I want to welcome you on behalf of, I came to Gaston myself. We're excited to have this conversation with you about canoeing the mountains, about adaptive leadership principles and how they apply to this season and in the months to come that are full of so much uncertainty but opportunity. As well, just to give you a sense of how this zoom call will unfold. We'll go back and forth between Kami or myself sharing a little bit of those leadership principles and offering some thoughts, and then a couple of times in the midst of the call will shift into breakout rooms. So, and we have several other folks on the call from the conference staff. Thanks to them for being with us and they'll facilitate some of those breakout room conversations where we can dig in a little more deeply and reflect a little more personally about how these principles intersect with where we are and what we're learning and what they might imply for us. So what again this back and forth between some teaching and then some sharing and dialogue and learning with one another. And at the end, we'll definitely have some time for some whole group Q&A perhaps, and, you know, concluding kind of conversation. So, that's a little bit about the flow of the day. And before I pitch it to Kami for a kind of introduction, let me lead us in a prayer. We all pray with me. Holy and steadfast God. We find ourselves in so many ways in uncharted territory. In this season in which we don't have all of the answers and we're not always sure what the right steps are to take next. God, we are thankful that you are always with us, that you are our rear guard and our shepherd leading us. And all we hope that your spirit will move in our midst, help us to see new things about ourselves, about our churches and our communities, about the wider landscape, so that we may step into this uncertain and uncharted territory with a greater degree of confidence, and that we may lead our congregations forward in a spirit of adventure, in a spirit of a learning journey that will change us all, change us all for the better. God, we give you thanks again for your constant companionship along the way. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well, about a few years ago, 2017, I discovered that this book Canoing the Mountains was a great resource for church leadership, and I gave the book to all of the pastors who were at that time serving in the metro district in order to give them an opportunity to read what Todd Bolsinger says about what it takes to do change agility. And as I did that offered not just the pastors but the lay leaders ship in the metro district opportunity to also go through the book and ask questions and bring up ideas that could lead us forward. So the reason why I found this particular book so engaging is because Todd Bolsinger uses canoeing the mountains as a metaphor for change leadership or leadership agility in uncharted territory. And one of the things that he says is that is that change, we can't always anticipate change, but we should anticipate needing to change in our leadership. And he utilizes Lewis and Clark's vision of exploring from the east to the west to try to find a water passageway as an example of how how leaders need to be able and willing to change, given the circumstances changing in and around their lives. And so as you recall, Lewis and Clark were a team. But as the book says they weren't always a team that one of them was tasked to be the leader, but they chose to actually share that leadership. And as they shared that leadership, they found themselves in Great Falls, what we know as Great Falls, Montana, and at a time where they needed to try to traverse something that they weren't expecting. And so they had to take the canoe and I've seen a replica of that canoe and it was no small canoe out of the water, try to traverse the Great Falls and then continue to go up Missouri River. And as they continue to go up the river, what they found was that the east did not look like, I'm sorry, the west did not look like the topography of the east and that they had to spend some time trying to figure out now what to do because they had a plan and that plan needed to change because the topography and territory changed and they utilized the people that they had in their, their team and added a few to be able to go into territory that was unknown. The topography that they'd never been around food sources and berries and things like that that they'd never seen before to know what to eat. And they utilized the person, a Native American woman and her gifts and abilities to help them traverse something that they knew nothing about. And so the lessons that I think Todd Bolsinger brings out in this particular book really lay very easily on top of our need for change management and change agility and leadership agility. And so that's why we are jumping off into this book today, given the fact that five years later here we are in a place that no one really ever expected in such a quick way. And so I want to pass that on off to you Andy as you can talk a little bit about the kind of things that we need in order to lead change. Thanks Gamy. So, in canoeing the mountains, Bolsinger outlines basically three skill sets, or three competency areas that are crucial to our ability to be a part of leading change. And the first, we're just going to touch on very briefly just a minute or two, and then we'll again dwell a little bit more on the second and the third. So the first, which you see on your screen there is technical competence. Pastors often joke that in times like these that seminary didn't prepare us for this. But technical competence, the kinds of skills that it implies they are the very things that seminary actually did prepare pastors for, preaching and teaching, pastoral care, ordering the life of the church. These kinds of skills and these kinds of behaviors. The book makes an important point that we gain our credibility as leaders by demonstrating competence in these areas. And again, I'm speaking mainly to pastors in this moment, although certainly lay leaders have their own arenas for demonstrating competence within the life of a community. For pastors, we gain our credibility by the way that we care responsibly for the gospel message, which has been entrusted to us the way we care responsibly for people's souls in the congregation and community, and the way that we order the life of the church. So we're not going to dwell at length on technical competence, but it is important to lift up that for all of us as leaders, our ability to be a part of this learning journey with our congregations, our effectiveness in that it hinges on the technical competence that we've shown to date. And in the technical competence that we demonstrate moving forward. And the last little point I just want to lift up about this is just my own thought that for the past two months, I've heard a number of pastors comment that as as you have stepped into the online space in new ways that there's been a lot of grace. Among the folks in your congregations, if things haven't gone just right. You know that's been okay there's a shared understanding that everyone is on a steep learning curve learning lots of new things at a rapid pace. And there's been a lot of grace, but it occurs to me that sometimes soon and maybe we're there, but sometimes soon our ability to be in ministry online will will become a part of the skill set that we're expected to have. The part of the skill set that we are going to be expected to demonstrate competence and it's going to move from off the map to on the map to use the language of the book. And so, it occurs to me that's probably something for all of us to see clearly, and that may guide some of the way that we move forward. Alright, so as I said we just wanted to touch on technical competence. But next I want to shift to the second of the three skill sets or competency areas, and that's relational congruence. I'm going to begin and then Kami is going to follow on with some more thoughts and ideas about relational congruence. And one of the phrases that a mantra almost that comes through in the book is this stay calm, stay connected, and stay on course. It's the middle of those phrases stay connected that relates to relational congruence. Another quotation from the book that I have underlined and highlighted and pasted in different places. This one from Margaret Wheatley, and it says this. It is possible to prepare for the future without knowing what it will be. It's probably encouraging for us right now, with so many unknowns over the next month or two, the rest of this year. But she says it's possible to prepare for the future without knowing what it will be. The primary way to prepare for the unknown is to attend to the quality of our relationships to how well we know and trust one another. So this ongoing time of unrest and uncertainty. And even as we emerge from our sheltering in place reality and begin to craft a new normal. It's so critical that we be intentional about staying relationally connected with with our people. So I'll just name the question here but a question I hope that will wrestle with when we move into our breakout rooms is this. How are we being intentional about staying relationally connected us with other individuals within the church, and us with groups within the church the kind of groups where there are healthy relationships that make it possible for us to process. Changes that are happening and wrestle with the implications of those changes and begin to try to prepare for what that means for us. One last note about relational congruence and staying relationally connected is that those relationships must be marked by trust. Trust is essential. Another quotation that I love from the book is from a guy named Jim Osterhaus who's a psychologist and an executive coach. And he says trust is gained like a thermostat and lost like a light switch. The significance of that to me is that trust is something that is built over time. It's built through relational congruence by insistently being the same person in whatever setting or circumstance we're in. It's built by repeatedly doing what we say and practicing what we preach. It's built through our daily actions and practices that express our character and our values against something that we gain over time. I want to as I was reflecting on this in preparation for today. It occurred to me that trust is not built through always having all the answers. It's built through the critical in a time like this. In fact, if we attempt to come across as though we have all the answers that could ironically undermine our trust because the wise ones among us know that there aren't easily found answers these days. So no one expects us to have all the answers and trust isn't built by always performing perfectly by executing everything flawlessly. When I entered a new church as a freshly appointed pastor, I came with a bit of experience to this church. But I was still pretty young and I had it in my mind that since I had had this experience and that experience that as soon as I walked in the door that everyone would be really quick to follow me. Didn't they know where I'd been and what I'd done. But that congregation helped to wake me up to reality pretty quickly and remind me what we what we know and probably what I had just forgotten and that is that my ability to lead in that place would hinge on relationships. The quality of my relationships with the people in that church. And that that would take time and it would take me consistently showing up and being who I had been in other places before I could lead there. So relational congruence is this second skill set, and it's worth all of us reflecting. Especially in these times that are calling us to move and act in different ways and have different kinds of patterns week to week to reflect on our habits and patterns and think about which of those are building trust. And which inadvertently could be eroding trust and to ensure that we're being intentional about deepening our trust in this time. David, you want to take it from there. So here we are as leaders, and we find ourselves in a place where change has been thrust upon us, or that we've decided that in order to fulfill our mission or purpose everything that we need to do in the future. We need to initiate change. And so when that happens, oftentimes what happens to our system is that the persons decide where they think and what they think and feel about the direction where we're going or, or what's happening or how the change is impacting them. So there are six different ways that we could be oftentimes find ourselves in a relationship with people. So there are right before you, that's the six ways allies. So there's other persons who will help you and others, like in the metaphor, climb the mountain. They'll figure out when you get to particularly difficult places, how to help you along the way. They, they're on board all the way and they're going to be your allies are going to walk with you. There are the confidants, these are people who are loyal to you. These are people that you show your vulnerabilities to that can help you along the way they'll support you. They want to help you be successful. Their investment is in you and along the way they will care for you and give you input so that you can succeed. They're also your opponents. And so your opponents it's important to recognize are not your enemies. These are people who are stakeholders with a different perspective. And most of the time these are the people that have