Member-Missionary
Action Guide
By David Stewart. Copyright 2001.
This document may be copied and distributed for private or pro-LDS Church related use, but may not be posted to websites without written permission. To download the latest version of this and other missionary action guides, visit MissionaryHelper.com.
This action guide was created to assist member-missionaries, stake missionaries, and ward missionaries in the implementation of effective member-missionary efforts. It is provided "not...by way of commandment, but by wisdom" (D&C 28:5). We appreciate feedback on how we can make this guide more useful. Please email us at webmaster@missionaryhelper.com with comments or suggestions.
Contents
Challenges in Member-Missionary Work
Core Commandments: The Foundation of Member-Missionary Success
The Power of Focus
The 90% Implementation Principle
The Consistency Principle
Harnessing
the Potential of your Member-Missionary Program
Train Members
Church Meetings: The Golden Hours
Finding People to Teach
Members and Contacting
Inspiring Members to Invite their Friends
Book of Mormon Loan Program
Cottage Meetings
Missionary Work Through Family History
Publicize your Ward or Branch
Other Resources for Sharing the Gospel
Dinner Appointments and Member Work
How to Submit Referrals Effectively
Building Self-sufficient and Self-perpetuating Branches
Challenges in
Member-Missionary Work
The LDS Church was recently reported as the fastest-growing major religious denomination in North America. In real terms, this growth comes more from a high birth rate than from successful baptism and retention of new converts. In contrast, it is one of the slowest-growing of any of the Christian churches in most of Eastern Europe, the former USSR, and Africa. Even in North America, LDS missionary work has experienced many difficulties.
Here are some of the ongoing challenges in LDS member-missionary work:
1. Only 35% of active LDS members in North America regularly participate in missionary work (M. Russell Ballard, Ensign, September 2000). When one accounts for the fact that only 40-50% of Latter-day Saints 'on the rolls' in North America are active, and about 20-30% in the rest of the world, this means in the best possible case that only about 15% of all LDS members share the gospel with any regularity. Christian researcher George Barna notes that 30-35% of all the US adult Christian population -- an estimated 60 million people -- share Christian beliefs with others, and that most of these do so at least monthly (George Barna, "Evangelism that Works," 1994). In other words, Latter-day Saints are actually significantly less likely to regularly share their beliefs with others than non-LDS Christians. The concept of consistent lifetime involvement in missionary work in the context of "every member a missionary" taught by Elder McKay -- while professed in word -- is internalized and practiced by relatively few active members of the church.
A study released on July 9, 2001, by Christian researcher George Barna collaborates the above statistics in a comparative religious context (See http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=93&Reference=A). Researchers who interviewed over 6,000 adults in the United States by telephone, asked a battery of questions about religious beliefs and questions. Only 26% of Latter-day Saint reported making any attempt to share their faith within the past year, compared to 61% of Pentecostals, 61% of Assemblies of God members, and 57% of non-denominational Christians! Indeed, the 26% figure for Latter-day Saints is not significantly different from the 24% of all adults nationwide who report making some attempt to share faith. The above study does not even include groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, where almost every member proselytes for ten or more hours a month, and over 800,000 of the six million members put in fifty or more proselyting hours each month! The LDS malaise member-missionary malaise cannot be explained by the higher commitments of the LDS faith (the study asked only whether members had made some attempt to share their faith, and not how successful those attempts may have been), nor can they be explained by “lack of time.” The average LDS member in North America spends over an hour a day watching television, but only one-quarter of identified members make any attempt at all to share faith over the course of an entire year! It seems quite remarkable that the average Latter-day Saint, who possesses such a vitally important message for the world, seems so much less inclined to share that message than many Christians of faiths with far less to offer.
2. The percentage of baptism from member referrals has dropped from 42% in 1987 to a present low of 20% (Elder M. Russell Ballard, Ensign, September 2000), and members account for only one in ten referrals. The absolute number of referrals has also dropped, in spite of a significant increase in total membership. This trend is particularly concerning in light of missionary department research cited by Elder L. Tom Perry that found that 86% of new converts who remain active have close personal ties to other LDS members (LDS Church News, June 21, 1991).
Latter-day prophets have clearly taught that missionary work should be the lifetime work of every member:
"After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel." Joseph Smith, Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 172
"There is neither man nor woman in this Church who is not on a mission. That mission will last as long as they live, and it is to do good, to promote righteousness, to teach the principles of truth, and to prevail upon themselves and everybody around them to live those principles that they may obtain eternal life." Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 322
"The purpose of our life should be to build up the Zion of our God, to gather the House of Israel, bring in the fulness of the Gentiles, restore and bless the earth with our ability and make it as the Garden of Eden, store up treasures of knowledge and wisdom in our own understandings, purify our own hearts and prepare a people to meet the Lord when he comes." Brigham Young, DBY p.88
"I wish to make this request: that the Elders who return from missions consider themselves just as much on a mission here as in England or in any other part of the world... We frequently call the brethren to go on missions to preach the gospel, and they will go and labor as faithfully as men can do, fervent in spirit, in prayer, in laying on hands, in preaching to and teaching the people how to be saved. In a few years they come home, and throwing off their coats and hats will say, Religion, stand aside, I am going to work now to get something for myself and my family. This is folly in the extreme. When a man returns from a mission where he has been preaching the Gospel he ought to be just as ready to come to this pulpit to preach as if he were in England, France, Germany, or on the islands of the sea. And when he has been at home a week, a month, a year, or ten years, the spirit of preaching and the spirit of the gospel ought to be within him like a river flowing forth to the people in good words, teachings, precepts, and examples. If this is not the case he does not fill his mission." Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, pp. 328-329
"I wish I could awaken in the heart of every man, woman, boy, and girl here this morning the great consuming desire to share the gospel with others. If you do that you live better, you try to make your lives more exemplary because you know that those you teach will not believe unless you back up what you say by the goodness of your lives." Gordon B. Hinckley, Alaska Anchorage Regional Conference, June 18, 1995
"I think every member of the Church has the capacity to teach the gospel to nonmembers. I was told the other day of a crippled woman, homebound, who spends her days in a wheelchair, who has been the means of bringing thirty-seven people into the Church...We need an awareness, an everyday awareness of the great power that we have to do this thing. Second, a desire. I think many of us realize that we could do it, but we lack the desire. Let every man single out another, a friend. Let him get on his knees and pray to the Lord to help him bring that man into the Church. I am as satisfied as I am of anything that with that kind of prayerful, conscientious, directed effort, there isn't a man in this Church who could not convert another...Third, the faith to try. It is so simple...This is not complex. It is simple. We have in the Northern Far East Mission of the Church today a beautiful and capable Japanese girl, born in Honolulu. I said to her, 'Were your folks members of the Church?' 'No, they were Buddhists.' 'How is it then that you are here?' She said, 'I had a high school friend who took me to Mutual once a week and then gave me a tract to read.' That girl went on to the University of Hawaii and then to Illinois Wesleyan University, from which school she was graduated. Today she is a missionary in Japan." Gordon B. Hinckley, Improvement Era, July 1961, p. 508
Indeed, there is no aspect of LDS missionary work in which overall performance has been so poor as in the area of member-missionary work. What then is the source of our member-missionary malaise, in a church with 12 million members, including approximately 500,000 returned missionaries? Why are so few members making any effort to share the gospel at all? Do members erroneously believe that sharing the gospel is primarily the role of full-time missionaries? Is missionary work viewed as a one-time responsibility to be discharged by missionary service, rather than as a lifetime work? Do we fear man more than God? Whatever the excuses, our current member-missionary performance cannot be acceptable to the Lord.
