Our Bishops in the Church

By President Gordon B. Hinckley

First Counselor in the First Presidency

(Adapted from an October 1988 general conference address. See Ensign, November 1988, pages 48–51.)

The office of a bishop is in administering all temporal things (D&C 107:68).

A young man said to me one day, “Do you belong to a ward and have a bishop?” I replied, “Of course I do.” He then asked, “Do you attend tithing settlement with your bishop?” I replied that I do and that even though I am serving as a member of the Presidency of the Church, I am accountable to my bishop just as every other man and woman in this Church is accountable either to a bishop or to a branch president. And I thank the Lord for the good bishops in this Church throughout the world, all eleven thousand of them.

I think of the bishop of my boyhood. He was there when I was given a name and a blessing by my good father. He it was who interviewed me and found me worthy of baptism into the Lord’s church. He it was who interviewed me and found me worthy to be ordained a deacon. He called me to my first Church responsibility as a member of the presidency of the deacons quorum. He it was who presided over the quorum of priests to which I once belonged. He it was who recommended me to the stake president as worthy to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. He it was who recommended me to the President of the Church as one worthy to serve as a missionary. He it was who welcomed me home and who signed my recommend as one worthy to be married in the house of the Lord.

I bear testimony of the strength and goodness of the bishops of this Church. I pay tribute to counselors who help them and to all who serve under their direction in response to the calls that they make.