the most to lose. So it's good to listen to them to consider their thoughts, but you have to watch out because they're likely to be the ones that don't want change. So you need to ask the question, are the ideas that they're offering me, taking me to the place of being able to fulfill the mission or the goals that are set before me. Folks will debate the ideas, and you can spend time debating the ideas with them with the hope of listening but also bringing them on board. And it's important as something that I think Andy just said to really as the leader to value every single person. And so the tone that you have with them with your opponents is key to hold as someone said in the book Anatomy of Peace to hold that sort of position of peace of being willing to listen and also try to help folks on board because the questions that these opponents ask are important questions that need to be answered. The next one is your senior authorities. These are people who need to know that you're climbing the mountain. They generally want to know your plan. They all have your back. They'll support you and they are people that you that we are to honor. And so those are really key people and making sure that they're on board. And then the next is the casualties. Now, anytime that there is change. There's off. There's going to be casualties. These people are. Well, they have to decide if they're going to follow you, or if they can even follow you. They may not have the ability. They either don't want to or they don't have the capacity to make the trip. These can be painful losses. But what's important is to recognize that there's going to be some casualties and being able to attend to the persons who just can't make the track with you is really important. So, you know, I find it, I've always found it interesting that in our him know, our book of worship, I believe, there is a in the book of worship there's a little liturgy for those who are going to be leaving the church. You know, oftentimes we think of those as as persons who are, you know, moving just to another city or something like that, but, but what if we considered those who can't go alongside of us as those to be blessed. And even if it's just the leader blessing them to do something different. There's closure in that. And in some instances. You know, persons really can think through what it actually means to have somebody willing to love them and bless them in a way that is full of grace. Maybe they'll even find a way to have capacity to not be the casualty that they thought they were going to be. So it's important to remember them as you as we consider change management. The last are the dissenters. It took me a while to really understand the difference between the opponents and the dissenters but I think the clarity that I got in this is that Todd Bolshinger says that these people are the naysayers who are the canaries in the coal mine who help you see how opposition will be formed. They ask very good questions. They're the voice radical ideas. And they often mention the unmentionable. I think the difference between the opponents and the dissenters is that they, they, it's not that they have a lot to lose. They just have other ideas. They see the mountain and they want to go another route. They think their idea is a better way and it truly might be a better way. They ask why are we doing it that way. And it's absolutely important for leaders to consider the why. And so they lift up questions that may absolutely be imperative and helpful for the leader to jump in and engage the dissenters and in seeing if they're really are going the right direction to fulfill the mission that you want to fulfill. So it's important to seek their engagement and as Andy said it's really important to attend to each of these relationships, not to avoid in any matter of those. Any of these relationships because they're all of valued people that need to be a part of moving forward. Now, there's a, I'm just gonna say one last thing and that is that we should all expect sabotage. I'll never forget a conversation that I had with one of the pastors in Metro district who said, Oh my gosh, I read that whole section on expecting sabotage and what sabotage that you have to almost have sabotage moments and survive that or you have to survive a sabotage in order to know that real culture change has happened. And in order to survive that it's important to engage in every part of the relationships that are listed here in the book. Andy. All right, so I think now is the time that we will shift into our first breakout discussion. All right, I think you jump in on adaptive capacity. I do I do. And friends again, well, if there's a desire to return to any of the content related to technical competency or relational congruence will have time for Q&A at the very end and definitely hold some space for that. But yeah, I think we want to move forward to the third of those three skill sets or competency areas. And this one is probably appropriate that it's saved for last when we're talking about change agility. And that's adaptive capacity. So you see the image there and some of the notes related to adaptive capacity. So another one of those mantras that leaps out of the book as you read it is this one says that we should let go learn as we go and keep going, no matter what. It's that middle phrase that is an anchor for this section to learn as we go at its core any kind of adaptive journey, like we're on now is one in which the leader and the people go on a learning journey together. And that through that learning process. It's a holy transformational kind of experience. So if we think about the scriptures and what they tell us about learning and being on a learning process, reminded of one of the stories in the Gospels, it shows up in Luke 18 in particular, where the disciples are trying to fend off the children who want to be in Jesus's presence, but Jesus welcomes them. And then there's this quotation that is familiar I'd imagine to many of us and that is, Jesus says that the kingdom of God belongs to people like these children. And at least part of what that means I think is that Jesus is lifting up a kind of stance of humility. The book talks about the necessity of having a humble stance of curiosity and awareness and attentiveness to what's happening. That kind of humble stance puts us in a frame in which we can learn. The whole meat of what bolsinger shares about being on this learning journey. That's a part of our adaptive capacity is he outlines an actual three step process for for this learning. I'm going to bring these down as reminded of some workshops that Owen Ross and can the guest and myself were part of leading back last year about new faces new spaces. And in that setting we talked about sort of the creative process of praying, and then preparing and piloting, and then perceiving. Then it continues in a kind of circle where after we perceive then we pray and prepare and pilot again, and again. So bolsinger has a similar kind of process that he offers to us, again to help us maybe stay very intentionally in a learning mode. And this process has three parts. So the first part is observations. And he talks about the importance of looking from the balcony of carving out time to step back and ensure that we're seeing clearly the challenge that we're facing in this moment. Very quickly, he's careful to say that our observations can only come from the balcony that gleaning observations is not a solitary exercise for a leader that as we look from the balcony we also have to listen from the floor, or another analogy he uses is we have to listen from those listen to those who were on the playing field itself. So that would, it just encourages us to be sure that as we're observing what's happening in our communities in our congregations and the lives the people that we're doing community with. It's important that we listen to and learn from a wide range of those voices. So, you know, not only our staff, if we're pastors, not only our confidence and key trusted leaders. But it's important that we listen to people in every facet of our congregation, even our opponents and dissenters as can be lifted up previously. Even those who are on the fringe of our community. And those who are not yet a part of our community. All of those voices can give us invaluable insight into what's happening. And again I want to just emphasize again, it's critical that we take in observations from people outside of our church as well as inside, if we hope to lead through this adaptive journey well. So observations is the first step. Gathering data and insight, and then the second one is interpretations. So this is the step in which we discern from among all of those observations patterns and meaning. Probably critical for us to do that discernment, not alone but with other trusted voices in our congregation. Another way to think about this is that it's the time to try to make sure we're seeing the forest for the trees. We have all of these data points but what does it mean, and what is it implying for us. And then the third step, he calls interventions. So again observations, interpretations, and then interventions. And this is where we begin to experiment. In the book Bolsinger is helpful in lifting up some principles for interventions. He says it's important to start small. Again that word experiment is helpful. We can begin small and even playfully and grow from there. The second principle he offers is that it's important that our interventions are consistent with our church's DNA. These experiments, this is not the moment for us to forward our own personal agenda that has nothing to do with the church's own values and history and sense of calling. Our experiments ought to be consistent with who our church has been and hopefully again build upon it and be that next stage of growth and development for the church. And then last is he says, with regard to interventions that we should always expect resistance. And we've touched on that a bit already. One last thing I'd mentioned about interventions is that it's probably helpful for us to be clear that we resist the desire for these interventions to be a quick fix. When we're in this time of uncertainty, when we're in uncharted waters, all of us leaders included are going to be enticed by the notion that we can find a quick fix a silver bullet that if we just do this one thing, then we'll solve all of our challenges. It's helpful for us to be clear eyed about that and resist that desire. The flip side of that is to resist things dying in committee because we talk about them forever before we ever try. So again, after adequate preparation, it's good to then pilot the start small experiment and see what happens. I think this is this three step process is critical for us. Our phase of experimentation is not over. It didn't end when we figured out how to have online presence and do ministry online. As we emerge from sheltering in place, the world will step back into will be the same world we left. So this learning process continues for us as our church figures out how to thrive in the new normal. And so I hope that we can continue to hold on to that principle of observations, interpretations and interventions. So when we're in that process of learning about what's going on, it's really important to do that through the lens of your mission and in your vision. So I mean, all of us, I think, because we've been around the church for a while had done our vision and mission work. What's the mission statement of our church and we've come up with quite a few over the years in my life. And so I've thought about that. What happens when things seem to change. So I want to just say a couple of things about mission and vision. So when you have an adaptive challenge, it's essential to clarify your mission. And read and look at it really, really closely and reevaluate how your vision and organization will fulfill your mission. So first, it's absolutely imperative to know your mission. What are you seeking to accomplish? And so I think that it's important to develop a very clear focus that will guide that will be your mission that will guide all of your decisions. So have a mission that is big enough and broad enough to connect with a varied context that you want to reach. So I was thinking about this context of canoeing the mountains and their mission was to explore a waterway passage from east to west. And in the midst of that, their vision or their mission had to change. They had to take out that word waterway because they didn't have the Missouri River did not go all the way to the west coast. So their mission changed to explore a passage from east to west. They had to look at that whole mission and clarify it with even greater understanding. So when you're up against a new challenge, how are you going to clarify your mission? And then how are you going to change your vision and organization in order to get you where you want to go? So keep that in mind that same visual of Lewis and Clark trying to get from the east to the west. And as they're making their way, they are trying to fulfill their mission and they find it. They find themselves in the middle of these mountains that they can't traverse via the essential way they thought they were going to. So I really appreciate the question that is brought up from the book. Are you willing to ditch the canoe to move forward to fulfill your mission? So I want to ask these questions. What DNA is essential and needs to be preserved in your mission statements and in your visions? Think about what essential personnel, what essential supplies that Lewis and Clark needed to take when they got out of their canoes and what needed to get from the Rocky Mountains and into the next place that they were going to be. What DNA needed to be discarded? So in their case, a vehicle that had to be discarded a canoe. What are new delivery systems or tools that you might need to put in place or create? What new partnerships might you need to have in order to get you to fulfill your mission? So in the case of canoeing the mountains, they needed to have some persons who were familiar with the native lands.  