Much of the church is organized into programs like Addiction Recovery, Employment, Home & Visiting Teaching, Missionary Work, Primary, Public Affairs, Relief Society, Single Adults, Temple and Family History, Welfare, Young Single Adults, and Young Women & Young Men. When called to serve in the church we often frame our responsibilities in terms of these programs and the subset of members who are served by them. When asked to describe her assignment, for example, a Primary President might say that she is responsible for the children in her ward aged 18 months to 12 years; that every Sunday morning she organizes sharing time, supervises nursery workers, and oversees teachers who instruct each age group of children. Scoutmasters shoulder responsibility for the scouting program for boys aged 12-13; and so on.
These programs have been designed to help us fulfill the divinely appointed purpose of the Church to assist the Father in bringing to "pass the immortality and eternal life of man" through the four-fold mission of: preaching the gospel, perfecting the saints, redeeming the dead, and administering relief to the needy. Framing our responsibilities by program imparts a tidiness to the church. It tells us what we are responsible for and what we are not responsible for. When the missionaries find a new investigator, for example, thank goodness we have a ward mission leader to take care of him, because we all can't be responsible for everything and everybody.
This programmatic framing also imparts a sense of trade-offs, however. We become concerned that over-emphasizing one program necessarily starves another of the time, oversight, energy and talent that it warrants. To achieve the needed balance, many wards and stakes will "focus" on proclaiming the gospel for one year, redeeming the dead next, and perfecting the saints in the third — and then cycle back to their tri-annual focus on proclaiming the gospel. To the busy, trade-offs seem immutable.
Prompted by the Lord's reminder, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" (Isaiah 55:8) and His solemn admonition that we put ourselves in darkness as to His ability to bless us if we treat lightly the things which we receive from Him (D&C 84: 54), we decided to search the Doctrine and Covenants — the "handbook" that God gave us for building the Kingdom of God in the latter days — to see what guidance it might offer our ward and stake leaders for balancing these trade-offs to achieve proper focus. Our conclusion: God has told us that there are no trade-offs. If ward and stake leaders will focus on leading their members to share the gospel, many of the other problems that fester in our hearts and homes, and in our wards and stakes, will resolve themselves through blessings that come from accepting the call that God has given each of us to be missionaries.
Some of the promises the Lord has made to those he calls to preach the gospel relate to the power and strength they will receive as they do so (the section and verse in which these promises are given are shown in parentheses):
- None shall stay you (1:5).
- You shall receive strength such as is not known among men (24:12).
- I myself will go with you and be in your midst. Nothing shall prevail against you (32:3).
- Power shall rest upon you. I will be with you, and go before your face (39:12).
- Your enemies will not have power over you (44:5).
- The Lord will stand by you (68:6).
- No weapon formed against you shall prosper (71:9).
- I will uphold you (93:51).
- The gates of hell shall not prevail against you (17:8).
- You shall have power to declare my word (99:2).
- Your tongue shall be loosed, and you will have the power of God unto the convincing of men (11:21).
- Your mouth shall be filled and you shall become even as Nephi of old (33:8).
- You will not be confounded. It shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man (84:85; 100: 5)
- Your words shall be scripture; shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, and shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation (68:4).
- Your arm will be God's arm. He will be your shield and buckler; He will gird up your loins; and put your enemies under your feet (35:14).
Other blessings the Lord has promised to those who share the gospel relate to personal purity and increased faith:
- You shall stand blameless before God (4:2).
- You shall be lifted up at the last day (17:8).
- You will be given a testimony of the words of the prophets (21:9).
- You shall have revelations (28:8).
- Your sins will be forgiven (31:5; 36:1; 60:7; 62:3; 84:61).
- You shall have great faith. (39:12).
- You will be able to keep God's laws (44:5).
- The Lord will make you holy (60:7).
- Still other blessings for those who engage in missionary work pertain to happiness, health and prosperity:
- You shall have blessings greater than the treasures of earth (19:37-38).
- Your back shall be laden with sheaves (31:5; 33:9).
- I will take care of your flocks (88:72).
- Your family shall live (31:5).
- The Lord will prepare a place for your family (31:6); will provide for them; and open an effectual door for them from henceforth (118:3).
- You shall not be weary in mind, ... neither in body, limb nor joint ... and you shall not go hungry, neither athirst (84:80)
- A hair from your head shall not fall to the ground unnoticed (84:80, 116).
- Your joy shall be great (18:14-15).
- I will bear you up as on eagles' wings; and you shall beget glory and honor to yourself and unto the Lord's name (124:18).
And perhaps most extraordinary of all, He has promised to fill us and our work with the Holy Ghost:
- I will send upon you the Comforter, which shall teach you the truth and the way whither you shall go (79:2).
- I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left; my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up. (84:88).
- The Holy Ghost shall be shed forth in bearing record of all things, whatsoever ye shall say (100:8).
What bishop wouldn't want these promises to be fulfilled in his life and in the lives of the families and individual members of his ward? What parents wouldn't want them for their children? What individuals wouldn't want these blessings for themselves?
Under the direction of our priesthood leaders, each of our wards and branches has been charged to create and implement a ward mission plan. We suspect that in many instances this plan is viewed as the responsibility of the ward mission leader and ward missionaries, only tangentially related to the work of those that lead and serve in other programs. But this is not the case. Your ward mission plan, if properly conceived, really is a plan to give each ward member and their families the power of God unto the convincing of men. It is a plan to magnify their abilities to teach, so that their words will be scripture; the will of the Lord, the mind of the Lord, the voice of the Lord and the power of God unto salvation.
Your ward mission plan is a plan to help priesthood holders who may be struggling with worthiness to stand blameless before God; to become forgiven of their sins; to give them the strength to keep God's laws. A ward mission plan that involves our children in sharing the gospel is a plan to develop in each of them a testimony of the words of the prophets, and become young men and women of great faith. It is a plan to help the sisters of the Relief Society become women of great joy who are not weary in mind or body; who become holy women who have great revelations and are borne up from their burdens as on eagles' wings, begetting glory and honor to themselves and unto the Lord's name.
Like you, the four of us accepted God's call to serve as member missionaries — as witnesses of Him — when we were baptized. We can honestly say that we seek every opportunity we can to share the gospel and find people for the missionaries to teach; and that we have been blessed personally in the ways the Lord has promised in the Doctrine & Covenants. We unite in testimony that these same blessings will fill the lives of all that will do this. Whatever our other responsibilities in the Kingdom of God are, we will become more successful in those callings and in our personal efforts to become pure disciples of Christ to the extent that sharing the gospel is part of all that we do.
Elders Gary Crittenden, Matthew Eyring and Robert Gay serve in the Sixth Quorum of the Seventy. Clayton Christensen is a high councilor in the Cambridge Massachusetts Stake.