The deficiencies of member-missionary work are particularly serious because they foster deep dependency. Over 80% of full-time LDS missionaries still come from North America, yet over 75% of LDS growth occurs outside of North America. A far greater potential lies in developing and harnessing the member-missionary efforts of members around the world. In that way, the growth of the Church will transformed from being almost entirely dependent on foreign missionaries, who are often less than ideal than natives in terms of cultural and linguistic understanding, to a grass-roots, autonomous, locally-driven movement of great power. Even areas like Mexico, where missionaries have been serving since the nineteenth century, still meet only a fraction of their own missionary needs, to say nothing of outreach to other areas. Even Mexico represents one of the more favorable cases with over a dozen full-time missions and the largest LDS population outside of the United States. Foreign missionaries are prohibited or seriously restricted in 119 nations with over half of the world’s population. Additionally, full-time LDS missions are heavily concentrated in North America (almost 1/3 of LDS missions, but only 5% of the world’s population) and South America (almost 1/3 of LDS missions and 8% of the world’s population). To achieve the same missionary to population ratio in India as in the United States, for example, there would have to be over 400 full-time missions with 80,000 LDS missionaries in India alone! A far more realistic and effective way to reach the unreached peoples of the world is through concerted, well-organized, strategic “every member a missionary” programs thoroughly incorporated into the hearts and minds of LDS members worldwide.
Too often, we ask the question "is the Church growing?" This is the wrong question. All denominations with active proselyting programs are experiencing growth. The real questions we should be asking ourselves are, "is church growth reaching its potential?" and "are we doing what the Lord expects of us?"
Core Commandments:
The Foundation of Member-Missionary Success
All successful member-missionary programs share a focus on consistency in fulfilling basic commandments which leads simultaneously to
(1) increased missionary and member finding efforts,
(2) increased effectiveness of missionary and member finding and teaching efforts,
(3) the presence of the Spirit in greater abundance.
As President Kimball taught, the progress made by wards and branches is a reflection of the degree to which each member is living the gospel:
"The basic decisions needed for us to move forward, as a people, must be made by the individual members of the Church. The major strides which must be made by the Church will follow upon the major strides to be made by us as individuals." Spencer W. Kimball, LDS General Conference, April 1979
A sister missionary from Moscow shared a valuable insight with me once: for members to share the gospel, they must be living the gospel and receiving the fruits of obedience. I am confident that the deficiency of basic gospel habits is the dominant reason why member-missionary participation in many areas is low. Basic gospel habits are surprisingly rare, and as a result the fruits of the Spirit are often withheld.
The first key is for all members to develop and maintain consistent gospel habits -- daily reading in the Book of Mormon for thirty minutes each day, daily family prayer, keeping the Sabbath Day holy, and paying tithing. Once these fundamental habits of Church membership are in place, one can optimize finding methods. It is a waste of time to talk about specific programs when these habits are not in place. Without them, no member-missionary program will ever reach its potential.
Consistent scripture reading is vital. While simply reading scriptures does not guarantee that members will share the gospel, the absence of this habit results in decreased effort, decreased effectiveness, and the loss of the Spirit. On my mission, my companions and I would not baptize people until they were consistently reading the Book of Mormon for 15-30 minutes every day. I think it is very basic commandment, and it makes for much more stable and reliable members.
The challenge of member-missionary focus on commitments is in turning scripture reading and daily prayer into consistent ongoing habits for the majority of the members. Preparation takes time. Yet over months and years, the great value of these habits for member-missionary work is unmistakeable. One ward mission leader highlighted the importance of obedience in member-missionary efforts:
"About two weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend various trainings with Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi, of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy - who is currently serving in my Area Presidency. In the 9 hours of missionary training with Elder Kikuchi, he covered a plethora of methods, techniques, etc. In my mind I was thinking of how I had tried a number of the programs in my own unit that he mentioned, but with little or no success. It happened that he and I were alone for a few minutes. I took the opportunity, without mentioning that my unit has not had a baptism in over 4 years, to ask him what counsel I could take home to my other leaders in the branch that would increase the missionary effort. Elder Kikuchi told me that he has seen many programs (set a date, for example) come and go, but there has only been one consistent common denominator for missionary success in a ward: that is the personal righteousness of the ward members. Elder Kikuchi suggested that I go back and tell my fellow council members that to be blessed with success in missionary work, they must qualify themselves for the blessing by increasing their personal righteousness. Because until we are reading and praying consistently - every day - we will not have the presence of the Spirit, and therefore, no true desire to share the gospel beyond mere lip service...We have a specific plan that we are using to help the members regain the regular companionship of the Holy Ghost. I believe that once a number of our members are feeling the Holy Ghost regularly, their desires to serve the Lord, and share His Gospel with others, with increase greatly. We've not had a baptism in over 4 years. But since following Elder Kikuchi's counsel from two weeks ago, we have been able to commit the father of a part member family to baptism." Jake Morphionos, Sharing the Gospel discussion list
The Power of Focus
One of the great religious phenomena of the past decade has been the explosion of Christian "cell churches" in the third world.Within Cambodia alone, the number of Christian believers has increased from about 200 to over 100,000 in a ten-year period, with the number of churches doubling almost yearly. How is this dynamic growth achieved? Through focus and the driving vision that sharing faith with others is one of the central callings of Christians! The real growth occurred when evangelism became a broad-based, grass-roots effort integrated into the daily life of local members who had caught the vision of their potential. Those involved cite the power of consistent focus on a few important objectives: Bible study, church attendance, and member evangelism.
One of the great myths of member-missionary work is that a highly organized infrastructure must be in place for members to share the gospel. Many believe that member-missionary performance would improve, “if only our ward had a good choir,” “if only we had more activities for our youth group,” “if only we had our own chapel,” and so forth. Yet little could be further from the truth. Areas with the most peripheral programming generally have some of the poorest-performing member missionary programs. For example, Utah, with thousands of large wards with extensive church programming, averages only 1.5 convert baptisms per year per ward (a convert growth rate of less than 0.5% per year). It should be understood clearly that the multitude of peripheral and auxillary programs is rarely an asset to missionary work. Having too many competing programs can actually be highly detrimental to the progress of the Church when the activities of true importance – like sharing the gospel – are “crowded out.”
Some Latter-day Saints go to great lengths to defend practices such as member-missionary dinner programs. This program takes missionaries off the streets and away from investigators during prime proselyting time in the evenings when families are home, and also gives members a false sense of having contributed to the missionary effort without taking the effort to interact with non-members face to face. Interestingly, Christian researcher George Barna's study of July 9, 2001, documents that only 26% of Latter-day Saints surveyed made any attempt shared the gospel within the past year, while 61% of Pentecostals and members of the Assemblies of God do so! The 26% of Latter-day Saints who share beliefs is not significantly different from the 24% of all Americans who do so, documenting that widespread LDS missionary dinner appointment programs result in little if any real benefit to the missionary effort.