And I think in the same way we as a church need to discard some of our old ways of doing things and create in our own DNA partnerships with persons that can help us explore the new ways of being and offering Christ to another. As Andy said, it's really important to take a balcony view or as they might say in that book, to stand on the mountain and survey the land, see what the whole picture looks like and at the same time have those who are living in the land tell us what it can look like when we are engaging in a relationship with this new challenge. So I want to give you just a quick visual of, hopefully I can do this quickly, of something that the cabinet did. I'm going to invite you all to sit around the cabinet table for a minute, something I'm sure all of you wished you could always speak into. So we sat around the cabinet table and we came up with a couple years ago some things that we would consider to be our mission and things that needed to vision wise need to change. So I'm going to give you just a little insight to what we came up with. We said that one of the vision statements that came out of it was this lead people to know love and follow Jesus so they can transform the world with a God whom we believe is full of grace, openness, holiness and love. Then we said, we need to identify old cultural norms that need we need to leave behind so the canoe we need to leave behind. And what's the canoe we need to get into or what's the backpack we need to put on the back of our backs and create for a new culture. So so what's the old culture, what's the new culture that we want to create. And this is from the perspective of our cabinet work, so how we do our work with the churches. So we said, in the old culture, the clergy is the client, the one we were working for. In the new culture, we see the clergy as a resource. In the old culture, we see the congregation as a client, but in the new culture, we see the congregation as a resource. In the old culture, we see leading to improve or improvement work, but in the new culture, leading to create and innovate see the difference improvement work innovation work. In the old culture, either or in the new culture, both and we know we need to be two different two different ways of being the church. In the old culture, we were an attraction model where the focus was going to the church. In the new culture, it's a mission field model where we're going out from the church. In the in the old culture, we, the lady was the consumer, but in the new culture, we want to empower the lady to be ministers, which I think they've already always been. But it's a new focus on really equipping. And then I'm just going to give you a couple more. In the old culture status quo oriented. In the new culture results oriented. In the old culture, we were culturally segregated, but in the new culture, we would, we would like to be culturally diverse. Those are some of the top things that we did in order to clarify how we could move from an old canoe and leave that behind into new ways of being. And I'm going to pass it at the end. These are examples of things that you could do in your own church. When you identify what's the old culture that we've had to the new culture. Awesome. Yeah, thanks, Kami. So the last facet of adaptive capacity builds right on what Kami was talking about because when in a congregation, when we're talking about shifts and culture, developing new culture. That implies change. And change brings loss. And a sense of loss in a congregation is experienced as grief. And so there's a, there's an emotional component to making, leading through change. And it's important that we not ignore or underestimate the emotional challenge that's inherent to adaptive leadership. And so the book I think is very helpful in saying that that emotional challenge is twofold. Part of it is that we as the leader, whether we're clergy or lay, we as a leader must stay calm. We monitor our own emotional responses to the changes that we're living into, even if we're a part of leading them, we still may experience our own emotions around them. I might ask you to think about some of the emotions that you've experienced over the last couple of months as you've been a part of the adaptive work that has been before you. Perhaps you felt at times excited. And other times exhausted. As the leader, you yourself may have been sort of felt exhilarated by the new ways of sharing the gospel and connecting with people. And you may at times have had your own grief to work through. Missing standing in a pulpit in front of a congregation and connecting with people in that way as one example. So it's important for us to be aware of and monitor our own emotions in the midst of these changes. And it's helpful for us to be aware of the triggers that we may have those things that tend to hook us and then invite us to kind of lose our calm and our cool and it's helpful to recognize that that anxiety that maybe we bring to our church can be contagious and calm and cool that we bring to our congregation even online digitally as we're connected can be contagious. So knowing our triggers is helpful. And I think the book is helpful to lift up some common ones. Acceptance is one if we feel as though we are not being accepted that may trigger us to not to lose our cool and not live into our best selves. Competence could be a trigger if we find ourselves in a place where we don't feel particularly on top of things. I'm sure we've all been there the last couple of months. For some of us that could be a trigger that may then kind of invite us to move and act out of fear or anxiety. Control is certainly another one sense of loss of control could trigger us and then invite us to flail about trying to regain that control in ways that are helpful. So, part of the emotional challenge is for us to monitor our own emotions as the leader and stay calm. The other the other piece of it is to monitor and sort of regulate the the heat is sort of the metaphor the heat that our congregation is experiencing. One of the greatest takeaways in canoeing the mountains I think is this metaphor of a crock pot and what that means for our leadership. A crock pot and crock pot cooking, you typically put into a crock pot, a whole mix of chopped or diced vegetables maybe bits of uncooked meat and the base you put it in there and at first everything is hard uncooked. But with time and proper temperature, all the vegetables and the bits of meat and other elements all blend together to form something new and savory. But it takes time and the other the other variable there is the heat. If we turn the heat up too fast on the crock pot then the stuff burns to the bottom and doesn't taste good at all. If there's not enough heat, then then the vegetables and the meat never soften and their flavors don't blend. And so the challenge of leadership is to strike that delicate balance. As we lead in a congregation to have enough heat that change continues to move forward but not so much that people get burned. One of the again quotes in this section says that as leaders, we must disappoint our people at the rate they can absorb. That's, I think really worth repeating that if we're going to be leading through change it's inevitable that we will disappoint our people here and there or at some level. If we're wise will disappoint our people at the rate they can absorb that gives them the space and the time they need to grieve over the things that are changing. So maybe a question to leave you with that we might wrestle with in the breakout room is how are we in our congregations creating space for people to grieve the changes that we're all experiencing in our congregational life together. And moving forward, as we think about reemerging from sheltering in place, how will we create space for our congregation to grieve as we create a new normal in our churches. All right, so we've reflected some on the different facets of adaptive capacity. And so we have time now for some further breakout conversation again our facilitators have some questions to guide us. I think we're all back do you want to wrap this up with a few minutes we've got left. Okay, we just have a couple of minutes but I want you guys to take a look at that graphic that's in front of you. We've been talking to, we talked about technical competence so being able to lead when you're on the map. And that that map could be anything that any, anything you are overseeing and doing it well, relational congruence that had to do with how it is you are in relationship with people and attentive to those relationships, no matter how easy or hard they are. And then adaptive capacity, you know ways to help change change management. And so the center part of that is transmit transformational leadership, which is what happens when we attend to all three of those areas. And so I was going to lift up before you all the fact that the book is an excellent book. We only covered a few things on the book. But you know basic kinds of things but I think it's worth a full read. I did give you the opportunity to have a download of the canoeing the mountains Christian leadership and chartered territory. And some notes that I want to thank Sarah Calvert Reverend Sarah Calvert for putting them together she is from the Virginia conference, and she has a workbook in there that you can do personally and with your leadership, so that you can do some adaptive work, change management work for to assess where you are right now and where you want to go. The last pay pages of the book, a recap of the whole book I'm not going to say speak those to you but on page to 17 and 18 are listed there and I gave that outline to all the lay leaders last few years ago in the Metro district and they took that and worked with their researchers. And I think that's really all I wanted to share around just being able to use those resources, take all those the book and and follow I think a really good workbook. Just ask if there's any questions guys have as we in today's webinar and see if we can help you out so you can put those in the chat, or you can unmute yourself and just ask the question. Maybe I was going to jump in real fast before we moved to Q&A. Owen reminded me and I was planning to do this I'm glad he did that tomorrow, the Center for church development is offering another webinar at 130 on tech talk. The center has gathered some technology and media experts from some of our churches in the conference to share their know how how about hardware software subscription services all the kinds of things that we're learning about so rapidly, and and trying to get up to speed on and so to put that one in your calendar tomorrow 130 another another really helpful webinar coming from the North Texas conference for you. It's actually on Thursday. I was thinking today was Wednesday you're right Thursday thanks man. Groundhog day during COVID-19 for him. Is it Saturday. What day is it. Do you think groundhog the groundhog will like shelter in place. Any questions or comments that you all would like to ask before we move on. Yeah, can we this is Evelyn I was wondering do you have that outline that you provided lay leaders a couple years ago. Is that still around somewhere. I do I have it. I can send it to the list. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. I'd like to have it. Yes. Thanks Evelyn. We had a great conversation about finding space for for grieving and I was wondering what may also may have come from some of the other groups. Finding space for grieving. Danielle Kim had a great comment about just being honest Danielle are you still on the call. Yes, I am. You speak to that. Yeah, no I was just talking about how I'm subscribed to different teacher groups and Facebook and they put out very short one page in Instagram sort of a page three in line sort of narrative of how teachers are feeling you know with this and so you know they'll say something like in a classroom being empty and I'm not being able to say goodbye to kids. So, when the Facebook puts out those kinds of those groups put out stuff like that where I relate to, then that's an opportunity for me to share that. And, you know, just personally have the opportunity to process that narrative that I relate to and so I was just suggesting that we might be able to provide a space for our folks to grieve. When we are able to in social media and media platform where we can just, you know, put out narratives that they can relate to and allow them to share and allow them to sort of have that personal moment to process with their community and so that's what I was sharing. Am I am I making sense. I'm hearing blank.  Thanks. Any other thoughts and or questions. All right. Well, we thank you all for joining us today and thank the facilitators as well and then just keep, keep on connecting to being great leaders in our conference we appreciate all you're doing. Thanks. Thank you. Good to see everybody. Peace be with you. Thank you. Yeah.


