I trust God to make it better than anything that any of us could do.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And and when we give our human best.
Leah Hidde Gregory: and there's imperfections, I trust God to perfect it.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And so I just celebrate that. And I just trust God in that.
Andy Miller III: I love that I I had one of the other candidates. This is my 8th of 9 interviews, Leah. So one of them, said I. I they kept bringing up a phrase that was representative of some of the legislation that was you know, to spread Scripture holiness across the land. And so I pushed that candidate to say, like, Okay, where are you? Do you think we should stick with? The kind of the the worship serve disciple type of, or should we go for this other one? And this candidate was like a
Andy Miller III: I like whatever the conference decides, and I thought that was so good I thought it was so good. Yeah, I mean now I think now that you could say that that he was was avoiding the question. I don't think so. I think it was like, no, no, we're gonna trust that God is working.
Leah Hidde Gregory: That's right.
Andy Miller III: Process, and these are both good mission statements.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So let me just tell you, I actually think we need to combine them.
Andy Miller III: There you go!
Leah Hidde Gregory: I I actually don't think it's a there's a dichotomy there. I actually think we want Pat people who worship passionately and love extravagantly and witness boldly, so that we can make disciples that spread scriptural holiness. I think we can do this. Y'all.
Andy Miller III: Yeah, I think I I think there is some some in that that will help kind of define some of terms. What mission and vision statements are, and all that kind of thing. Well, that's good. Okay? So you already highlighted this, what's happening in mid Texas, of the number of people who aren't following Jesus there. There are approximately 3 billion people around the world who have no access to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Andy Miller III: How would you give voice as bishop, as interim bishop to this crisis, and help mobilize the Gmc. To respond to it.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So evangelism is my heart. Let me just tell you I I was 18 years old, and I did my very 1st spiritual inventories list and test. And I came back as an evangelist, and I laughed because the only evangelist I knew was Billy Graham. And I was like, Yeah, no, I'm not doing that.
Andy Miller III: Yeah.
Leah Hidde Gregory: That was a foreign thought to me. Evangelism and reaching, I believe, everything the Church does
Leah Hidde Gregory: should be
Leah Hidde Gregory: to reach for the purpose of reaching those who do not know Jesus Christ. To reach people we don't already know. We need to continually disciple and love one another, but we don't exist for one another. We exist to go out
Leah Hidde Gregory: and to storm the very gates of hell, and to reach people that are the least lonely and the lost, and and bring them to the, to the heart of God, so that they can we? We love them till they love God. You know that that's very much who we are in the Mid Texas Conference. Like many of our conferences, the biggest issue we have
Leah Hidde Gregory: facing us is a lack of leadership, and and we are doing the International Leadership Institute training history makers. And so we are rolling it out. Conference wide. We have a 3 year goal that at by 2027. Every person who serves on a committee at their local church district level or conference level will have completed this training.
Leah Hidde Gregory: and the reason we want. That is, we want us to have a common language around our purpose.
Leah Hidde Gregory: around. Why, we do what we do as a church
Leah Hidde Gregory: about what it means to be a Christian leader. Believe it or not, it's not just sitting on a committee that's not being a Christian leader, being a Christian leader is somebody who sees when the the harvest is
Leah Hidde Gregory: white, the fields are white, and the harvest is plenty, and it is time to go out and and to to mobilize people, to go and and to spread the good news, those 3 billion people, they are on my heart. How do we reach them? Mid? Texas has 2 international partnerships, one in Costa Rica, one in Bulgaria, and we are working to help equip both of those
Leah Hidde Gregory: conferences
Leah Hidde Gregory: in ways in which they can take the Gospel out, and in many ways they do it much better than we do it. They're much more
Leah Hidde Gregory: evangelistic in in their outreach than we are. And so there's ways that they're they're helping us. But while we might provide financial resources so that can happen,
Leah Hidde Gregory: they're they're sharing with us their hearts. And we're saying, Oh, man, we're we're kind of lacking on that. So for me.
