I teach at the Harvard Business School - in fact, President Wheelwright was my favorite professor when I was a student there. I am grateful for his wonderful example that shaped my life for the good.
But I also have spent a very large portion of my energy working to build the Kingdom of God - and in so doing have worked hard to understand what God told Isaiah: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." (Isaiah 55:8). Among other things, I have learned that Satan's cleverness is manifest not just in tempting us as individuals to break commandments, but also by convincing us, as we serve in the church, to accept and follow the thoughts of man.
What I hope to accomplish with you today is to talk with you about missionary work, where the Lord is desperate for your help. I want to suggest several ways to separate Man's thoughts and his ways in this work from those of God's. You have some opportunities to share the gospel at BYU. But when you leave here you will have untold opportunities to be a missionary; and I hope that these principles will help you.
We have 14 million members in the church - so we must be doing something right. Daniel saw this:
"And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever..." (Daniel 2:44 - 45)
This will not be easy, however. The church is indeed growing rapidly in some parts of Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia - what economists call the developing world. But elsewhere, in the "Developed World," things are slowing. The old way of finding people yields meager results. Increasingly, the people we want to teach live in apartment buildings where the elders can't enter. Dual career couples are not home when the missionaries are working. This means that members must shoulder a much bigger role in finding people for the missionaries to teach.
Satan seems to have discouraged many members in prosperous nations, convincing them that the Kingdom in their homelands is done growing. I have seen this in Europe, Asia and America: Within the boundaries of some wards there used to be 100 active members and 100,000 non-members; but so many have moved out that there now 50 active members and 100,000 non-members. When the number of members moving out aren't replaced by members moving in and the ward shrinks even further, the instinct of many leaders is to merge it into an adjacent ward, to continue the feeling amongst the remaining members that the ward is "strong." Somehow, they don't see the potential converts in the 100,000 not-yet-members who also were in their wards.
I learned something about this supposed disinterest in religion that is flooding the developed world, in an experience with a man of my age, about a year ago. Stephen is very smart, having had gotten degrees from prestigious colleges in engineering and management. In an early conversation he casually said that he hadn't gone to church for about 30 years.
Rather than trying to convince him that he needed our church I asked instead, "Do you have any questions about religious issues that you've been wondering about, and which you've not been able to get good answers to?" Turns out that he had some very good questions - about the purpose of life, if there is one; what is God, if there is one; and so on. He said, "As I went through college and graduate school, the churches just could not answer my questions. So I stopped going to church, and have been looking for answers in philosophy and science instead. Frankly, they can't answer them any better than the churches can," was his reply.
So I said, "Let's meet again. Rather than my telling you what I think you should know about my Church, can you prepare a list of these questions that have been on your mind? I'd like to bring a couple of my friends who are missionaries, who can help us see whether our new scriptures can answer some of them." He agreed.
At the next meeting we started at the top of his list, and then in the Book of Mormon found and discussed answers to that question. Stephen was impressed that indeed there was an answer to that question, and crossed that one off his list.
Before we parted, I gave Stephen a homework assignment. I asked him to read just two chapters in the Book of Mormon, which contained the answer to the next question on his list. I assigned him, before digging into his assignment, to begin by praying aloud, asking the Lord to bless him so that he could complete the assignment well. I asked him to then read the chapters; and then to write a 2-paragraph answer to his own question, based upon the information in the chapters. And finally, I asked him to pray again aloud, but this time to ask God whether the things that he wrote, and the things that he read, were true.
Stephen did the assignment beautifully. When we met next, we asked him to read his answer to his question, and then explain to us how he got the answer from the chapters that he read. For 20 minutes he excitedly summarized what he had found in the Book of Mormon - and frankly taught us, more than we taught him. I then asked him whether the things that he wrote were true. He responded, "It is, Clay. It is. For 30 years I couldn't answer this question." I noticed how respectfully he held the Book of Mormon in his hands." The whole book is true, isn't it," he said.
We then kept giving him homework assignments to answer his remaining questions, meeting once every week with those wonderful missionaries. He was a dream investigator, because we had taught him how to answer his questions through the scriptures, and to verify the truth of his answers through prayer. The missionaries just had to sit there, as Stephen unfolded the gospel for us.
He was baptized a year ago.
Today, if someone asks me something about our church, I don't tell him what
I want
him to know. Rather, I ask, "Do you have any questions about religious issues that you've been wondering about, and which you've not been able to get good answers to?" It turns out that there are a
lot of people with questions. But most of them have given up on churches as a source of answers.
If we measure people's interest in religion by their Sunday church attendance, it's in a free-fall. But I think that we've got the categories wrong. There are indeed many people who have lots of answers but have no questions. In chemists' language, I call this the "inert" category. If good, robust questions is our metric of those who are interested in religion, we are surrounded by deeply religious people who minds are open. They have questions.