Okay, very good morning to you as Friday the 7th of August. Hope you're doing well. I hope you've had a good week so far First of all, don't forget that we will be going live to cover US non-farm payrolls All you need to do is register to access the private webinar in the link in the description of this video So hopefully we'll see you later on But just kicking things off then and looking at what's in store for today Gonna talk about a couple of different things starting off with where we closed on Wall Street Last night and all the way through to bookending our discussion with to talk about what to expect from non-farm payrolls Later on this afternoon. So as you can see here I've got the heat map of the S&P close last night and you can see the mega cap tech names again Just helping push the market higher Apple and it's kind of the pursuit now of the two trillion dollar company mark Coming closer in sight every day Facebook up about six and a half percent in a midweek this week They did announce their US rollout of Instagram reels, which is their rival to that controversial app tiktok And their shares continue to remain on firm footing going into the end of the week And they were about six and a half percent yesterday. So what did that look like on the chart? Well, in fact the Nasdaq just continued to power on last night We've still got a really decent level of Technical support here that we were looking at at the same time yesterday This is that previous push to all-time highs That we saw at the beginning of the month and then it's been a nice area kind of zone of support as well With this latest push on the upside we have found near-term a bit of support around the pivot And that was a an area of some relevance In the session that we had yesterday and that was when we had that initial push post-European exit and going into the last few hours of trade on Wall Street as you can see there And that is around where the market has responded so far this morning any further push back on the upside Probably be keeping an eye up and around these types of levels, which is kind of accommodate then some that initial move on the high the low And where the market saw some reaction to in the Asia Pacific hours as well if we continue to push on up And then just looking back to all-time high now in the futures that resides at 11 to 83 So really strong performance on the daily remember this was the kind of chart we were looking at yesterday And as exaggerated as this kind of predicted movement might seem it's kind of on track at the moment So although we've had a bit of a pullback. There's obviously some news I can update you on some Latest escalation on the US China trade front which just led to some moderate profit taking on the squeeze hire that we've had Quick look on the other charts You've also had the S&P. I mean looking at the S&P now in a longer time frame just to Review really what we've had this week, which is another grind it out to the upside type price movement We're now coming up to Levels which we really haven't seen and we've basically taken back the entire pandemic move now at this point and we're within Kind of 60 70 points or so of reclaiming all-time highs in the spools as well now So continue positive footing in these US indices for the time being Despite that the precious metals they continue to remain really the a real talking point for markets Just given the the push that we've had in gold In terms of last night going into the big commencement of the Asia-Pacific session We ran up to around the what is now the R1 on the daily pivots And so that that high now is marked out at 2089 spot, too We did have a bit of profit-taking late into the the Asian session and we broke through this trend line We've had in place throughout the last couple of days and that trend line now acting as a bit of Short-term resistance you can see here, but also that does line up with Asian support that we printed there as well So if I put a horizontal line here Around that 20 74 and a half 75 is an area of short-term resistance here for the moment for gold But obviously looking for some fluctuation further with this just given a data calendar with payrolls looming But perhaps then the more interesting one as it has been throughout Recent weeks has been silver, which is really outperformed what has has been pretty spectacular Movement for gold. I mean gold is on course for us. It's set for its longest stretch of weekly gain since 2006 But the stat for silver as as you can see here in the overnight session It broke out again to the upside and got close to in a whisker of $30 Before then we saw some pretty aggressive profit-taking which is absolutely unsurprising given the way that this asset has tended to move It kind of has these targets Rises up very quickly momentum-based hits it and then backs off Hit break and then it does the net kind of repeat sequence on the way up Given that in the medium term the underlying kind of fundamental narrative remains unaltered at this point So people are still supportive of these precious metals and silver has had its biggest jump since 1980 basically this week and what does that look like? Well, this is the the the weekly candlestick chart I've been looking at for a while and You guys remember I was kind of sharing this chart and I was tweeting about it when we were down at 26 I saw that as a really significant level for silver from a technical perspective And that being that that was that that low point that really supported price activity for nearly all of 2011 and 2012 And I thought if we break that then the levels I'd be keying or zoning in on would be 28 2929 which is those previous highs back in late 2012 early 2013 And then you got the $30 handle So all of these levels here so far have been very well respected the the product in itself It's kind of one of those behavioral type Movements that we're seeing in a fast money type of activity. So really prudent to start marking out What can seem quite exaggerated levels, but as you've seen from this asset I mean if I just get my my my price tool here we have risen Just in the last pretty much month from the 6th of July to the 7th of August We've risen including the overnight move nearly 60% in gold I mean quite incredible, you know, people talk often a lot about these mega cap tech stocks moving 80% on the year Getting really fired up about that. That's on the year Silver's done the best part of 60% in one month. So Yeah, interesting to see how how this plays out And where it closes for the rest of the week and then from the other Areas I'm looking at that I think will be interesting to see where we finished this week And ultimately a lot of dollar movement might well be derived from the jobs data later But if you look at euro on the longer term remember, this is what we've been looking at all week Which is that long-term trend line dating back to 2008 the retest in 14 and where we are in 2020 and Where we close here, I think will be very interesting for for the euro does that level hold once again Might then as what Sam was talking about last week Kind of reignite a little bit of a potential for a dollar bounce if it gets rejected at these these big key levels cable The same really we had that I guess moderately upbeat Bank of England in regard to yes, they see a slightly slower recovery in 21 But actually not as bad as in this year, albeit still a deep contraction and this negative rate Conversation although on the table is probably a little way off as yet So cable as well failing yesterday at that 32 handle and the kind of year-to-date rejection on those highs that we had only kind of a week ago or so Is very important from a longer term technical perspective All right Well, look, there's plenty of news for me to talk about and also want to prep you thoroughly for payroll So let me see let me move on the other thing that was positive from yesterday Of course was I'm just going to zone in on yesterday session first was this is the pattern of the last 12 jobless claims that we've had from the US and It's interesting if you remember The markets were in this very extreme kind of this is the market not the economy in a very extreme V-shaped recovery going through This period of kind of May June and that was when we were still on this phenomenal bounce in global equities A lot of this was led from the speed of recovery that we were seeing Although there was still, you know a huge historical amount of people claiming jobless benefits The idea was that after hitting that peak at around 6.6 million that we had on the immediate Figures when the US went into lockdown. It'd been declining fairly consistently since that point. You'll then remember About three or four weeks ago Markets had a bit of nervousness when it was a combination of the first increase that we'd seen in March in jobless claims coupled with then those rising infections of COVID-19 in Spain, which Renewed some focus about the potential significant risk of a second wave in mainland Europe And that was when the US equity markets kind of spilled over over that period We obviously have recovered since then but then yesterday it was the opposite. We had a reversal of that It was a surprisingly strong figure. I say strong. We are still seeing numbers to the tune of 1.186 million Jobless claims over that period, which is still phenomenally high but it was quite a significant drop-off and it was right at the lowest end of Surveyed estimates I need the most positive potential outcome that people foresaw and nearly every US state reported declines in Levels of unadjusted new claims during the last week of July including states of course in the south and west So California and also those Sun Belt regions. So we're talking Arizona Texas these types of places New claims in popular states. And so this is also One of the key points in California, Florida came down 16,000 and 17 and a half thousand respectively as well So some potential positive signs out of that and I think that helped bump things up yesterday You also had as well the US State Department lifting its advisory Against all international travel and is returning to its previous system of county Specific levels of travel advice. This this kind of county approach. This has happened This is not just for international travel, but this has happened to trying to isolate individual more Geographic areas within one nation like we've had in the UK here in Leicester or in the Northwest in other areas like Blackburn For example That's a way of controlling the COVID outbreak without then impeding the ability of the rest of the country to reopen And for the economy to pick up. So that also was a net positive for yesterday But we come forward to this morning. There's definitely a couple things you need to be aware of This whole tiktok thing I don't know maybe because I'm just I'm just not into tiktok, but I Can think of many other worse ways of retaliation But you know that this is the talking point of the moment President Trump basically assigned a pair of executive orders prohibiting US residents from doing business with the Chinese own tiktok and we chat apps beginning of 45 days from now and anyone who Who knows we chat? It's a phenomenon for for people adopted users of that platform in mainland China And obviously in all parts of the world So it's quite a significant step shares of we chats owner 10 cent overnight in local trade in China fell as much as 10 percent overnight and 10 cent is a big company So a phenomenal move in that stock price, which is obviously gonna Cause some reverberations higher up then into how China might respond in kind to this type of movement a bit more aggressive Slight more again trade talk escalation and what happened overnight as well This is just looking at the yuan per dollar. So the Chinese Yuan did weaken about point four percent I must say looking at charts such a tight time frame here on Bloomberg is a little bit misleading Yes, the yuan weakened overnight But remember the yuan actually saw a more