A common philosophy is that if a missionary approach isn't patently harmful or grossly inappropriate, it must be good. Right? Effective missionaries learn to transcend this type of thinking. We must measure the opportunity cost of time, and compare the results of our current approaches to the true potential of our situation. Our performance must be compared not to a baseline of zero -- patting ourselves on the back because *something* was accomplished, no matter how little -- but to the higher standards of the potential of our area and the expectations of God. Once this frame of thinking is established, it becomes much easier to cut off our own barren branches and replace them with more fruitful patterns and methods.
Fruitfulness is one of the highest callings of Latter-day Saints. The great condemnation of Phariseeism was its barrenness. The Savior cursed the barren fig tree. John the Baptist taught that every tree which bringeth forth not good fruit will be cut down and cast into the fire. The Savior tells us that if we abide in him, we will bring forth “much fruit” (John 15:5). We cannot disbelieve the Savior, nor can we rationalize unfruitfulness. Fruitfulness is inseparably intertwined with obedience, just as barrenness is the result of disobedience. Often, lack of fruitfulness comes not from acts of flagrant disobedience, but through sins of omission and neglect that can deprive us of the full measure of the Spirit. In such a state, we lack the understanding and inspiration to most effectively build the Kingdom of God. Many today are guilty of the same sin that hindered the Church in Kirtland in 1835:
"The Presidency of Kirtland and Zion say that the Lord has manifested by revelation of His Spirit, that the High Priests, Teachers, Priests, and Deacons, or in other words, all the officers in the land of Clay County, Missouri, belonging to the Church, are more or less in transgression, because they have not enjoyed the Spirit of God sufficiently to be able to comprehend their duties respecting themselves and the welfare of Zion; thereby having been left to act in a manner that is detrimental to the interest, and also a hindrance to the redemption of Zion. Now if they will be wise, they will humble themselves in a peculiar manner that God may open the eyes of their understanding.” (Messenger and Advocate June 1835, DHC 2:229-31)
Through humility and obedience, God can enlarge our understanding. Rather than rationalizing ineffective dinner appointment programs because they might bring about some anecdotal or hypothetical good, it is necessary to step back and examine our performance in an objective framework. While any approach -- no matter how ineffective – might occasionally result in a few conversions, if practiced sufficiently widely, the institutionalization of less-effective approaches saps time, energy, and resources that could be better-directed towards more constructive ends. You see, less-effective means can distract members and missionaries from more important goals. They can make the law of God of no effect through our tradition. The proliferation of less-effective traditional finding methods like the missionary-member dinner program hampers proselyting results even in areas where the harvest is abundantly ripe. Such approaches distract members and missionaries from their true goals by introducing artificial and unnecessary considerations which consume time and resources. They promote small-minded thinking of "who is going to feed the missionaries on Tuesday" and obscure the big picture of "how are we going to reach the world with the gospel."
As Lin Yu Tang wisely stated, "Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom in life consists in the elimination of non-essentials." Effective missionaries, member-missionaries, and leaders learn to focus and eliminate non-essentials which otherwise become barriers to growth. Rapid growth occurs not through the proliferation of peripheral programming, but by concentrating energies and resources on a few clearly-defined, powerful strategies that make the most difference.
What barriers can you identify to member-missionary
work in your ward? Are there so many
meetings and activities that members feel overwhelmed and lack the time and
energy for member-missionary efforts?
How can you make existing activities more member-missionary centered and
investigator-friendly?
The 90%
Implementation Principle
What makes the most difference in member-missionary efforts? Elder M. Russell Ballard taught:
"Do you know what stake mission leaders and stake missionaries spend more time doing than anything else? Our research shows it is attending meetings, planning, and coordinating. These are good things, but sometimes we spend too much time reporting what we have done or planning what we will do. In contrast, stake mission leaders and stake missionaries invest considerably less time in what makes the most difference: personally interacting with their nonmember and less-active member friends and converts." (Ensign, September 2000).
President Charles Creel of the Russia St. Petersburg Mission (1992-93) used the analogy:
"Who will catch more fish -- the fisherman who spends ten hours a day preparing his bait and two hours with his line in the water, or the fisherman who gets his bait together in fifteen minutes and spends ten and a half or eleven hours each day fishing?"
While good planning is necessary to establish appropriate and effective courses of action, meetings convert no one. The real difference is made in the implementation of missionary efforts. Regardless of the methods for sharing the gospel which one prefers, it's vital to spend a full 90% of one's time and energies in the actual implementation of missionary efforts, and only 10% in planning, discussing, and reporting.
LDS General Authorities, with their busy schedules, frequently share stories of recent personal missionary experiences! By staying in touch with the "front lines," they provide effective example and remain current on their insights. All effective leaders lead by example. Early mission presidents, like Dan Jones, spent the vast majority of their time actually sharing the gospel rather than administering. While the large size of missions today precludes many mission presidents from spending the majority of their time finding, teaching, and working with members, the need for all individuals in leadership positions to be personally involved in all three of these areas on a consistent basis has not changed. As Spencer W. Kimball noted, "In the kingdom, the greater our responsibilities, the greater is our need to see ourselves as servants" (Ensign, May 1979, p. 107).
The Consistency
Principle
Consistency is vital to effective member-missionary work. One-time programs and sporadic or infrequent efforts are simply not effective in accomplishing the goals of missionary work. Are your member-missionary efforts sustained? If there was a missionary fireside or a missionary talk in Sacrament meeting last week, what are the member-missionary activities this week? Having a gospel discussion once in a long while is not enough. To be meaningful, our efforts must be consistent.
"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing." Vince Lombardi
Harnessing the
Potential of your Member-Missionary Program
The average ward in North America with over 300 members generates only two member referrals a month. Indeed, most member-missionary programs run at about 5-10% of their potential. Yet with only a few simple steps, the average ward or branch can harness the other 90-95% and multiply its productivity many times. Member-missionary work is everyone's job. Missionary work is one of the three core missions of the Church and should never be considered just another one of the multitude of programs competing for the time and attention of local leaders. The Church Handbook of Instructions and Stake Missionary Manual clearly state that the missionary program is to be integrated into all programs of the Church. This means more than assigning a missionary lesson once or twice a year, passing around a signup sheet for dinner appointments (which, data suggests, is actually counterproductive), or announcing an occasional missionary fireside.
In many wards, the efforts of the ward mission leader and ward missionaries are largely restricted to priesthood meetings. It is rare to hear of a wards with weekly missionary activities in Relief Society or youth classes. Discussing member-missionary work weekly only in Priesthood meetings is not only not in harmony with official Church instructions, it's also not optimal in terms of productivity, since the sisters are actually much more likely than the brethren to share the gospel consistently and to provide member-missionary referrals. A member-missionary program that involves only one or a few groups is like a car running on only one cylinder. Youth, too, can benefit from having a missionary message. Consistently involving all the youth -- both young men and young women -- in missionary efforts on a weekly basis generates enthusiasm for full-time missionary service and prepares future missionaries, in addition to blessing local missionary efforts. Is the involvement of women and youth crucial to the success of member-missionary activities? You bet! Here are some examples:
· LDS women account for the majority of member-missionary referrals.