Questions are one of God's ways. Read the Doctrine and Covenants; read the stories of Nephi, First and Third; read of the Brother of Jared; and many others. God gives answers when we ask questions. It is a good way to do missionary work.
The Cycle of Pride in the Book of Mormon
Most of you have read in Alma the cycle of pride amongst the Nephites. Poverty spawns humility, which opens interest in God. When they begin to obey God's commandments, they prosper. Prosperity spawns pride, which leads them not to need God. This brings contention, which plunges the society into poverty - renewing the cycle again.
It poses an interesting question. Does the economic cycle drive a counter-cyclical interest in God? It certainly is the case in our day that in prosperous nations - western Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia, and significant parts of America - the cycle of Pride is upon us, as the numbers of converts to the Kingdom of God are much lower now than they were 30 years ago, when their economies weren't as advanced.
Let me suggest, however, that this might be correlation and not causality. At the bottom of this cycle amongst people whose poverty compels them to be humble, the "sales pitch" by our missionaries works quite well: "You know, if you will just take the time to learn about our church, it will help you be a better person and a happier person." Many people accept the gospel with this ;promise. When our missionaries preach the gospel amongst people whose prosperity has created contentment, however, we use the same sales pitch: "You know, if you will just take the time to learn about our church, it will help you be a better person and a happier person." It rarely connects.
I wonder whether missionary work slows amongst prosperous people because we follow the ways of man, rather than God. There is indeed a correlation between prosperity and indifference about religion. But the Savior explained the causal mechanism of conversion, when he said,
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. (Mark 8:35)
In other words, we have few converts amongst the prosperous because we typically try to convince them that they will find themselves if they join our church. We need to give them, instead, the chance to lose their lives for the sake of the gospel - because this will save it. We have been following man's ways, and not God's.
How can we do this? Even while many prosperous, comfortable people don't feel like they need religion, almost all of them have a need to help other people. Let me give you a few examples to illustrate this principle in action.
I grew up in Rose Park near downtown Salt Lake City. When I was a little boy my dad home taught a man named Phillip Strong. Phil had been baptized as a boy, but he never went to church, and he hated the Church. Every month, my faithful father would take me or one of my brothers as his home teaching companion. We would knock on Phillip's door. Phillip would come out on the porch and command my dad to get off his property. He would tell him "never to come back or I'll call the police." But every month my dad would knock on the door, only to be told off. One year in November, a storm came in through Salt Lake and rain, driven by the wind, blew off a chunk of the roof of Welfare Square. Someone called my dad, who was in our bishopric to see if he could get a group of men to Welfare Square to fix the problem. So my dad went door to door. Most people said they'd go. Then he came to Phillip Strong's house. It turns out Phillip Strong was an experienced tradesman. My dad passed it up and went to the next house. But then my dad stopped and said, "No, I've got to ask Phillip Strong."
He knocked on the door and, as happened each month, dad was told to get off. But dad said "Phillip, I don't want you to come to church. But I need your help." He explained the problem, and said " I've got a group of people, but you are the one that knows how to fix problems like this. Can you come and just supervise this project?"
To my dad's surprise, Philip Strong came.
The men went up about 5:00 p.m. They had to illuminate the site. Rain was still coming down and the winds were very strong. They worked until 11:00 p.m. on that freezing roof. My dad said every time he drove another nail in the tarpaper he felt he was putting a nail into Philip's spiritual coffin because the assignment was so miserable.
But when they walked off, Phillip Strong put an arm around my dad's shoulder and he said "I haven't felt this good in 20 years." And two weeks later Phillip Strong showed up to church. That was the beginning of his reactivation. The number of people in Rose Park that Phillip Strong and his family eventually brought in to the church and strengthened their faith was extraordinary, truly extraordinary.
Consider the difference made by a shift in approach. Phil had regularly commanded my dad off the porch when the proposal was "Phil, you need the Church." But when the pitch was "Phillip, the Church needs you" , instantly he said yes.
What if Latter-day Saints began to ask those who aren't committed members of the Church, "could you please help me solve this problem?" What might happen if you were a Primary teacher, and you called up a friend who is not a member of the Church to ask "I teach a class of 9-year-olds at our church. They're bouncing off the walls when I try to teach them. In two weeks I've got to teach them one of the most important lesson of their lives about the Good Samaritan. You are the best example of a good Samaritan I have ever known. Is there any way you can help me prepare and teach a great lesson on the Good Samaritan to these kids?" You know that your friend will be delighted to help you - and when she does, she will be able to feel the spirit, just like you can feel the spirit. Often, she will then realize that despite her prosperity there has been something missing in her life - and want to learn more.
