A newly-baptized member accepts a calling as the Gospel Doctrine teacher and really shakes things up. Both the Bishopric and the members are caught off guard and blown away her fresh thinking and new approaches. (This usually leads to complaints and hurt feelings and a meeting in the Bishop’s office.)
A fifty-year old life-long member who has been teaching Gospel Doctrine, Seminary, and Sunday School for decades misses insights and doctrinal connections over and over, because he’s still living in ‘tradition.’ He bores his students into complacency and monologues his way through lessons. (This is deemed acceptable and nobody is offended, moved, or edified.)
One thing that happens to members and leaders when they get comfortable is that they get stuck. (As we saw with the new member. Being a good teacher and effective isn’t about time in the church; it’s about how you approach the truth.)
If you’ve been a member forever, you discover (but may not realize) that the things that got you this far are not very effective, and perhaps never really have been. Teaching, studying, obeying, or trying harder using the same outdated system isn’t progression.
Reliance on the tried and true can backfire. We’ve been doing missionary work since 1830 and have baptized millions. The success is a result of WHAT we are doing not HOW we are doing it.
Consider this thought from Arthur C. Clarke:
“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is probably wrong.”
The paradox is that one of the greatest fears and unknowns in the church is how to conduct member missionary work.
We’re nervous initiating discussion about the gospel but we are very comfortable trying to convince them that the church is true. We seek agreement in conversations and use colloquial words that have no meaning to our friends in an effort to persuade them that their church is wrong and they must change.
We live under the false pretense that we are favorably seen by the world.
Let’s not try harder to do what most members fear and dislike. Let’s try different.
Let’s do missionary work by seeking to understand our neighbors and friends instead of getting them to agree with us.
Imagine a church where every member is a missionary, knows how to conduct missionary work, and actually enjoys it.
Now that’s different.
I love that new member gospel doctrine teacher story. How true that is. How do we avoid complacency as a “teacher” (thus not boring or monologing our class to death and approaching truth from a different angle)?
Great point 🙂 We had a discussion with the ward mission leader last week about helping members break out of their ‘comfort zone’ and ideas on what it means to be a member missionary and simply be one.