favorable move after that Wall Street Journal report We had just 48 hours ago Which was talking about that these officials on both sides want to talk in the middle of the month penciled in for August 15th so again, it's kind of Evolving thing it's a little bit tipped for tat it's a little bit give and take I would say is my interpretation of this Conflict right now they kind of on one hand want to talk and keep the dialogue open But then they come out with these types of moves. I think a lot of this is politically driven as we know We've got I believe it's 89 days now until the US election. So the pressure is on obviously on Trump In order frame the situation in particular China given the origins apparently of the virus and So on and so forth. So yeah, that was the latest there The other thing is obviously the Capitol Hill situation This is still a massive issue for markets right now because negotiations on a virus relief package ended yesterday With the White House and Democrats making no headway on resolving their significant differences At this point in time. So Stephen Mnuchin the Treasury Secretary and the White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Said that there are still disagreements on the top line numbers for the stimulus bill and on individual provisions The White House and Congressional Democrats are up against basically a self-imposed deadline, which is today However, remember we saw the elapses of several of these programs at the end of last week and the markets didn't react too much I guess the faith being in the fact that as long as they remain in Dialogue and negotiation and committed to that process that ultimately something will happen in the future. So You know, could that be like the moment then that sees markets see a big downward move if nothing is struck today Not so sure could it act as a bit of a wait? Yes. So that's the way I'd kind of interpret it at the moment Stephen Mnuchin said if we conclude tomorrow i.e. Friday and That there is not a compromised position on the major issues then the present has alternatives in executive orders for me This is a little bit like putting the gun on the table and saying look guys we need to negotiate Otherwise, this is going to get real very quickly and we're ready to pull the trigger It's just a form of negotiation And positioning in terms of using your leverage given the executive order power that the president holds So whether or not he does that, I guess there's definitely something to be aware of But this subject does need to be monitored. I'm sure we'll see lots of other comments coming into it If you're in UK and Europe in the afternoon when in North America, they start to come in to work On Capitol Hill. The other thing we've had overnight just want to quick mention I'm going to talk about this too much, but you have some Chinese trade data overnight Chinese exports rose in July as Economic activity in the rest of the world recovered and shipments to the US jumped actually Exports so check this out exports to the US rose 12.5% in July for a year ago The fastest rate in fact since 2018 so you might think I'm hanging about there's an escalation at the moment But exports to the US from China is the most is being since 2018 So that sounds a bit contradictory But if you actually scratch me to surface there probably is a logical reason for this and the magnitude of the jump is Probably is what some analysts are suggesting that the research I've read this morning. It's due to the front loading activity ahead of the anticipated worsening of the US-China Relationship so essentially, you know when you have these periods remember that kind of ever That perpetual cycle of trade war between in between being very negative to then positive as these two counterparties try to manage the the market as much as the actual negotiation itself That when we go through a positive period They kind of load up knowing then that history is most likely to repeat itself. No progress. It's likely to be made So therefore while things are good might as well load up for then saving for a rainy day type strategy So I wouldn't read too much into that. This date is not really having a big impact That leads us on then to non-farm payroll. So let's just talk about that few things definitely I want to cover here that really is the focal point for today's sessions Not other a great deal going on other than that release So I'm sure as per usual market will wait and this will dictate a lot of the proceedings for how the market will finish for this week And particularly key then the dollar and reaction and movement given the critical long-term technical levels that you're a dollar cable Reside out and then some key obviously upside levels for silver as well To watch as well as still within striking distance the board time highs in both the Nasdaq and and the SMP First of all just wanted to have a quick look and I did tweet this my my handles here Which is the pre jobs report release checklist now? Whenever it comes into non-farm payrolls There's obviously a distinct sequence of economic data that comes out as to kind of prelude to the labor report And that helps us articulate a little bit behind What is the actual empirical evidence that we've had in other economic measurements? pertaining to the employment sector that could reflect them about how the end Headline changing non-farms could could look like and so just running quickly through this There's been a bit of a mixed bag of positives and negatives probably the most potent one that comes to mind was ADP That came in you remember way below market expectations and 167,000 And so that often acts as quite a weighted precursor for non-farms So would then net a consequence result in people being perhaps a little bit negatively skewed for a downside bias in today's headline figure Elsewhere you've had the ISM and looking at the employment constituents on the services side employment activity contracted in July for the fifth month in a row on the Manufacturing side actually we had a bit of recovery from 42.1 to 44.3 in the employment subcomponent The other things I want to talk about though are a little bit of the quirks around the jobless claims the reference period Something that's referred to as high frequency data that people are looking at now So just bear with me and let me explain then we talk this through a few things to be aware of for payrolls While I do so I can leave this up Which gives you an idea then of the types of numbers that we're anticipating today from a consensus estimate So for the headline change in non-farms 1.48 million unemployment 10.6% which is improvement in fact from the prior 11.1 Then average hourly earnings still in negative of minus 0.5% So a few things here to be aware of first of all President Trump came out the other day you'll probably Remember and he said actually we're expecting another big jobs figure this Friday now It's a bit unusual for him to say that so many days out from the actual release I mean it's fairly known that The president might well have a preview of the jobs report the kind of night before the event in itself So if there is one of these types of comments, which Trump obviously has done many times before to try and make the most Politically out of a positive report It tends to be much closer the fact he's done it so early is is is a little bit strange But I'll come back and circle back to this point in a moment The other thing is that since the 4.8 million surge that we had in June so the prior figure Which has raised hopes of that kind of v-shaped recovery and which has helped that kind of equity bounce that we've seen a Range of indicators have suggested that the pace of recovery and employment and broader economic activity has slowed And if you think about it There's been a couple of things that have changed between the last power report and this one the fading boost of that stimulus check at $12,000 landing in your bank account no more From the initial wave of PPP loans being forgiven So the key factor seems to be that the renewed rave of Coronavirus infections across the south and the west could well be the most significant point given the fact that that rapid increase We saw a few weeks ago in the lights of Florida, Texas, California, Arizona These types of Sunbelt regions in the south and west Saw a distinct reversal of their reopening and a number of renewed job losses is the expectation So the main thing here is to remember that the data with non-farm payrolls effectively measured mid-month to mid-month There was still some job creation going on in the second half of June But the evidence from the first half of July was much bleaker Remember it's not try not to think of payrolls as it's the month of July because it's not it's mid-month to mid-month And it's called the the reference period which is up to the week capturing the 12th date of that month so Couple of things here then what few people have mentioned is looking at and this has become an increasing thing Given the fact that a it's very hard to accurately get a reading on the employment situation giving how violent the job loss rate has been And and the data sample size is so large Hence the reason why with payrolls we go through revision and a two-month net revision and so on So something that people are looking at more so now particularly unique to the pandemic period is something called high frequency and monthly indicators two of these are called the household pulse survey and and the St. Louis Fed analysts or economists are also using a data gathering system by home base to track labor market trends basically what high-frequency Data gathering is is allowing you to see is more real-time information about the underlying situations on a more frequent basis And it suggests that employment growth was weaker in July with some deterioration in fact seen around mid-month And if you actually think about what that previous graphic looked like here remember We're looking at this period here Where actually jobless claims were deteriorating so if everything you know X out What happened yesterday because that's not part of this report. We're going to see this improvement that we saw yesterday We're looking at this Tangible period of deterioration more jobless benefits albeit marginally at this point So if anything that would give a downside bias then on potentially what this number could look like when you couple that in with Delights of the ISM services component ADP in particular was a particularly sizeable miss However more anxious perhaps could be what August's Payrolls report looks like because that in itself is going to capture the full extent of some of these lockdowns That were seen in those key states So I guess this one is about how much has job creation slowed and then the next one is Anticipated already to be worse given what we already know at this point in time now Two final points on payrolls one from analysts at Goldman Sachs Which is a counter argument to say that yes, they themselves as a bank predict that we are in for a downside Potential to the headline expectation of 1.48 million. I think that is a logical assessment given all those Preindicators we've seen. However, they've said could we risk going into negative? Well one thing that could help propel the number a little bit to keep its head above actual job creation Is seasonal biases and seasonal biases pertaining to Education categories that could boost July job growth by nearly five hundred to seven hundred and fifty thousand jobs So not a massive amount, but certainly that would be akin to almost half of the consensus estimate of 1.48 million To make this a bit more clear if you're thinking what of educational category jobs going to do with anything Well, some of the janitors and other school staff who normally finished the year of course in June and July Were made to finish in April just given the facts of the lockdown So what that means then is that educational payrolls will likely decline by less than the BLS's seasonal