Emily Robison Adams is married with three children and is a practicing appellate attorney. She received her undergraduate degree in linguistics from Brigham Young University and her JD from the University of Minnesota Law School. She worked for judges on the Minnesota Court of Appeals and the Federal District Court for the District of Minnesota before returning to Utah. She is a partner at The Appellate Group, a boutique law firm focusing on appeals. Emily has served in Relief Society and Young Women presidencies, taught Relief Society, and currently serves as the Primary chorister.

02:00 Kurt introduces Emily and her story.

04:00 Emily shares her background.

06:00 Emily’s faith crisis. She felt like she couldn’t get answers from God.

09:10 A crisis dismantles your framework and the story you’ve built your life on.

11:20 The shame that comes from feeling like you can’t connect with the divine.

15:25 How leaders can help with a faith crisis.

17:50 Emily shares that she dealt with bitterness and doubts and didn’t know what to do with her doubts.

20:40 How leaders can use the tool of rethinking to help an individual struggling with their faith.

23:30 Emily shares how she was able to rethink. She did this by finding people that were feeling the same way. She found books from other religions and perspectives that really helped her.

28:45 There are moments where scripture study feels empty. Find new ways to connect with God. It could be a hike, a walk, ten minutes of quiet.

31:50 Leaders are there to mourn with those that mourn. Be careful about preaching to someone that is in the tender stage of their faith crisis. Try to gauge where the person is at and what they need at the moment.

35:00 Leaders should resist the urge to fix everyone’s problems. Listen to their story. Show empathy for their difficulty.

37:15 Spencer Fluhman talks about how you answer gospel questions by not answering gospel questions but by connecting to the person who is asking you the question.

38:15 How to spot if someone is having a faith crisis or mental health issue.

43:00 Emily talks about sending smoke signals to people when she started struggling with her faith.

45:15 Leaders need to create safety in their wards. Safety to share. “There is no such thing as resistance, only lack of safety.”

48:00 Where Emily is at now in her faith journey.

53:00 Emily talks about how she is grateful for the quietness. How her faith has grown.

Divine Quietness: Finding Meaning When Heaven is Silent
Faith After Doubt
Stages of Faith
The Dark Night of the Soul
What Every Leader Needs to Know About Faith Crisis | An Interview with Scott Braithwaite
“Answering Sincere Gospel Questions,” with Spencer Fluhman

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The Leading Saints Podcast has ranked in the top 20 Christianity podcasts in iTunes, gets over 500,000 listens each month, and has over 10 million total downloads as part of nonprofit Leading Saints’ mission to help latter-day saints be better prepared to lead. Learn more and listen to any of the past episodes for free at LeadingSaints.org.

Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Julie Beck, Brad Wilcox, Jody Moore, Tony Overbay, John H. Groberg, Elaine Dalton, Tad R. Callister, J. Devn Cornish, Dennis B. Neuenschwander, Anthony Sweat, John Hilton III, Barbara Morgan Gardner, Blair Hodges, Whitney Johnson, Ryan Gottfredson, Greg McKeown, DeAnna Murphy, Michael Goodman, Richard Ostler, Ganel-Lyn Condie, and many more in over 500 episodes.

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