Leah Hidde Gregory: we just have to continually be mobilizing people to go to the places, but it starts 1st with getting the why right and making sure we communicate to all of our church leaders what that? Why is so that we will then be a people that go out. So right now we're right. At 700 people who've been trained in Ili in Mid Texas.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I I'm about to get to the place where I'm not going to be able to tell you how many, because it it's spreading super fast which is, which is excellent. But we are seeing the fruit of this in our local churches, and how they're leading
Leah Hidde Gregory: to be more evangelistic, to have true passion for the harvest of Christ.
Andy Miller III: I love it. And I I think that that brings up a maybe a structural point with what happens within the denomination. Ili is a great example, and Wes and Joy Griffin are friends of mine and I I really thank God for them and what they're doing all over the world.
Andy Miller III: But there, it's not the United Methodist or the the Global Methodist Church Leadership Institute that's making. It's a it's a 3rd party that we're that's coming in, and I and I think that that's a part of who God's. This is my suggestion. Who God's calling the Gmc. To be, not to set up a.
Leah Hidde Gregory: We don't have to reinvent the wheel on everything.
Andy Miller III: Exactly. Tell us. Tell us about that. Why, how is that important? How is that important.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So I have said on the Transitional Leadership Council since its inception, and we have had that mindset that there are really great organizations that are out there doing a tremendous ministry around the world. And once you identify what the problem is rather than you trying to create something that's your own. Why not go to someplace? So for me, I I quickly realized I needed. I needed to train people one of the things before I had Ili training for about 6 months, I would say
Leah Hidde Gregory: I need to start the Mid Texas School of Ministry for Laity and Clergy. I need to do this, and and I would think about all these things that I wanted to teach, and for that to be a part of. And then the Tlc. Went through Ili, and almost everything that I wanted was there. We've added 2 units. One is, what does it mean to be global Methodist? The other one is, what does it mean to be Wesley and Bishop Jones has written the curriculum. So we've actually added 2 units to that.
Andy Miller III: And that connects, too, with also, what happens with seminaries? This is a big question for people. There's a lot of distrust for what's happened with.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And Mary's.
Andy Miller III: Not just him. But but let's just think pastoral education in general. Not not just, maybe seminaries getting ahead of it. And I say that somebody who really cares a lot about what happens at seminaries. But seminaries exist for a purpose of training pastors. So what what should training pastors look like
Andy Miller III: who should offer this type of education. I know this isn't actually a question for you. If you were to become bishop, because it's a conference level thing. But I'm just.
Leah Hidde Gregory: That's right. So so my thoughts are, cause I haven't. You know I've got no power on that, but but on my thoughts.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I believe seminary education, as it has been up to this time, is outdated.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So I realize I'm talking to a seminary.
Andy Miller III: I want to hear it. I want to hear it.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Okay, yeah. So I was blessed to get my doctorate in Church Excellence leadership, excellence at Wesley Theological in DC, and they brought in professors from Harvard and business leaders, and they taught us like, you know, I learned hospitality from the guy who started out back.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Steakhouse! And.
Andy Miller III: Okay.
Leah Hidde Gregory: They brought in hotel people to teach us how to to greet guests and and things like that. So it was a really great thing, but we had a a professor from Harvard who came in, and he was talking about how how Harvard had to revamp their Mba program
Leah Hidde Gregory: because they were not meeting what the business expectations were.
Leah Hidde Gregory: They were walking out with theory, and they were walking out with basic understanding. But they could not apply. Their their students could not apply it to the business world. And so Harvard and and many other business schools. I'm sure you're aware of this revamped, and all of a sudden, instead of having to uproot people's lives for 3 years or 2 years to go and get this Mba, they started offering hybrid models where you could do some things online and some things in class or
Leah Hidde Gregory: or whatever. So for me, the Pastoral Education plan, we have to find a way. We need pastors in the global Methodist church. We need effective pastors. I need them today. I don't have time to send them
Leah Hidde Gregory: a way for you all to educate them for 4 years and then send them back. I need them today. Okay.
Andy Miller III: Yes, I know it.
Leah Hidde Gregory: And so I believe there has to be a hybrid where they get their understanding. I I love theological education. We need to understand how to think theologically, we need to understand our doctrines deeply and understand what we believe in, why we believe it.
