June Videoconference: “Accomplishing the Mission of the Church”

With a shepherd’s care, we must strive to bring the blessings and ordinances of the gospel more fully into the lives of Heavenly Father’s children, said President Ezra Taft Benson in a historic leadership training videoconference on June 28.

“Now is the time to apply the Savior’s teaching of the Good Shepherd to the challenge before us of retrieving lost sheep and wayward lambs.

“The sheep need to be led by watchful shepherds,” said President Benson, emphasizing that too many members of the Church are wandering, distracted, or lost. With a shepherd’s care, he said, we can nurture new converts, prevent youth from wandering, and reclaim “many of those who are now” indifferent.

“The purpose of the Lord’s church is to further the progress of every son and daughter of God toward the ultimate blessings of eternal life. This includes many less-active members who may be indifferent and noncaring.

“To all such, we, as priesthood leaders, must extend and renew our love and heartfelt invitation to come back.”

President Benson’s prerecorded message was part of the largest and most dispersed gathering for a leadership training meeting ever. President Benson was joined by twelve other General Authorities who offered messages of help and hope to leaders of the Church.

Joining President Benson in offering messages of instruction and inspiration were President Gordon B. Hinckley and President Thomas S. Monson of the First Presidency and seven members of the Quorum of the Twelve: Elders Boyd K. Packer, David B. Haight, James E. Faust, Neal A. Maxwell, Russell M. Nelson, M. Russell Ballard, and Joseph B. Wirthlin.

Elders Richard G. Scott, Marion D. Hanks, and Wm. Grant Bangerter of the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy also participated.

The videoconference originated from the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City and was broadcast live to hundreds of stake centers throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. In addition to live and prerecorded messages from General Authorities, the conference featured live telephone comments from local leaders in the United States and England.

The conference’s objective was to explain and discuss the mission of the Church and to offer important insights into accomplishing that mission.

“We realize that you faithful priesthood and auxiliary leaders have much to do in your sacred callings,” said Elder Neal A. Maxwell, moderator for the conference. “We present this training tonight as a source of help. The insights you gain from this instruction should help you to focus on those things that matter most, and to use the flexibility that is available to you in carrying them out.”

President Thomas S. Monson, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, reiterated for leaders the overriding objective of the Church: to invite all to come unto Christ.

“Speaking of the sacred office of a teacher, the Lord admonished: ‘They are … to warn, expound, exhort, and teach, and invite all to come unto Christ.’ (D&C 20:59.)

“To ‘invite all to come unto Christ’ is our united purpose. Our hope is that this united purpose may permeate all we do. …

“For instance, we ‘come unto Christ’ through conversion and baptism; hence our missionary effort. …

“Additionally, we will not be successful in ‘perfecting the Saints’ if we are neglecting the poor; hence the doctrines and principles which underlie the welfare program.

“We cannot be good undershepherds to the Perfect Shepherd, the Lord, if, as the Book of Mormon warns, we permit others in need ‘to pass … and we notice them not.’” (Morm. 8:39.)

President Monson said the purpose of the Church is to bring the glad tidings of the gospel of Jesus Christ to “all of God’s children, member and nonmember alike, active and less active, living as well as those who have passed beyond the veil.”

There is an urgent need to nurture those who have recently entered into the covenants of baptism, said President Gordon B. Hinckley, First Counselor in the First Presidency. “The greatest tragedy in the Church … is the loss of those who join the Church and then fall away,” said President Hinckley, adding that, “with very few exceptions, it need not happen.”

President Hinckley reminded leaders of the difficult transition new converts undergo after joining the Church. This transition “means cutting old ties. It means leaving friends. It may mean setting aside cherished beliefs. It may require a change of habits and suppression of appetites. In so many cases it means loneliness and even fear of the unknown. …

“The trauma associated with this makes it imperative that these precious souls be welcomed, reassured, helped in their times of weakness, praised for what they do, given responsibility under which they may grow strong, and encouraged and thanked for all they do,” President Hinckley said.

“Declared the Savior: ‘For what shall it profit a man, though he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’ (Mark 8:36.) Likewise, what shall it profit us if we baptize large numbers and lose many of them?”

In considering the mission of the Church, Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Council of the Twelve advised leaders not to view the three dimensions of the Church’s mission as separate responsibilities, operated by separate organizations.

“Members and families are not served well if organizations are managed as separate units,” he said. If organizations see themselves as having a mission of their own, separate from the mission of the Church, they “expect an inordinate amount of time and means from families and individuals, without regard to how much others may have requisitioned from them.”

Elder Packer urged leaders to develop a spirit of correlation that goes beyond programs and procedures—one that focuses on attitudes. “This correlation is in the mind, in the heart, in the very soul. … We urge you now to concentrate on the mission of the Church rather than to merely manage organizations and programs.”

To implement the mission of the Church in the lives of members, Elder Packer said leaders must prepare all of Heavenly Father’s children to receive the ordinances and covenants associated with immortality and eternal life.

