Hey dad! That must have been an amazing meeting to be a part of! The funny thing that I noticed was that a lot of the things that he talked about apply directly to missionary work! I think that is really cool. For example - what you would use to help members deepen their conversion is the exact process that we need to use with investigators to help them gain a testimony and get them baptized! I guess they are just like pre-members, you could say. Thanks for sending me these notes! I really enjoyed reading them! Love ya!
Spencer,
I finally had a few minutes to type up notes from the bishop’s training with Elder Renlund. I have included a few selected portions from the notes below. Of course it’s hard to capture the real essence of the meeting in notes, but maybe this will be of value to you. Hope you enjoy this!
The meeting started with Elder Renlund saying that he had one message and one assignment for all bishops. The message was that the Brethren truly appreciate and love the bishops! The assignment was to go home and tell our sweet wives the same thing; that the Lord is pleased with our service and with the sacrifices of our families. This was really nice! And we all got to go up and shake Elder Renlund’s hand! After this he went to a whiteboard and asked for the bishops to share their top concerns.
Here are the concerns raised by the bishops:
- Men at home not using their priesthood
- Abuse
- Conversion
- Pornography
- Repentance
- Missionary prep
- Welfare administration
- Same gender attraction
- Self worth
- Family not living gospel in home
- Depression and mental health issues
- Expired recommends
- Apathy
- Self-reliance
- Church discipline
- Marriage relations
- Tithe paying
- Dealing with the burden of the call
- How can I magnify my calling and keep my life in balance
Worthiness and Sacrament:
3 Nephi 18 states that we do not allow people to partake of the sacrament unworthily. But we can use this as a club at times. When they come to see the bishop, they are already trying to repent. We want people to be at the sacrament table and temple—two places we must be at repeatedly in our lives in order to improve. Use the sacrament as a means to help them to be clean. When you take it, commit to be clean. When you go to the temple, commit to be clean. Encourage members to the temple and to the sacrament in ORDER to be clean, not because they are already clean. Use your keys of discernment to understand when to encourage versus prevent.
Pornography:
Teach people their true identity and potential. The correct understanding of doctrine is what changes behavior. President Packer would often say that you can write your spiritual pedigree on a napkin: it is you and then God. You are the child of God. Joseph F. Smith said that for some things the only way to fight the sin is to run away, and this is true of pornography. Professional help is needed for deep addictions.
Atonement:
How the Lord looks at sin is different than how he looks at sinners. He cannot look upon sin without abhorence, but he always looked at the sinners with love. Recognize that the atonement is infinite! The Church is simply an atonement delivery system to the world! Read President Packer’s last talk, where is said that he learned—at the end of his life—that the atonement leaves no tracks, no traces. What is fixed is fixed. What the atonement heals stays healed. Read this talk!
Magnify Priesthood and Callings:
Leaders first strive to become Christ-like so we can then help others. Leaders best help others by personal example. This is the purpose behind every calling in the church: become a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ and then help others do the same (this is right out of the Handbook). This is how to change the church, through our personal example. What is powerful is NOT to say “go and do this” or “go and do that” but share your own experience in doing those things and how it blesses your life. Bear testimony of your own personal experiences doing the things that deepen conversion. Remember, President Eyring said that everyone needs to change something different.
Deepening Conversion:
Elder Renland said that you cannot induce faith in someone else. Faith isn’t transmitted like a disease or induced. Faith is kindled by hearing what someone else knows, but any subsequent increase in faith only occurs when the person DOES something. You have to DO and ACT in faith in order for conversion to deepen. You cannot give it by speaking. Preaching is inadequate if people do not act in faith. What is important is the INVITATION. The key is to pray to understand what doctrine, properly understood, will prompt an invitation that will encourage action. So the keys here are: doctrine, invitation, action. Bishops should spent a lot of time thinking and praying about what invitation people will accept, then teach that invitation and doctrine, with promised blessings. Then follow-up!
Repentance:
People need to understand Godly sorrow so they can repent. The notion that “God loves me no matter what I do” is a half-truth. He does love us, but he may not love what we do! He is often disappointed with choices we make. If a person is humble and contrite then God can help them. God doesn’t care who we were, he care who we are now and who we are becoming. DC 58: by this can you know if a man has repented, if he has confessed his sins and forsaken them and remembers them no more.
Self-Reliance:
If a man is living as he should he ca go to the Lord and ask for what he needs, and the Lord will put what he needs into his path. Spiritual self-reliance always comes before temporal self-reliance. Self-reliance has a lot to do with self-worth. People need to render service to others as we are helping them to become self-reliant. Elder Renland shared that the poorest stake in the church (in Africa) receives NO welfare assistance and actually exports fast offering funds to other stakes!! We can all become more self-reliant by focusing spiritually first, serving others, preparing ourselves, and giving to the Lord’s storehouse.
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