factors Anticipate because the job reduction in that category had already taken place in April rather than what would normally be now So seasonally it should have performed if anything so that all that loss of job has been removed So that's a net positive potentially The other thing here though from a market's perspective great summary from the Dutch bank I and G And I think this really sums it up of why You know the guys on the desk and myself We still remain fairly bullish in equity markets for the time being and even if we get a pullback We're still kind of buyers at lower levels Is the idea that head of an election if you think about it head of an election a bad jobs name number today would probably Potentially be a quite positive catalyst to try and cultivate a compromise in Washington We were talking about this difficulty in finding a cross-party compromise here as to what are they going to do with enhanced benefits For the unemployed for the stimulus for the coming in America But if we got a bad jobs data does that sharpen the minds then that look Both of these political parties and candidates from presidential point of view need to appear to be supportive of the economy So does that help them the forestock to make a compromise and in a sense Then does that then move forward to delivering another meaningful fiscal stimulus all the more pressure to make that a big number The bigger the number the more supportive it is from generally markets, particularly the equity market And it also if it was that bad a payroll situation and as I said people anticipating August is going to be even worse Well, then people are only going to heighten their expectations about the Federal Reserve are going to do even more So it's kind of one of those situations of if it is really bad Really bad might have any jerk reaction But really bad comes then as a domino effect that other forces at play IE both monetary and fiscal start to then come into play and could that actually be Another reason for the market to go up again from an equity perspective So yeah plenty to think about we're gonna be going live later on remember to subscribe to the YouTube channel I believe the guy's plan is as in the team's plan is to broadcast his live on there as well But feel free to get the exclusive access on the link in this video if you're watching on YouTube All right, that's it guys I'm gonna wrap it up there and wish you guys a good session ahead and a fantastic weekend. It's gonna be hot So take care stay safe, and I'll see you Monday. Thanks very much


So I'm really excited. Bryce and I are going to be doing a series of short little videos because we know you're also busy and sometimes listening to you and whole hour of people. It's too much out of your day. So I've got my watch here because I could talk to Bryce all day literally and do most of the time. The time ourselves were not allowed more than 20 minutes. And the reason Bryce and I wanted to do this is because there's so much freedom, isn't there, Bryce, about a problem solved as a problem halved and talking things out there. So we want to just chat through some subjects that are on our mind and if they resonate with you, we'll try and make the titles clear. If they resonate, you join in because even by energetically listening, you're then joining in to part of the discussion because at the moment there's so much going on energetically, isn't there, Bryce? Oh, God, yes. We're changing timelines. We're changing timelines right now. It's crazy. So there's a lot happening. And as we know, for each and every one of us, we're responsible for our own selves. No one's going to save us. If you're going to ascend, you're going to ascend yourself. And so I think this is such a brilliant idea, Catherine, because this will give people something to kind of look at each day and talk about and figure out how to help themselves more and more and more as we get into this new timeline, this new earth. And Bryce and I say the whole time and every time we talk, I think we get more in this belief is like the more we learn, the less we know. So when we're chatting, we are literally just saying our thoughts out loud. We might change our mind. We might have new information. It might give us another opinion tomorrow. But I was speaking to someone last night, a really, really good friend. And I was saying the biggest gift that this whole process has given me is connecting with people like you, Bryce, and having the freedom to say, I don't know, but let's chat this through and see if something new comes up for me. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think I've shared with you before that, but it was one of the most groundbreaking things for me as a yoga student is to hear one of the most accredited teachers in the United States say, I don't know. There's a lot of power and I don't know. And there's a lot of power in accepting that you might change your mind in the future and that's okay, you know, because as we were gonna talk about today, don't believe everything you think. So my favorite quotes, don't believe everything you think. That's been a huge learning curve for me. And you know, it's all very well. Everyone learns in a different way, don't they? So, you know, I like to read, listen, and then very much do and be quite honest until I do the doing bit, I don't embody it. But also I like to talk about it with other people because I find I can get quite caught up in my head of going over things in my head. When I then have a conversation with another human being or another animal or a tree or whatever it might be on that particular day, things just become so much clearer to me. And this, I think we've all heard about, don't believe all your thoughts, but it's so complex, isn't it? It's incredibly complex. And this is, so I'll tell a little funny story. This goes a lot with the yoga philosophy as well of examining your thoughts and understanding how your thoughts affect you and how your thoughts also disconnect you from source because they're not true.  Well, before the Westerners started going over to India to study with our late guru, he had this saying where he would say, 70% practice, 30% theory. Like the theory is only good for 30%, but 70% you need to practice it. You have to physically practice it. Well, when the Westerners came over in like the 60s and 70s, all they wanted to do was drink coffee, smoke and talk philosophy all day and not practice. And Guruji was like, no, no, no, no. And then he changed it to 99% practice, 1% theory. Because when you overthink things sometimes, you actually lose the potency of what the lesson is to begin with. Because I overthink too, that's an Ayurveda, that's Vata. And I have to remind myself all the time, don't believe everything you think. We are our own worst critics. And so sometimes we take information and we twist it to almost downgrade ourselves a little bit. And that takes our power away.  Yeah, it's absolutely brilliant. And last night, actually, one of my really good friends, Penny, hi Penny, sent me this beautiful video on animal communication. I'll try and work out how to show it to my community tab later, if I can. And it's because I've been doing a lot of animal communication work recently. And again, my thoughts have been telling me there's something wrong with this thing about calling it animal communication. Because it's not really animal communication, it's intuitive communication. And whatever species, whether it's plant, animal, or whatever you're speaking to, it's exactly the same process. And in this process, it was wonderful because they were looking at really highly skilled native trackers of animals and hunters. And they were just explaining how beautifully about how when they put their whole focus from their heart onto the animals track, then they could literally see all this things. I will find out how to share it folks. It's beautiful, beautiful video. And I just had this real Eureka moment. And it was like, yes, so much of what we label things can just send you down the wrong path. And actually, when you get out there and do it, everything starts flowing. Now, yeah, there is always a balance, perhaps like my daughter's a footballer. She needs to learn the technical skills, but there's no point in knowing the technical skills if you can't put it into play in a match sort of thing. And if I'm out there with my animals, I could be the best person at understanding dog behavior. But if I can't interact properly with my own dogs, it's all useless sort of thing. So it's just, we've moved into a stage, I think, as humans, and I'll say I'm generalizing, I'm talking more about the Western world here, because we've got much more of a sedentary life scale than any of us are designed to have, that we do spend a lot more time in our heads than we're designed to do. And I think this is key to moving forward about how we get ourselves out of this mess. Get out of your head, basically, yeah, absolutely. And look with, I mean, we've been all isolated for good almost two years now. We've been in situations where all you have is you're, there's a really great book. I don't know if I've talked about it with you, Catherine, but it's coming to mind right now with Don't Believe Everything You Think. It's a book called Flow, and it was written by this like Hungarian therapist, I can't say his last name, it's like 10 consonants, and I don't wanna butcher that. But if you guys just Google Flow, you'll see it come up, and he talks a lot about the power of the mind and what gets us into this position where time goes away, we're not, we're totally focused, which of course is the now moment, which is where God lives. God lives in the now, the past is done, and tomorrow never comes. We're in the now, always. And he talks about the brain and how in one section of the book, he spoke about how people reported higher levels of depression on the weekend, where we think that, you know, everybody's working for the weekend. We think that's what we were looking for to that time off, but during the week, you had this schedule. So your mind had something to focus on so your thoughts could not get away from you and get out of hand to the point of changing your mood, changing your thoughts about yourself. So when your brain is structured, there is a more free flowing of good intention versus when it's free to just roam and do whatever it needs to do. And so, and then of course that comes into like getting outside, getting your body moving, working on projects with other people will help kind of rein in the overthinking, which I think a lot of us do. That's what causes anxiety. That's what causes stress disorders is you're doing it to yourself. And again, it's easier said than done, right? If you're doing it to yourself, you can just stop doing it. No, it's not that easy because the brain itself is an organ, just like the heart, just like the lung, just like the kidney, it has a function.  Your consciousness is your consciousness. Your psyche is your psyche. These are all separate things that are working together as one in this life, but the brain is a muscle is created to keep you alive. And so with that being said, it's a problem solver.  