· George Barna, a prominent Christian researcher, reported in a 1994 study of Christian evangelistic activity in the United States that most evangelizers are women. In fact, all large published studies of member-missionary profiles indicate that the significant majority of those who regularly share their religious beliefs with others are women. This is true for both Latter-day Saints and for members of other Christian denominations. These are highly significant finding that we should not ignore in our local member-missionary initiatives.
· 70% of Jehovah's Witness proselyting in Japan (where there are ten times as many active Jehovah's Witnesses as Latter-day Saints) is done by women. Rates in many other nations are similar.
· The individual who brought 365 families into David Yonggi Cho's Pentecostal church in South Korea within a single year was a woman. Yonggi Cho, pastor of the world’s largest church, the 750,000-member Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, emphasizes the tremendous role of women in member-missionary efforts. He states, “Women are underused in the church. We use them on telephone - they talk constantly - they love to talk on the phone. Put Jesus in their mouth to talk! So women are a tremendous strength in church because of culture - but in Western culture - you are afraid of using women. But once women were given the freedom to work [as member-missionaries]…there was an explosion of [church growth].”
· Since instituting these member-missionary initiatives in our ward a few months ago, the number of member referrals in our ward has increased to eight times the North American average. Missionaries are receiving four member referrals a week, instead of two a month. Member-missionary involvement is still climbing, and we still feel that we've barely scratched the surface.
A major role of stake and ward missionaries is to make sharing the gospel an easy and natural outgrowth of church membership for all members. Making assignments which are accepted by only one or two members -- for example, passing out one copy of the Book of Mormon each week for a volunteer to place-- is less effective and generates only sporadic involvement in missionary work by a minority of members. Programs like this limit member-missionary efforts to a tiny fraction of their potential even before implementation begins. The goal of an effective "every member a missionary" program is for all members to share the gospel all of the time, and not for a of few members to share the gospel some of the time. Everyone should be expected to participate and to participate consistently.
Train Members
Many member-missionary programs fail because they start with motivation rather than training. Jim Rohn wrote,
“Education must precede motivation...If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn't need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.”
Effective member-missionary programs train members and help them implement and refine their member-missionary skills on a weekly basis. Most members have never brought a non-member into the Church. In fact, most have never even brought a friend to church, and only a minority of active members have even approached a non-member about the gospel within the past year! Therefore, calls from the pulpit for every member to bring a non-member into the Church often fall upon deaf ears. Most members simply don’t know how! If one were instructing a young son or daughter on how to bake a cake, how would one best go about it -- by telling them, 'go bake a cake,' or by providing step by step instructions on how to accomplish the goal, along with problem-solving tips and knowledge of where they can turn for help?
How do we ensure that member-missionary programs are running on all cylinders? Optimal results are obtained when a missionary message focused on practical implementation is given in Priesthood, Relief Society, and youth classes each week. These messages should be well-organized, practical, and strategic. A brief missionary tip should be conveyed that will help members to better understand and implement personal member-missionary activities. Messages should also include an interactive segment which includes follow-up from the previous week, finding out and addressing concerns, discussing problems and challenges, and sharing experiences. Each message should end with a specific call to action. To respect the time of the teacher, full-time and ward missionaries should consistently keep the weekly missionary message within a three to five minute time limit. To be most useful, such messages should be given every week. Infrequent or inconsistent member-missionary lessons usually fail to promote sustained member-missionary improvement because of inconsistent reinforcement and sketchy follow-up. Member-missionary performance improves when individuals recognize that missionary work will be a weekly topic of discussion for which accountability will be expected. Individuals are free to share the gospel in whatever manner they prefer, but every member is expected to share the gospel on a regular basis. The weekly missionary sessions can be used to introduce members to new resources for sharing the gospel and help members to find approaches for sharing the gospel that they are comfortable with and that are appropriate for their acquaintances.
Church Meetings: The Golden Hours
Church meetings and activities represent "the golden hours" for stake, ward, district, and full-time missionaries as well as member-missionaries. As a stake missionary, from the moment I arrive at church -- comfortably before the meetings begin -- to the moment I leave, all of the time I am not sitting in sacrament or listening to lessons, I am meeting new people and talking to other members about sharing the gospel! I ask other members how their efforts to share the gospel are going, learn their experiences, solicit feedback, offer new resources, and follow-up on old ones. These hours are precious -- never, ever let them pass by while you sit quietly or associate only with a few old friends! Use time at church meetings to the best advantage, and it will pay rich dividends.
From the moment ward and stake missionaries arrive at church -- comfortably before the meetings begin -- to the moment they leave, all of the time they are not sitting in sacrament or listening to lessons, they should be meeting new people and talking to other members about sharing the gospel! I ask other members how their efforts to share the gospel are going, learn their experiences, solicit feedback, offer new resources, and follow-up on old ones. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up! Be a PPP -- a polite persistent pest! Arrive early, stay late, and don't sit down until you have sincerely introduced yourself to any individuals you don't recognize. Do more than say hello -- be a real friend, not an assigned one. Your job is to make each person sincerely feel as welcome as possible. Encourage other members to do the same.
We also maintain a well-stocked supply of missionary resources in the front foyer. These varying resources -- 23 Questions Answered by the Book of Mormon, Lamb of God video cards, "Tell Me About Your Family" cards, copies of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith pamphlets, temple brochures, family resources, etc. -- are constantly available for members and non-members alike. Every additional step required to obtain a missionary resource -- asking stake or ward mission leaders, calling full-time missionaries, etc -- exponentially reduces the number of individuals who will use that resource. Therefore, it is vital to make missionary resources as widely and easily available as possible to promote maximum utilization. Many people will spontaneously take and use missionary resources if they are simply made easily accessible, and if awareness of these resources is constantly emphasized.
Ezra Taft Benson taught that programs are means to an end, and should not be confused with the ends themselves. Members are encouraged to use their own initiative and creativity in finding effective ways to share the gospel:
"The overall objective to be accomplished in missionary work, temple work, providing for the needy, and bringing up our children in righteousness has always been the same; only our methods to accomplish these objectives have varied. Any faithful member in this dispensation, no matter when he lived, could have found righteous methods to have carried out these objectives without having to wait for the latest, specific Churchwide program." Ezra Taft Benson, God, Family, Country, p. 382
Finding People to
Teach
It is important for members to share the gospel on a regular basis. They should at least have a gospel conversation with a new individual every week, if not more frequently. I do not have a preferred approach, as I find that simply making the effort to share the gospel consistently is far more important than what the actual approach consists of.
The most effective approaches to sharing the gospel
vary from area to area depending on local church and community conditions and a
variety of other factors. For this reason, generic lists stating that one
finding method is "better" than another are rarely very helpful. The
finding dynamics in Utah, where missionaries draw from a very large member
base, are totally different than those in Poland or Japan. How can you find the
most effective approaches for your area? By understanding what finding dynamics
are applicable under your local circumstances. It is necessary to optimize
approaches in the three core areas: missionary contacting, member-missionary
work, and media efforts. Detailed essays on these topics are found in the Finding Action Guide at MissionaryHelper.com.