Here's another example. Several times I had asked a friend, Paul, to come to our home to meet with the missionaries, each time explaining why I felt Paul would find our church to be interesting. Paul declined each invitation. Then a new missionary who needed to learn to teach the missionary lessons came into our ward. Rather than arranging for this elder to practice teaching the lessons to members, I asked Paul if he would let this missionary practice teaching the lessons to him." Sure," Paul responded." I'd be happy to." I urged Paul to be obstreperous, and told the missionaries that Paul had signed up simply to help them become better teachers and had no interest in the church.
I went to the first practice session to be sure things went as planned. At the end of the lesson the missionary finished the rehearsal by handing Paul and his wife a copy of the Book of Mormon and asking, "Will you read this book?" To our great surprise they accepted it and said they would. They did, and were baptized. When my invitation centered on how the church would interest them, Paul wasn't interested. But Paul said "Sure" when I asked him for help.
God has not restricted to active members of the LDS Church the right to feel the Spirit. Those who are not members of our church, or those that are less active, can feel the same Spirit as we feel, if we just give them the chance to lose their lives for the sake of the gospel. The Yorktown NY Stake concluded, as the result of this observation, that the ward mission plans of each ward in the stake would focus members on inviting people who were not members to join with them in serving in the church. This stake covers some of the wealthiest communities in the world - and the number of people baptized into the church put the stake as the top stake in the mission in baptisms, whereas previously it always had been the lowest.
I checked.
The Lord's statement (D&C 4:4) that the world is white, already to harvest, doesn't have an expiration date. It is still ready. We just need to follow God's ways, and not our own, as we wield our sickles with our might.
Feeling the Spirit of God Again
Let me know describe what has happened to me, as I've tried to share the gospel. After I finished business school and began working, in imperceptible increments I began to feel the Spirit less and less in my life. I was serving as a counselor to Bishop Bowen, and was spending a lot of time and energy to magnify that assignment. I was praying and studying the scriptures regularly - and yet despite my doing all these "right" things, I just felt that the Spirit was not with me as much as I had felt it before.
Then we moved to Washington where I was to work as a White House Fellow All of a sudden, we lived and worked and commuted with new people, and I found myself with many more opportunities to discuss the gospel with my new friends. I realize now that in Boston I was not meeting new people, and had already attempted to share the gospel with most people I knew. In short order two of my colleagues accepted my invitation to come to our home and take the missionary discussions.
Before the first discussion, we were scurrying around to clean things up. I put a tape of the Choir into our stereo, and it began playing their rendition of "The Spirit of God." I was in the dining room when they began the verse,
We'll call in our solemn assemblies in spirit
To spread forth the Kingdom of Heaven abroad
That we, through our faith, may begin to inherit
The visions and blessings and glories of God.
As I heard those words, a powerful and sweet spirit entered my heart, and I realized what had been happening in my spiritual life. With our move to Washington, I had begun again to do my part in spreading forth the Kingdom of Heaven abroad. And what I inherited as a result, were the visions and blessings and glories of God. I had begun feeling the spirit again on a daily basis. I was dreaming dreams of spiritual things, and was singing the Hymns of the Restoration as I walked to the bus stop.
I'll summarize the lesson I learned from this with a metaphor. In a war, the generals give the state-of-the-art weapons to those soldiers who are on the front lines, engaged in direct combat with the enemy. To those of their troops who work in administrative positions behind the lines, they'll give less potent tools. What had happened in my spiritual life in Boston was that I had been spending more and more time on administrative things, not on the front lines. I actually could do most things quite effectively, without needing to rely on the Spirit. But in becoming an active missionary again, I had essentially re-positioned myself onto the front lines in the war against Satan over the souls of men. Conversion comes only through the power of the Holy Ghost - which meant that I needed the Spirit with me, every day.
Hence, I called myself on a mission. God has not yet released me, and I have not asked to be released. I love my life as a missionary, keeping myself on the front lines. The image in my mind is that God, my General, stands at the door when I go out every morning; and knowing what the war is like, day after day he gave to me His most powerful weapon, His Spirit. For this I am eternally grateful.
A while ago my friends and I decided to search the Doctrine and Covenants for blessings that the Lord promised to those who accept the call that God has given each of us to be missionaries. To close this talk I'd like to read these blessings. Because there are so many, I will put the references in the printed copy of this talk.
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.
- 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).
- The Holy Ghost shall be shed forth in bearing record of all things, whatsoever ye shall say (100:8).
- 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).
What member wouldn't want these promises to be fulfilled in their lives and the lives of their children? If every member called themselves on a mission, each would be given the power of God unto the convincing of men. It would magnify their abilities to teach, so that their words would be scripture; the will of the Lord, the mind of the Lord, the voice of the Lord and the power of God unto salvation.
It would 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. Involving 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 the Lord's name.
I can honestly say that I seek every opportunity I can to share the gospel; and that I have been blessed in the ways the Lord has promised. I testimony that these same blessings will fill the lives of all that will do this, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.