Like that's when sometimes people lay in bed at night and they have all these bad memories of something. It's cause the brain's trying to find something to work on, basically. It's not attached to the emotion. The emotion is part of your own reaction to what it's working on. And so if we start to understand that our thoughts, what we think is not us, it's not the essence of who we are, we can then hopefully start to figure out things to do in our life to work around that and to not be stuck in a situation where we're believing our own lives, you know? I just agree with every word of that. And as biologists, one of the most surprising facts I learned is that 70% of the calories we use as humans, obviously this is an average, are used by our brain. Now that is unbelievable. So anyone losing to lose weight? Concentrate on mine. But it's what those thoughts are on. And they've also done studies that sort of, I can't remember the exact percentage, but ridiculous percentage, something like 90% or 95% of our thoughts are the same thoughts every day. And that is really crucial, I think, because what are we doing to change our environment or to mix things up a bit to help us be open enough to allowing new thoughts in? And I think this is so related to what we've called, whether it's the brainwashing or whatever we want to call it, that we're seeing in humanity at the moment. Oh, absolutely. You know, a Guruji used to always say to people, body not stiff, mind stiff. Like when people would complain about their body, oh, your body's fine, it's your mind. It's your thoughts on your body that are making your body do things you don't want it to do. Well, think about that.  We know that our thoughts change our reality. We know that. And yeah, I think that that, but I think I said this on another channel. It's kind of like here in the United States with AA, the first step is admitting you have a problem. So the first step is admitting that you're not, you are not your thoughts. Your thoughts are not you.  Like your job is to keep me alive, but I am more than this. And so I think when we move into this new earth, this new timeline, which we know is coming very, very soon, hopefully, hopefully, we're going to be responsible. We have to take accountability for the things, for how we speak to ourselves. You know, even in the yoga practice, the first rule of yoga is something called a HENZA, which is non-violence, non-violence. Well, how many people are cool with that with other people, but yet are very violent with themselves? We speak to ourselves sometimes in ways that we would never speak to our friends, that we would never speak to our spouses. Like if we heard somebody say things to our spouses or our friends or our family, that we say to ourselves, we would get pissed off. So why are you speaking to yourself that way?  That's how powerful you are. It's because they have to do all this stuff just to try to control you. That's how powerful you are. So don't let your brain sabotage yourself because everybody watching is super special, super important. So here, here. And I think one of the secrets to sort of moving on to, sort of saying, okay, you've got to recognize it, recognize your thoughts. And I love Wayne Dyer's, you know, if you take an orange and squeeze an orange, only orange juice is gonna come out. It doesn't matter what you do to that orange, you can freeze it, you can, it can be moldy, it can be old, it'd be hot to be cold. But when you squeeze an orange, it's still gonna be orange juice. You're not gonna get grapefruit juice, you're not going to. So if you're feeling anger, if you're feeling sadness, if you're feeling hopelessness, then acknowledging that that's within you is the first part. And then say, well, what do I want? And just calling in whether it's angels, universe, friends, professionals, whatever it is, to say, okay, that's absolutely fantastic. I've acknowledged this is in me now. Now what do I want to do about it? It was so funny. And people watching might think I'm kind of crazy. I know you won't, Katherine, because I think we've talked about this. Whenever I feel, and I've done this since I was like in high school, and I actually talked to Cindy about this yesterday, about Archangel Michael, I've had a very strong connection with Archangel Michael my whole life. And I do this now, like when I'm feeling really sad, or if I'm feeling kind of that hopelessness and that your whole body just kind of sinks down, I'll often ask for a hug. It's not feeling, I'll get a hug. I'll get a hug from the angels, or I'll feel my body being squeezed, and it reminds me when my nephew, my first, the baby that made me an aunt, the first grandchild born, when my nephew was learning how to, when he was toddling and he was learning how to talk, and Katherine at that age, they get frustrated because they can't really communicate, but they know what they want. And so when Charlie would get frustrated and he was trying to give my sister a toy to fix or something, my sister taught Charlie just to say, help please. So he would know how to say, help please. And he'd walk around and say, help please. And it's kind of like us too, we're like those little toddlers for the universe. And if you are feeling that, all you gotta say is, help please. And the universe always will provide you and will help you. If you know my thoughts are getting the best of me, help please, you'll get help. You'll have someone, an energy come and help you, of course, correct.  It's true, it's magical, it's true. That is absolutely beautiful. I just love that. I'm going to use that at art. And just really asking, because just like we can be very cool to where we talk for ourselves, most of us, and I think most people watching your work or my work, they're very empathetic. They're very giving people to others and everything. And we can see that from a lot of the comments we've got. But it's really, really important that we learn to ask for help for ourselves as well.  Children do what you do, not what you say. They don't always follow because they might choose to do deliberately what you don't do, because they've learned from your mistakes. But they're not, it's not the words. It's like when you're communicating with a tree or an animal, the words are irrelevant. It's the intention behind the words that they're picked up upon. So when you genuinely ask for help from wherever that might be able to be, it's so wonderful when you see that it comes from most of the surprising sources, doesn't it? Yeah, it makes me emotional. Yeah, because, you know, I think that's too, I think we've been taught especially, like, you know, in the Western world with most of us are grandfathered into the Christian faith that we should feel guilty or we have to like prove ourselves. But God's source is pure love, pure love.  And they are their whole being and essence is there to help you. You have the help available. But again, the law of the cosmos is free will. So you have to ask. You have to ask. But they'll be there in a heart. They want to help you. They want to hold your hand. They want to give you that hug. And so if you feel like your own thoughts are too much and you don't know how to course correct it, you just got to reach out for help. You just got, and I think it's a pride thing too. Like we don't want help. We want to do this ourselves. But at some point, everybody needs help. At some point, you can't. It's like the whole airplane thing. You got to put your mask on first before you can help somebody else.  And so you have to be able to fill yourself up too. And if that means that you have to course correct your thoughts or ask for help, or honestly, I'm a huge proponent of exercise. Whatever that is, get your blood pumping that will clear your head. Whether it's just a 20 minute walk down the street. It doesn't matter. Just move, dance. I mean, Catherine, I love to dance in my living room. Like it's so fun. You know? You've done so many times before and you've moved me because I'm being really strict with us here. So we've got five minutes left. You have taken the words right out of my mind because in terms of solutions for people, I am so there with you. Exercise. Now, even if you can't move, if you're in the current state of your physical body is at the moment that you can't move, but you can exercise through your breath. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.  Absolutely. There was a story a few years ago where a girl who practices in the Ashtanga lineage that I practiced and got into a terrible accident and she was hospitalized in a bed with full body cast. And of course, couldn't do her practice, but you know what she did every day? She laid on her bed and she breathed herself mentally through her practice. She went through every single posture, the inhale, the exhale she saw in her head and it upped her recovery time.  There is a way to do that too. And if anybody has questions about that, you can always email me too and I'll walk you through that. But yes, and it doesn't an exercise again, exercise doesn't have to be some like two hour like lifting class. Go dance in your living room. Go walk. Go get outside nature. Go ride a horse.  I have so much fun walking. Now that my dog is on Catherine's diet, he's a lot easier to walk now.  They're good at, they're good at keeping you in the moment, you know, so, so there's always a solution. You just got to find what works for you. What you have. An experiment and have fun with it and try things that don't work out and try telling yourself that your body can do different things as well. And it can literally, it can be planting vegetables. You might be living in some parts of the world where we're coming into the planting season. The sun's come out for the first time in ages today.  And for me, now I know whatever tool you're doing, you're tapping into yourself. But for me, focusing on this is a really good way of getting me out of my headspace and being more effective. Exactly.  This is a board you can use with your pendulum and you can talk to your higher self, which is what I do. Listen, my higher self, she's really cool. She's super laid back, very opposite of me. But, and you always ask if this is for my highest good, yes, and then you can talk to yourself and yourself will give you really good advice and will tell you like, I love you.  Just breathe. That was one thing, one of mine said, just breathe. And I was like, how funny is that? They're telling me to breathe. I'm a yoga teacher. But you know, yeah, it's awesome and it gives you a focal point for sure. I'm glad you brought that up, Catherine, because yes. Yeah, and it's fun too. It's fun and you can do it with friends, Catherine, right together, yeah. Yeah, and you know, then connecting with like-minded people. So you know, problem shared is a problem. So if you're finding you're too caught in your thoughts, then find someone to share it with. I'm always sharing my problems with Bryce and it's just fantastic. And I love all her advice because I know it's all coming from a heart space. So, you know, we've all got that special someone wherever they are in the world. And you know, if Bryce isn't available, then I'll go and ask my trees, you know. So I hope you have fun with this. Yeah, carry on. Just saying before we leave, I channeled Ravi, my dog's higher self because I wanted to see how he's feeling with Catherine's new diet. And he called me mommy and I have to tell people, Catherine, that Ravi is very attracted to Catherine. He knows she's one of his soulmates because they were in a pack together in a past life. And I feel that because I 100% know we have been. And you know, sometimes you just know, and it doesn't matter how mad anyone else is. I was listening to the David Ike interview yesterday and I on London, where I've spoken about it before and I would just say, look guys, you know, you get to a certain stage where you really let go of having to satisfy other people's impressions from you.  Please do let us know whether you like this format or not. And we can obviously improve it and take on board your comments. But you know, you are not your thoughts and find ways to have fun with working through that. Yeah, for sure. And let us know what you're doing. What are you, yeah, absolutely, yeah. We're so open to new ideas. We're always trying out new things and everything. So we love to hear what works for everyone. And when you share your comments, there'll be someone else in the comments thinks, oh, that's fantastic. I can do that. I can give that a go. Well, that really sounds like a good idea to me, sort of thing. So yeah, we can't wait to hear what works for you. And please share, share, share, because sharing is caring. How cheesy is that? Thanks so much, guys. Till next time, everyone. Thank you, everyone. Have fun. Have a great day.