Members and
Contacting
Contacting has a vital role -- not just for stake missionaries, but for all member-missionaries. Contacting is s a great activity for splits. Certainly, involving members in the teaching and fellowshipping process early -- long before baptism -- is very important. Additionally, involvement in finding -- while it is hard work that requires both members and missionaries to get out of their comfort zone -- is very developmental for local members. According to the Missionary Department, two-thirds of missionary work is finding. No missionary or member-missionary who does not contact regularly will develop a full array of necessary missionary skills. Latter-day prophets have encouraged rank and file members to participate in contacting and tracting:
"...Several decades ago when President David O. McKay presided over the church, he gave impetus to the missionary work in the stakes of Zion. He coined the term, 'Every member a missionary,' and it is obvious that would be a giant step toward the accomplishment of our directives. Certainly we could extend our efforts and 'lengthen our stride' and greatly increase the conversions and build the kingdom and eventually knock at every door. That would only be about 2000 to every missionary, but the ratio would rapidly change if we really did this." Spencer W. Kimball, Regional Representatives Seminar, April 3, 1975
Members who regularly split with the missionaries for tracting get a great hands-on introduction to sharing the gospel with their friends and neighbors. When members tract and do the door approach with missionaries, many apprehensions about sharing the gospel are overcome. Most members cite fear as the dominant reason for not sharing the gospel! When missionaries help members overcome their fear by participating in contacting, many benefits arise for both parties. The members learn how to contact by teaching and example.
When members are only invited to work with missionaries once most of the groundwork with specific investigators is already laid, many benefits are lost. Members may feel more comfortable sharing the gospel in a controlled, pre-arranged setting, but are unlikely to feel more comfortable sharing the gospel with new contacts.
Members who contact with missionaries are far more likely to be aware of, and to act upon, the many opportunities around them to share the gospel with their friends and neighbors. Contacting also helps members to overcome false expectations of great success with little work. Experiencing rejection on a regular basis is part of sharing the gospel for anyone who does so in earnest. Contacting with missionaries helps members to cope with rejection in a constructive manner, and helps to avert withdrawal into a distant comfort zone.
My first mission president used to say that if we aren't being rejected many times a day, we aren't doing much missionary work. That's not to say that we don't look for ways to improve our success rates by tailoring the message to the local people; of course we do. When either members or missionaries (or both) try to escape rejection by remaining in their comfort zones, however, little is done to build the Church. My mission president also told us that we should do things that are hard for us every day, echoing an old counsel of President McKay. Not surprisingly, the hardest things for us to do are frequently the most developmental.
Both members and missionaries need to regularly participate in all three aspects of the missionary program -- finding, teaching, and fellowshipping/retention -- for missionary work to be optimally effective. Certainly the balance is different for members and missionaries, and local circumstances also affect the balance.
Many members want to help find people for the missionaries, but simply don't know how to go about it. Showing members how to contact on a regular basis with real people in actual situations is a far more effective way of encouraging them to share the gospel with their friends, than repeatedly telling them what they "should" be doing. As Edmund Burke taught, "example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other!" The Roman statesman Seneca noted, "It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult."
Inspiring Members to Invite their Friends
Why do so many wards and branches have trouble attracting new people? Rick Warren, pastor of the fastest-growing Baptist church in the history of the USA, addressed this question:
"Most churches rarely attract unbelievers to their services because members are uncomfortable bringing them to church. It doesn't matter how much the pastor encourages members to bring friends or how many visitation programs are launched, the results are the same: Most members never bring any lost friends to church. Why is this? There are three important reasons. First, as I mentioned, the target of the messages is unpredictable. Members don't know from week to week if the pastor will be preaching an evangelistic message or an edification message. Second, the services are not designed for unbelievers; so much of what goes on in them would not be understandable to an unchurched friend. Third, members may be embarrassed by the quality of the service." Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, p.252
"What is the most natural way to increase the number of visitors to your church? By making members feel guilty for not inviting friends? No. By putting up a big sign that says 'Visitors Welcome'? No. By cold-calling on homes in your community? Probably not. By holding advertising contests? Unlikely. By using telemarking or advertising? Wrong again. The answer is quite simple: Create a service that is intentionally designed for your members to bring their friends to. And make the service so attractive, relevant, an appealing to the unchurched that your members are eager to share it with the lost people they care about." Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, p.253
The quality of the worship service correlates highly with congregational growth. The Hartsem study, a large-scale study of thousands of congregations (including LDS) throughout the United States, reports that 56% of U.S. congregations with "highly inspirational" services are growing, compared to only 27% with low-quality worship services.
Talks and lessons at Church services must be of such a quality that both non-members and members alike will feel inspired and edified. Members and missionaries much learn early on to prepare quality messages that will be understandable to non-members as well as to long-time members. Passive theories dismissing poor-quality talks and lessons as a "stage of growth" that members will pass through are poorly substantiated. In spite of the fact that many LDS members are frequently assigned talks, lessons, and callings for personal growth, Church Missionary Department research cited by Elder Ballard states that members are generally much more uptight in gospel discussions than non-members.
Given that the average LDS ward in North America only produces two member referrals per month, it's clear that the perceived quality and relevance of the average worship service may have considerable room for improvement. Members and missionaries must work together to ensure that worship services are of a consistently high quality, and not just a growing experience for speakers and teachers. One of the major challenges is creating an awareness of the needs of visitors. Many Latter-day Saints have been members of the Church for so long and have so few gospel-related interactions with non-members that they have little awareness of the needs and feelings of non-members in different stages of investigating the Church. Speakers need to use terms that are relevant and understandable for non-LDS visitors, and the spirituality and relevance of talks and lessons should be such that Latter-day Saints are excited to invite their nonmember friends to "come and see."
I recently visited a Spanish-language branch where one of the speakers mentioned that, for the branch to function "properly," 212 individuals would be needed to fill callings. It should be understood clearly that branches do not need to juggle dozens of different programs to receive the full blessings of the gospel: they only need to do the few basic and important things well. The proliferation of peripheral programs has no correlation with church growth or the quality of meetings. Rather, it often only distracts attention from the "weightier matters of the law," as demonstrated by the experience of many United States wards with extensive music programs, choirs, active youth and community programs, and a calling for everything imaginable, but chronically low participation in member-missionary work and daily scripture reading. Proper priorities are key to both spiritual growth and outreach. The Spirit is gained by consistent obedience to basic gospel laws, and not by the plethora of programming.
By far the most important predictor of the quality of talks and lessons is the extent to which the member lives the gospel, and especially whether he or she has established the habit of Book of Mormon for half an hour each day as our prophets have instructed. Members who have not established such basic habits may be able to read words on a page, but they will not have a significant degree of understanding or insight to share with listeners. The quality of talks and lessons will suffer, and the Spirit will not be present in a degree to touch investigators or edify members. Rushing new members to baptism before fundamental gospel study habits are established and then giving them important teaching or leadership responsibilities is a path to disaster. Such practices are guaranteed to lead to decreased conversion rates and the institution of social mormonism rather than true spirituality among many existing members. Meeting with members to go over a talk or lesson can occasionally have a role, but no amount of missionary teaching can compensate for the absence of consistent daily scripture-reading habits.