Leah Hidde Gregory: But we've also got to have an apprenticeship that walks alongside of it, and that is not the internships that most of us that I got, or somebody else got. It is somebody saying, hey? I want you to come with me on this hospital visit. This person is dying. I want you to see how you do that.
Leah Hidde Gregory: This person just lost their 3 year old child, who was run over in the in. I want you to come with me so that you can see
Leah Hidde Gregory: how you minister to this family in this time. Yeah.
Leah Hidde Gregory: So for me, we've got to. We've we've got to do more, and we got to do it faster. You know, we were talking about everything, how everything is going faster. We've got people that we need to equip. God is calling these people up.
Leah Hidde Gregory: I I remember in my previous role. I always be like, come on, Lord, I need you to. I need you to raise us up, some people, and I would go over to one of the seminaries near, and I I would recruit women because they would struggle with bringing with the women, finding positions, and so I would go re recruit women, and I got 11 women right away out of there that just had this burning passion to preach, and and it was really great
Leah Hidde Gregory: But but it wasn't happening in our denomination, like I was having to recruit from another denomination.
Andy Miller III: Oh, wow!
Leah Hidde Gregory: And do that. And then I was having to walk alongside them like, okay, this is what it means to be, Wesley. I'm having to send them to Mount Sequoia to get their Wesleyan training and and those kinds of things. So I was having to kind of back in because we, the clergy. Shortage is not a new thing by any.
Andy Miller III: Sure, sure.
Leah Hidde Gregory: What I what I have found, though, is God, is now raising these people up.
Andy Miller III: And he.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Many people. God is just saying, Okay, now, now, this is the time you go. Be in ministry. And so we have
Leah Hidde Gregory: in the global Methodist church.
Leah Hidde Gregory: a stringent
Leah Hidde Gregory: ordination process, but not a cumbersome ordination process. And we have a pathway for education that for some will be the masters of divinity or some other Master's degree. My son has just felt a call to ministry, and and that's his plan he wants. He wants an Mdiv. But there are plenty of other people who maybe they're a school teacher, and they want to serve their local community and they want to be a pastor and they don't. They can't go to seminary. So
Leah Hidde Gregory: how are we going to meet that need? And so that's why I like the Pastoral Education Pathway where people can study online, it just has to be different. We cannot do theological education the way we've done it. The last 100 5,200 years. It's just.
Andy Miller III: A hearty, a hearty Amen.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Okay. Good deal.
Andy Miller III: Biblical Seminary, like, for instance, being flat, I would love for everybody to come. For instance, I think somebody from your conference, Jason Nix, who's.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Oh, yeah, Jason's a good friend.
Andy Miller III: He's in my preaching class right now. I I happen to serve in the Arlington community for 5 years, so I know where his church is. I know there's a babe's chicken right next to it, and I know, and he can be in that environment. Be with us. If he wanted to pick, pick up and move to Jackson, we would warmly welcome him here, but but instead, I think he's in a great environment where he's able to plant this new emerging church
Andy Miller III: as it's in this very important community, right in their heart. Well, at the same time, like, we just need to be flexible. And and here's what's happening like in our course of study program, a little bit of commercial what can happen is they can start in that model, but they realize, hey, I I think I could do seminary.
Andy Miller III: They can convert their course of study course to a master's credit, and we've had dozens of students doing that. So I think the options are there, and I'd love to get your son's name and information.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Because.
Andy Miller III: I want to start recruiting him.
Leah Hidde Gregory: There you go right now. There you go! Well, I mean.
Andy Miller III: Sorry.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Number 7, so like 7 is the perfect number. That's what I keep telling him. Of course.
Andy Miller III: There you go. Oh, that's great! Well, Lee, I'm sorry I have to get get moving here to have another another interview, my last one, but it's been such a delight to spend some time with you.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Good morning!
Andy Miller III: To know you, and so thankful for opportunity to hear your heart for the Church and evangelism, and appreciate your leadership already in this emerging denomination. So thank you for your time. Today.
Leah Hidde Gregory: Thank you so much for having me on.
Andy Miller III: Alright! God bless you!