The new Z-Scheme GC3N5-slash-CDs photo catalyst has been developed to improve the efficiency of solar-to-hydrogen conversion. This material has shown a much higher rate of hydrogen production compared to other materials, with a rate of 7,860-mol H1G1, which is three times higher than that of pure CDs and seven times higher than that of GC3N5 alone. Furthermore, it has also been found that the material has a faster charge separation rate due to its unique structure, which allows for more efficient use of the sun's energy. This article was authored by Xi'an Wang, Kaili Wu, Wei Chao, and others.


I seriously feel like I'm in Silent Hill right now dude. Somebody oh my gosh that is the best idea ever bro, please. Somebody needs to make a mod where they put all of the sound effects and music from Silent Hill into this game and please make it compatible with the MIST mod because this already feels like Silent Hill.  Because of stuff like limited resources and needing to put more priority towards things like gameplay and Into the Radius 1, the developers said that a majority of their ideas for lore and the story of the game never got realized in the original Into the Radius. But now the Into the Radius developers have more resources at their disposal for Into the Radius 2. They have experience packaging and shipping a successful VR game. They are going to be able to put more time and effort towards developing the story and lore of Into the Radius 2. The events of Into the Radius 1 take place at the turn of the century and Into the Radius 2 is going to be happening a little bit afterwards during the mid-2000s. So the first piece of lore that we got in this dev diary is that apparently after the events of the original Into the Radius, the committee has somehow become more ambitious and now they have more resources because of our hard work and research in this hellscape. And apparently this is good news for us too because in Into the Radius 2 the developers say that the committee is now giving us new bases designed from scratch. Dude, apparently old equipment is getting an upgrade and new types of equipment are going to be getting added to the game. So apparently this change in ambitions and the amount of resources that the committee has in Into the Radius 2 is going to directly impact a majority of the equipment that is designed by the committee. However, the developers did have this to say apparently the only thing that isn't going to change is the cold, distant nature of the UNPSC's relationship to explorers. So basically we get new stuff but we're still going to be alone. You guys already know this but there is a new explorer in Into the Radius 2. As the hero he's the main character and the entire story of Into the Radius 2 is going to revolve around his exploration into the middle of the radius. And basically the way that multiplayer is going to work in Into the Radius 2 is that the host of the multiplayer lobby is going to be the head honcho. He's the main character of the game, all of the progression and everything is going to revolve around him and then everybody who joins his lobby for multiplayer is basically going to be like a side character. And I'm not sure how it's going to affect everybody's progression through the game like maybe only the person who is hosting the lobby is actually going to have progressions saved for their game. Into the Radius 2 is intended to have a much more structured story and a more in depth narrative. And the developers have said that they are going to continue to use the same kind of plot presentation where we don't really have a lot of cutscenes in the game that take us out of gameplay and everything is still very interactive as we progress through the story. So I'm assuming that this means similar to how Into the Radius 1 is when we go on missions, priority missions, they're somehow kind of interwoven into the story of the game. So by going to these missions and interacting with the specific locations, we will naturally progress through the story and learn more about the Radius. So don't quote me but I'm assuming that's kind of what they mean when they're talking about how there's not really going to be any cutscenes and they're going to continue to sort of weave story into the gameplay of Into the Radius 2. With this approach, the Into the Radius developers said that they are going to be focusing a lot of attention towards visual narrative. A couple of examples of this without spoiling Into the Radius 2 is changes to the committee as well as how the Into the Radius 2 developers are reworking locations in the Pachoris Genomaly. So reworking the Pachoris Genomaly locations. I'm honestly pretty interested in knowing what percentage of Into the Radius 2 is going to be locations like we have in Into the Radius 1. I'm pretty damn interested to see how they plan on reworking these locations. Apparently in the original Into the Radius which I'm playing right now, the base is careless, shabby and kind of improvised, which is supposed to be a reflection of how the committee feels about us and everything that's going on right now when it comes to the Pachoris Genomaly. So after the events of Into the Radius 1, the committee is like, okay, we actually have some promising information.  The new base in Into the Radius 2 and upgraded equipment are apparently meant to express and show the new mood that the committee has in Into the Radius 2. Which honestly sounds like a more uplifted mood toward explorers, like they care more about us. We're getting a cooler base, we're getting brand new upgrades and equipment and everything. So Into the Radius 2 literally sounds like a warm, loving hug from the UNPSC in my opinion. Maybe we won't physically get that hug, but goddamn, I am excited to see a new base that's more detailed and new guns and upgrades, equipment. It's going to be insane. While working on the locations of the Radius, apparently the developers adhere to a concept called thematic layering. The first layer consists of landscapes and nature determined by a geographical location of the Pachoris Genomaly, aka Eastern Europe, the border of one of the Baltic countries. The second layer is the man-made infrastructure corresponding to the city of Pachoris and its environment at the time of 1987, where and when the Pachoris Genomaly appeared. The third layer is the Radius layer, which apparently is supposed to reflect the gloomy and deadly vibe of the Pachoris Genomaly.  And the final layer is going to basically be traces left behind of the committee and other explorers, depending on how inhabitable the location is. You could probably consider the orange-suited men basically a sprinkling of the committee or like a remnant of other explorers who were here but died. So I don't know if they specifically mean dead people in Into the Radius 2. Traces like that, remnants of the committee, maybe like a broken down facility? I don't know. Maybe our base? Dude, our current base all broken down and messed up. That might be like a remnant in Into the Radius 2 of the committee and other explorers. All of these different layers are going to interact with each other depending on where you are, what location you're at and what specific narrative and story is driving that location of the map. When Into the Radius 2 first releases into Early Access, the main goal is going to be ensuring that the general gameplay of Into the Radius 2 is very sound and it functions as intended. The developers say that this means the first iterations of Into the Radius 2 in Early Access aren't going to contain full-fledged story elements. But we will already be able to enjoy the visual elements of the base and different locations in the radius that we are going to be able to explore. Everything else is coming in future updates of the game. This is the same thing that the developers did for Into the Radius 1 Early Access and for the most part this game turned out pretty damn amazing. Obviously, I wish that we'd got mod support, but the developers say that mod support is definitely going to have more priority than it did in Into the Radius 1 while they're developing Into the Radius 2. So in Into the Radius 2, we should be way more likely to get mod support.  It's such a great virtual world for modding. Believe it or not, there is a more recent dev diary that goes into detail about the guns for Into the Radius 2, so I'm going to be posting a video on that dev diary later this week. So keep your eyes peeled for that. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Consider subscribing to the channel if you did like it. If you really want to help support the channel, consider grabbing a membership. Become a part of the family, man. I hope you boys have an awesome weekend. And I'll see you guys on the next one. Bye!


This study found that giving an additional dose of chlorohydrate to children undergoing laceration repair in the emergency department increased the induction time and ED length of stay, idlos, without affecting the duration of sedation. This information could be used to improve the efficiency of the ED workflow by informing parents about the potential need for an additional dose of chlorohydrate. This article was authored by Bo Kayang Seo, Arim Kim, Hyun Min Young and others.