Book of Mormon Loan Program
As I visit many used bookstores in non-LDS areas, I am surprised at how frequently I come across whole sections of copies of the Book of Mormon -- apparently donated by non-members who had received copies, but never meaningfully read or accepted the work (in contrast, the largest retail bookstore in the state of Colorado -- the Tattered Cover -- contains a large section with commentaries on the Book of Mormon, but not one copy of the actual book. But that is another topic). In one used bookstore with a particularly large collection, I found myself contemplating on how many months or years of Book of Mormon distribution that represented in my ward at the time where Book of Mormon placement reports were given weekly. While I do not know the exact circumstances of placement of all of the copies of the Book of Mormon in the used bookstore, from the practices representative of local wards I suspect that many books were placed by LDS members, but that little meaningful reading or follow-up occurred. Clearly, there is no value simply to placing copies of the Book of Mormon if they are not meaningfully read, discussed, and followed-up on.
Fortunately, there is an approach which is superior in virtually every way to the extremes of both indiscriminate distribution without appropriate follow-up on one hand, and inadequate use of the Book of Mormon on the other. I have never heard or read of the approach I speak of being advocated in any other medium, but I learned it from my father. My companions and I used this approach on our mission with great success. The approach which I speak of involves using the Book of Mormon as the "great sieve," as Ezra Taft Benson has asked us to do. I shall call the Book of Mormon Loan Program.
The Book of Mormon loan program involves offering a copy of the Book of Mormon as a loan to contacts or acquaintances after an appropriate period of discussion to determine whether they would genuinely be interested in reading in the book. I make it clear that they do not need to read the whole book -- just enough to form an opinion. I offer suggested reading passages if they have specific questions or interests. I always give them a copy of "23 Questions Answered by the Book of Mormon" with the book and recommend and specific questions I feel may be of interest to them. Of course, the contact must first agree to read in the book and to return it if he or she is not interested. I make it clear that we would like to meet with him or her to discuss the principles in the book at greater length if he or she finds the contents to be interesting. Of course, if he or she does not commit to read in the book and does not agree to some kind of meaningful follow-up, I do not loan him or her a copy. Specific follow-up must be arranged prior to parting, either that I will call or speak with him or her at an agreed upon time or that he or she will come to church meetings.
After a few days, I call or stop by to follow up. If the individual is not interested, I pick up the book (if the follow-up is in person) or he or she returns the book to me at a church meeting or at another convenient agreed-upon time. Interestingly, we've gotten a number of uninterested contacts to church to return books along with the interested ones who come to learn more!
The Book of Mormon Loan Program has many advantages over simply placing copies of the Book of Mormon as gifts. First, it establishes accountability and guarantees follow-up. The individual who receives a 'free' or gift copy is unlikely to feel any accountability due to the prevalence of the 'free sample' mentality. Such individuals rarely read meaningfully and are sometimes evasive when follow-up is sought. Loaning copies of the Book of Mormon with pre-agreed accountability screens contacts more adequately to ensure that some meaningful reading will occur. It also ensures that the follow-up occurs in a meaningful time period and is not put off until interest wanes and the experience is forgotten. Additionally, this approach makes economical and effective use of Book of Mormon resources, while fulfilling the divine mandates to use the Book of Mormon as a sieve and to 'flood the earth with the Book of Mormon.' Most importantly, the individuals brought into the Church through this approach remained active because they are truly converted to the gospel message -- not just to the missionaries or to the social aspects of the Church.
The Book of Mormon Loan Program works! Try it and see. I'm convinced that after applying the Book of Mormon Loan program and seeing the results, you'll agree!
Cottage Meetings
"Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." John 4:35
The LDS term "cottage meeting" is perhaps the best approximation of the concept of "cell meetings." The main difference, of course, is that cottage meetings are simply an adjunct to missionary and fellowshipping efforts, and are not a substitute for Sunday block meetings. Cottage meetings are specifically authorized by the old General Missionary Handbook. We just finished a cottage meeting at our home tonight with four new members, four non-members, and several members who had been in the Church for some time. It went well, and all of the non-members set appointments for attending church with us this Sunday. This all started several months ago when we invited some new converts to our home for Family Home Evening. Since then, this has become a routine, and we have started inviting more non-members.
There are many benefits of cottage meetings. They provide a non- threatening environment for finding new investigators, for fellowshipping both non-members and new members, and for helping existing members learn to share the gospel. The home can often influence non-members in a way that the sterile environment of the chapel cannot.
Another consideration is time. My work schedule requires that I frequently spend evenings, nights, and weekends on call at my work. So the time that I can spend teaching discussions with the missionaries or visits to new members is limited. Holding "cottage meetings" helps us to accomplish more in the limited time we have. I still do try to go on splits each week. Yesterday I seemed to have some difficulty convincing the new missionaries in our area that I actually enjoy tracting with missionaries when they don't have discussions. Anyone can teach the "golden investigator," although retaining new converts is another topic. For me, the most exciting part is still the first contact of non-members with the Church.
Imagine what would happen if all Latter-day Saint families held cottage meetings routinely. The number of member referrals generated by the average LDS ward of 300+ members in North America is only two per month, which represents one of the lowest rates of member- missionary participation for any denomination with an active missionary program. With widespread, regular cottage meetings, the number of referrals generated by an average branch could quickly rise into the hundreds. This is a key to achieving maintained, exponential growth, in contrast to the decelerating linear growth we have been experiencing. The number of Southern Baptist churches among one group in the interior of India increased from 36 in 1993 to 2000 in 1998, with the number of churches doubling every year. Similarly, the number of Southern Baptist churches in Cambodia rose from 6 in 1992 to 194 in 1998, almost doubling every year. The number of LDS church units worldwide grows at a rate of only about 2% per year. This is in large part because Southern Baptists understand the importance of cottage or cell meetings, while this practice has been all but abandoned in most LDS wards.
When done properly, achieving rapid growth with excellent retention is not a protracted process. Growth is not a matter of time, but of fervent prayer, good planning, vigorous implementation, and honest evaluation and improvement. Most of all, we have to care much more about people. When we really care about people, we naturally have a desire to share the wonderful message that we have with them now. The people of the world deserve better than "maybe someday."
Missionary Work
Through Family History
Original article: "Family History as a Missionary Tool," by Christopher K. Bigelow, Ensign, October 2000, pp. 29-31. Summarized by David Stewart
Yes! It's true. Family history can be, and is, a phenomenal missionary tool! In fact, in areas with family history centers, family history can present one of the best inroads for member-missionary work!
The North America Southeast Area has recently adopted a "Tell Me About Your Family" program which is educating non-members about family history work while simultaneously generating interest in the Church . While the program is still relatively new, it appears to be succeeding at inspiring member-missionary efforts where the less-effective missionary dinner program and other initiatives have failed.
Why? Charles Wright, a stake missionary cited in the article, notes: "Religion is personal to people and many times is closely held. On the other hand, nearly anybody will sit down and talk to you about your ancestors. You can ask people questions about where they're from, and they enjoy letting you know about their heritage."
