Plan in Westerville, Ohio
By Jay B. Barney
We developed a ward missionary plan out of necessity.
When I was called to be the bishop of the Westerville 2nd Ward in Westerville, Ohio, sacrament meeting attendance hovered around 120. But our ward list included almost 600 hundred families, most of whom I did not know, and many of whom—I suspected—did not actually live in our ward. I thought that one of my first tasks as a bishop should be to get an idea of who did and did not live in the ward.
But visiting 600 or so families was a daunting task—not the least because many of the names on the ward list had incomplete addresses or no phone number. Our Elder’s Quorum and High Priests were already home teaching as many as we could reasonably ask them to. If I took on the responsibility to visit all these people—even with the help of my counselors—we wouldn’t be able to complete this task in under two years! I didn’t think we had that long.
But we did have two sets of missionaries. I decided that, whether they knew it or not, those missionaries now worked for me full time! They could go to their district and zone meetings, and report to their mission president, of course, but besides that, they worked for me. Each Sunday, I would give each set of elders a list of 5 to 10 names taken from our ward list. In PEC/Ward Council the next week, the elders would report on their attempts to visit these people: were they really in the ward; if not, where were they; if they were in the ward, what was their status—were there non-members in the home, would they be willing to feed the missionaries, would they accept home teachers, and so forth.
A friendly competition emerged between the elders about who could find more people each week. If an address was incomplete, missionaries would just tract out the block, asking people about the person they were looking for and, of course, also sharing the gospel. I began to call many ward missionaries—at one point we had 12 ward missionaries, a ward mission leader, and an assistant ward mission leader. (They were formally called stake missionaries back then, but it took too long for the stake to issue these callings, so we called them as ward missionaries until the stake got around to calling them.) Ward missionaries went on exchanges with the full time elders once a week—which had the effect of doubling our finding effort. So, I doubled the number of names that the elders had to find each week. Going through this list of names took up most of our time in PEC.
This effort had a variety of effects. First, and not surprisingly, our ward list shrank from almost 600 to about 350! Second, eighteen families that had had no contact with the church for years agreed to have some form of contact—either home teachers, or feeding the missionaries, or having the missionaries in their home. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the missionaries began teaching the non-members in these less active families. Our baptisms soared and whole families were reactivated as lessons taught to non-members in the family reminded those who had joined the church earlier about their own covenants, and about the power of the Spirit.
Of course, these newly baptized members of the church were on fire, and invited their friends to hear the discussions. And there were more conversions and baptisms. After we got through the ward list the first time, we started again—our ward list changed by 5 to 10 names each week. But now, we had the ward missionaries focus on teaching with the elders and teaching the new member discussions. They helped organize a new member baptism for the dead trip to the Columbus Temple. The elders kept tracking down those new names—to send their records to where these people could actually be served, or to invite them back to church if they really lived in the ward.
And the ward grew. In the first couple of years, sacrament meeting attendance went from around 120 to around 220. Most of that growth was from baptisms and reactivations, although we had some families move in as well.
Over time, every administrative meeting in the ward became focused on missionary work. For example, I invited the missionaries and all auxiliary presidencies to our ward council. I started with the full time elders—“Who did you visit this week?” They would talk about an inactive family they visited. Suppose this family had four children—two in primary, one in young women’s, one in young men’s. I would assign the elder’s quorum and relief society presidency to visit this family and make sure they had home and visiting teachers; the primary president to ask the childrens’ primary teachers to send cards inviting the kids to come to primary; the young men’s president to develop a plan with his quorum presidents to reach out to the young man; the same assignment for the young women’s presidency. We would develop a plan for this family, then move on to the next. We spent almost no time reviewing the ward calendar—only if there were important changes—and relatively little time on specific needs of auxiliaries—that was the purpose of the PPIs I had with auxiliary leaders.
In short, this meeting’s agenda was not organized around the different auxiliaries in the ward, it was organized around less active and part member families in the ward that the elders had visited.
I assigned my executive secretary to keep track of each of these assignments. He sent out a summary to all the presidents the week after this meeting and every one knew that they would have to report on their assignments the next month.
During this six year time period when we operated this way, the ward averaged over 20 baptisms a year.
I know that we had some special circumstances in our ward. But I do think there are some general principles about ward-centered missionary work that might be applicable elsewhere. Here are some of my ideas:
Work the full time missionaries hard. Treat them like they work for you, full time. Give them demanding assignments, expect them to take on serious responsibilities, and they will almost never disappoint you.
Call one of the most capable men in the ward as the ward mission leader. He must hold a weekly missionary correlation meeting and track everything that the missionaries are doing. Each PEC meeting, the ward mission leader needs to give the bishop and the other members of the council a detailed report of what the elders are doing. If the bishop tries to do this, he can’t focus on his other responsibilities—especially working with the youth. We started with the weekly report printed by the church, but ended up collecting more information then was included on that report.
The missionaries can get into homes that the bishop/home teachers cannot get into. Many less active members of the ward have had, at some point in their life, very warm and positive feelings toward a set of missionaries. When the elders knock on their door, they let them in. And if the elders can’t get in, then sister missionaries usually can!
Call more ward missionaries then you think you will need. They can double your effective missionary force and help the full time missionaries find people, teach non-members, and teach new member discussions. The best fellowshippers are often the ward missionaries who helped teach the lessons to a non-member. Also, its OK for ward missionaries to tract with full time missionaries—especially as they try to find missing members of the church. Many find that they like it—it reminds them of their own mission.
Organize your administrative meetings around families that are being taught, that are being reactivated, and that are facing trials. Keep the missionaries in the entire meeting because you can never predict when they will have something to add, or will hear something that helps them fulfill their responsibility. If missionary work is really central in the ward, why are the missionaries dismissed as soon as they give a report, just after PEC and Ward Council start?
Focus on developing effective baptismal services. This is among the most spiritual meetings in the Church, if we allow the Spirit in. I could say much more about this, but will stop here.
Ask the members of your ward to pray for missionary experiences—to have people come to them to ask about the gospel. Ward members will do this—and it always works. Soon, your testimony meetings will be filled with members sharing their missionary experiences.
There is no one way to develop and implement a ward missionary plan. Every ward will need to adopt their own approach. But, I hope these ideas are helpful.
Jay B. Barney
Lewis Center, Ohio