“We are to ‘proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, to prepare them to receive the ordinances of baptism and confirmation as members of the Church.’

“We are to ‘perfect the Saints by preparing them to receive the ordinances of the gospel and by instruction and discipline to gain exaltation.’

“We are to ‘redeem the dead by performing vicarious ordinances of the gospel for those who have lived on the earth.’

“A good and useful and true test of every major decision made by a leader in the Church is whether a given course leads toward or away from the making and keeping of covenants,” said Elder Packer.

Essential to keeping new members from falling away are renewed and revitalized stake missions, said Elder David B. Haight of the Quorum of the Twelve.

“Well-trained stake missionaries play an important role in finding investigators so that our full-time missionaries are productively using their time in teaching and helping curb the dropout rate of investigators during the discussions and of new converts after baptism.”

Elder Haight said that helping new members become fully integrated into the Church requires a joint effort among full-time missionaries, stake missionaries, and ward leaders. Full-time missionaries continue to help new converts for a few weeks after baptism—until the converts have become acquainted with ward leaders and begin to participate fully in the ward. Stake missionaries fellowship new members and teach them the fellowshipping lessons. The ward mission leader ensures that home teachers are assigned and fully involved in this fellowshipping process.

“This process may be likened to a three-link chain. The full-time missionary teaches, the stake missionary assists in the conversion process, and the home teacher sees that the new member becomes firmly and fully established in the faith.

“The stake missionary is the gold link in that chain,” said Elder Haight.

Bringing gospel principles, ordinances, and blessings more fully into the lives of Church members requires wider and more individual-oriented participation from high priests and other ward members, said Elder Marion D. Hanks of the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy and Executive Director of the Priesthood Department.

For instance, full-time missionaries, operating under appropriate guidelines, may be used to help teach the less active. In addition, stake missionaries, home teachers, visiting teachers, and leaders of youth must be more involved in shepherding those under their care. Single adults can take on additional leadership responsibilities, said Elder Hanks. The key to true success is through individualized attention, he said.

“When we speak to each other of our joy in some instance of activation or restoration or sharing, we always are talking ‘one-on-one’ experiences. Isn’t this the key?

“How did the Savior go about helping people?

“He taught and blessed and forgave and healed individuals, according to their specific needs.

“Prayer, fasting, counseling together, consultation, genuine concern … are the elements of true creative flexibility. These are the ways we meet individual needs,” said Elder Hanks.

And as we strive to lift and help individuals, we should constantly prepare them for the higher covenants of the temple, said Elder James E. Faust of the Quorum of the Twelve.

“We become the covenant people of the Lord by partaking of the higher covenants inside of the temple,” he said. “And so our efforts will be to have each member come to an understanding of the doctrine and to be worthy to go inside of the temple and thereafter to take his or her family to the temple. We will also be asking each member to find one ancestor and take that ancestor to the temple.

“We are trying to simplify and demystify the seeking and finding of our ancestors. We are also hoping to make it easier for everyone … to find their own forefathers and receive the temple ordinances in their behalf,” said Elder Faust.

Elder Richard G. Scott of the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy and Executive Director of the Genealogical Department said that it is through temple ordinances and covenants, and the genealogical work that supports them, that members can follow Moroni’s inspired counsel to “come unto Christ and be perfected in him.” (Moro. 10:32.)

“We know that there is extensive missionary work in progress on the other side of the veil,” said Elder Scott. “Many, many more members will be motivated to receive the ordinances for these individuals as they understand the doctrine and are moved by the Spirit.

“Our efforts to ‘come unto Christ’ through temple and genealogical service concentrate on two objectives,” he said. “Teach the doctrine to inspire members to receive the endowment and sealing for themselves and their ancestors. [And] enable members, even those with no training, to identify their ancestors.”

“This emphasis on doctrine is made so that temple and genealogical activity will not be perceived as a detached and optional segment of the gospel but a necessary part of the whole,” said Elder Wm. Grant Bangerter of the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy and Executive Director of the Temple Department.

“Our efforts in genealogy should not concentrate on preparing forms and records, but in taking an ancestor with us to the temple,” he said.

Elder Packer said, “We would do well to see that in administering the organizations of the Church, all roads lead to the temple. For it is there that we are prepared in all things to qualify us to enter the presence of the Lord.”

In his remarks summarizing the conference, Elder Faust reminded Church leaders to keep in mind the great objective of the Church: to invite all to come unto Christ.

“By emphasizing the mission of the Church in a threefold manner, we are leading toward one objective for each individual member of the Church. That is for all to receive the ordinances of the gospel and make covenants with our Heavenly Father so they may return to his presence. That is our grand objective. …

“Through the covenants and ordinances and his Holy Spirit, each individual, through the process of repentance, may become clean. That is our hope and our great leadership challenge.”

From left, Elders Neal A. Maxwell, James E. Faust, and M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve participate in a panel discussion during the leadership training videoconference. (Photography by Jed A. Clark.)

The June 28 videoconference stressed the need to nurture new and less active members. (Photography by Jed A. Clark.)