While the program's main goal is to make genuine friends and help individuals to understand the LDS emphasis on the family, some individuals become interested in the Chuch. Michael D. Knight, President of the Huntsville Alabama Stake, states: "Sharing the gospel is not as simple as inviting somebody over to hear the missionaries or watch a church video. We've struggled to involve members in missionary work. But we've had more member participation in this family history program than anything else we've tried" (ibid.)
LDS General Authorities have encouraged the effective use of family history as a missionary tool. In a Family History broadcast in 1998, Elder Boyd K. Packer stated: "We do not use our family history work for missionary work nearly as much as we could." Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Presidency of the Seventy also noted:
"Family history is obviously a crucial tool in redeeming the dead, but it can also play an important role in proclaiming the gospel and strengthening members of the Church. With even minimal coordination between priesthood leaders, family history workers, and missionaries, it will not be difficult to use family history as a tool for conversion and retetion of new members and activation of less-active members." (Ensign, February 1999, p.77)
['With even minimal coordination!' I like that. He tells it how it is.]
Members in the Huntsville Alabama Stake receive widely-circulated "Tell Me About Your Family" cards which help non-members to start recording names, places, and dates. The members then invite the interested contact to a family home evening about family history or a family history open house. Open houses are held up to once a month.
Stake Mission President Dean Dexter wisely follows up on what works -- and what doesn't. He notes, "The most successful open houses included several elements: one, a brief, spiritual presentation on why Latter-day Saints do family history work; two, a demonstration of FamilySearch software, with the computer screen projected for everyone to see, if possible; three, an opportunity for each visitor to sit down at a table and be assisted in filling out the 'Where Do I Start?' pamphlet and other forms." He notes that displays of family history work done by other members can be helpful: "Visitors love seeing what other people have done." He states that having full-time missionaries participate "is the most critical and important part of what we are doing at these open houses."
President Knight states that small, hands-on groups are best: "We don't want the open houses to get too big. The key is that visitors actually get to do things, that it's very hands-on. Smaller groups allow us to give personal attention more effectively and to follow up on any teaching opportunities that arise." Stake High Councilor Robert Swenson notes: "The key is to have the full-time missionaries sit at tables and work with people one-on-one and establish a rapport Otherwise it's just another family history seminar. People naturally ask questions that lead to opportunities to share the gospel." President Dexter states that follow-up is crucial to help individuals to continue their family history work and to give them the opportunity to investigate the Church: "We want visitors to leave hungry for more, not overstuffed."
Charles Drake, a member who has invited up to seven individuals to an open house, states: "We try to get the same people to come back by having something new for them each time. We want to get well-acquainted with them so we can invite them to another Church activity and move them toward investigating." He concludes: "I think it's the best missionary approach we've had in some years here and perhaps the best ever to reach Southern people, because the family is really important to us."
LDS Church Family History workers from Salt Lake City, Utah stated at a regional conference that retention rose from 30-40% to 80% simply by getting new members started on family history work immediately after their baptisms! Since hearing that, we are having family history missionaries attend all convert baptisms to establish contact with the new converts and to help them get started on family history immediately. I endorse this approach very highly to any ward or branch that desires to retain new converts. There are also many reports of less-active individuals who have been reactivated through family history work. Family history work is more than just an additional route for sharing the gospel. It is a crucial program central to convert retention and reactivation!
Publicize your Ward
or Branch
Missionaries work hard to find investigators. Can interested investigators find the Church?
One LDS member who moved to a large Central European capital with her husband. She looked for the Church for two or three months, but was unable to establish contact. Unbeknownst to her, the only LDS number listed in the local telephone directory was for a family history office which was open only two evenings a week from 5 to 7 pm, so the phone rang and rang when she frequently called. After several months of searching, she fortuitously encountered LDS missionaries on the street and was able to get church meeting information from them.
Unfortunately, this story is not simply a rare exception. It had a happy ending, but not all such stories do. Over the past few years, I've had numerous experiences with other individuals (both investigators and members) who have had a very difficult time connecting up with the church in their area and who finally made the connection under fortuitous circumstances. I wonder how many others like them weren't as fortunate. There are many people who are interested in the church, but who simply don't know how to find it.
From mid-1998 to the present, I have traveled to eighteen countries and over twenty states. I've consistently had a surprising amount of difficulty finding out when wards meet even in parts of Utah and other US states. I always appreciate the wards that have phone message with local meeting times, although they are by far the exception. I have often had to call multiple wards and still not learned any useful information about meeting times.
Many members of the Church believe that the reason why meaningful publicity efforts are rarely done at the local level is that there is some sort of official Church policy against this. However, this is untrue. The permission of higher authorities is not needed for wards to conduct local publicity efforts. These problems generally arise because no one has bothered to consider the quality of the exposure of their ward or branch in the community.
What good is a candle if it is hidden under a bushel? Similarly, how does the presence of an LDS ward or branch benefit the members of a community, if locals do not know it exists, or are unable to obtain adequate meeting information? Sometimes we make it very difficult for interested individuals to find the church. In some areas of the world there aren't multiple wards to call, and not everyone is willing to spend an indefinite amount of time trying to track down the nearest LDS ward or branch. In many areas, it is virtually impossible for an interested person to find the church without member friends or some other preexisting contacts. Such important matters cannot be left to chance or circumstance.
How can we make it as easy as possible for individuals to find the Church?
1) Make sure that your ward is listed in the local phone directory and that the listed phone number has an answering machine with local meeting information. Many chapel phone numbers in the mission field are unlisted. For those that are listed, usually there is not an informational message. During the week, the phone just rings and rings. Sometimes there is a message about some upcoming activity, but very rarely is there a message with useful information about local meeting times. A chapel phone number is of little value unless (1) it is publicly available (i.e. listed in the phonebook) and (2) there is either (a) a person there to answer it during the workweek or (b) there is a message with useful informational content.
2) Let passers-by know what time to come! I have often wondered about the 'visitors welcome' sign on most LDS chapels. The vast majority of churches of other denominations list the meeting days and times in a publicly visible fashion. Even if a visitor found the chapel and wanted to attend LDS meetings, I don't have any idea how he or she would know when to show up. Potential visitors might feel much more welcome if we let them know what time to come! Signs that make meeting times visible from the street can be very helpful.
3) Consider regularly announcing meeting times in local newspapers. Such ads are often available to religious denominations at minimal cost. Also, take advantage of local community opportunities.
4) When possible, chapels should be constructed in visible locations that can easily be found. Most other denominations tend to position their churches strategically on main roads, LDS Chapels are often tucked away deep in residential neighborhoods. A number of members who attend chapels in prominent locations have shared stories of how individuals have come into the church by stopping by an LDS meetinghouse on Sunday. If enough people regularly pass by a chapel, some eventually become curious and decide to come in, provided that meeting times are posted.
What kind of information do you get when you call your chapel on a weekday? Could a guest from the community passing by your chapel or calling your chapel phone learn what time to come? A little awareness and effort go a long way!
Local publicity efforts do not replace other types of missionary work, but they do supplement conventional missionary and member-missionary efforts. Many wonderful conversions have occurred in many areas where these basic publicity awareness steps have been implemented.
Other Resources for Sharing the Gospel
I've attended many wonderful missionary firesides where excellent programs were presented which never made it off the ground. The reason: lack of consistent, regular, and timely follow-up. There are many good ways to share the gospel. In my experience, it is not as important how members share the gospel, as that they do so on a consistent basis. There is no program so good that it can achieve dynamic results in the absence of doggedly persistent follow-up.
Most members have opinions about various missionary approaches, and there is probably no single program that is ideal for everyone. Rather than presenting a single program to members, I find it much more effective to present them with a range of programs and resources. In our ward, we are using temple fliers, Book of Mormon approaches, "23 Questions Answered by the Book of Mormon", "Golden Questions", Lamb of God video cards, Article of Faith cards, Joseph Smith tracts, and now "Tell me about your Family" cards. I do not care which methods members use to share the gospel, so long as they do it consistently. My job as a stake missionary is not so much to set goals for other members or to mobilize them behind a single way of sharing the gospel, but to help them to find approaches which they will actually use and to provide support, resources, timely follow up, "troubleshooting help," and personal example. I try to help members, individually and collectively, to overcome the "fear of man", to resolve concerns, and to help them to actually implement approaches of their choosing. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up!
Use the chapel libraries. They can be a member-missionaries best friend! Almost every meetinghouse library in the church is stocked with excellent materials for presenting the gospel to non-members which are frequently unused. The resources that aren't used can't help you! Pamphlets accumulating dust on shelves and videos which aren't being watched bring no one into the church. Become familiar with the resources for sharing the gospel in your ward or branch library, and get them into the hands of members, who can put these materials to work in the community! The LDS Distribution Center is also a great friend of the member-missionary. I find myself constantly ordering materials from the Church Distribution Center Catalogue for sharing the gospel!
Here are some helpful materials for sharing the gospel. Materials published by the church are available through the Church Distribution Center, online at ldscatalog.com (tel. 800-537-5950). Links for the others are available at http://missionaryhelper.com/
10 Top LDS Missionary Training Resources
Starting a Gospel Conversation:
Golden Questions
Book of Mormon Resources:
The Book of Mormon
23 Questions Answered by the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon: How Rare a Possession Video
Jesus Christ:
Proclamation on the Savior
Lamb of God Video Cards
Joseph Smith:
Joseph Smith Pamphlet
The First Vision Video
Restoration of the Priesthood Video
Articles of Faith:
13 Articles of Faith
Church Invitations:
Come and See
Family:
The Family, A Proclamation to the World
Cornerstones of a Happy Home
Getting the Bugs Out of Your Marriage
How to Talk to Your Teenager
For the Strength of Youth
Together Forever Video
Family First Video
Family History:
Tell Me About Your Family Cards
Welcome to the Family History Center
Other Videos:
Man's Search for Happiness
What is Real
Easter Dream
Bible:
LDS Bible Cards
17 Points of the True Church
41 Points of the True Church
LDS Magazines and Articles:
Ensign
LDS Church Magazines 1970-2000
Temples:
Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Dinner Appointments
and Member Work
Missionary dinners at members' and investigators' houses can take considerable time during prime proselyting hours. It is also a considerable expense for them in poor areas of the world, where they often feel they have to put out their best. It is good policy for missionaries to let members and investigators know ahead of time that they will not have time to eat. It is also very difficult to keep the spirit when individuals are preoccupied with serving or eating and not the most "needful thing." (cf. Mary and Martha).
The truth is that missionary dinner appointments are incredibly ineffective. They waste prime contacting proselyting time when families are home, and they are not a particularly fruitful source of referrals! On average, it takes well over ten member visits to generate a single referral! How many hundreds of people in the community could be contacted during this same time period? Claims that dinner appointments present an "effective" way to share the gospel and gain referrals are unsubstantiated. In fact, dinner appointments frequently result in "spinning the wheels" while accomplishing little -- talking about missionary work rather than doing it. Such approaches are frequently favored because they are easy and comfortable -- not because they are effective! Missionaries worldwide spend more time working with members now than ever before, but member referrals are at an all-time low. The practice of missionary member dinner appointments is so ineffective that it was banned by the North America Central Area Presidency in 2000, except in cases where non-members or inactives were also present. Members and missionaries need to spend their time actually working together to proselyte non-members, rather than spending time in closed groups discussing the need to share the gospel while making little effort to actually do so.
I have discussed this principle with many ward and stake missionaries and with members who have grown attached to the tradition of missionary dinner appointments. Many cite the wonderful spirit that missionaries bring into their home, although none have found much objective success stemming from this practice. While it can be nice for members to get to know the missionaries or feel a warm spiritual glow, neither of these is the object of missionary work. Getting an education or finding a job are also good things, but they are not substitutes for a young man's missionary responsibility. Satan would like nothing more than to distract us from the things that are most important by filling up our schedules with good things of lesser value.
The role of missionaries is to teach and baptize, and not to become pseudo-home teachers for members. Members, missionaries, and local leaders who choose to perpetuate missionary dinner programs should not do so under the pretense that this represents a viable or effective approach to missionary work. Members and ward missionaries need to encourage the missionaries to do their duty and spend their time sharing the gospel with those who still need to hear it and help them to do so, instead of monopolizing the missionaries in member homes during prime contacting and teaching time.
"Too many missionaries are neutralized, and occasionally lost (excommunicated), because of oversolicitous members, member sisters who 'mother' the missionaries, and socializing occurring between missionaries and members. Because of the importance of members and missionaries working effectively together on the member missionary program, it is vital that missionaries maintain the proper missionary image and have the reputation as great proselyting elders and not simply 'good guys'. The greatest help members can be to a missionary is not to feed him, but to give the names of their friends so that he can teach them with the spirit in their homes and challenge them, with the wonderful members helping to fellowship." Ezra Taft Benson, Mission Presidents' Seminar, June 21, 1975
When travel time is included, a single member visit appointment can take two hours or more - time in which up to a hundred people could have had opportunities to hear about the gospel by tracting or street contacting. The abuse potential of joint member and missionary activities that do not involve non-members or inactives is very high.
How to Submit
Referrals Effectively
Prepare your
acquaintance
Members and investigators are a significant source of referrals in most areas of the world. These referrals are particularly valuable, since individuals are much more likely to be converted when they know individuals who are members and are pre-selected from a much larger group.
Referrals are most effective when:
(1) Members have spoken with the the referral about the gospel
(2) The individual has expressed interest in the Church
(3) The individual has consented to being contacted by the missionaries.
I am continually amazed at how frequently I am contacted about referral submission by individuals who have not even had meaningful gospel discussion with the individual they desire to refer. Some individuals believe that the missionaries -- who are trained in sharing the gospel -- will be more effective in starting gospel conversations with their acquaintance than they are. However, studies repeatedly document that members are far more likely to be successful in inspiring gospel interest in acquaintances than cold-contacting missionaries or media programs. In fact, appropriately prepared member referrals are ten times as likely to be baptized as referrals from other sources! In light of this,
It is important both to share your testimony, not simply that the gospel is true, but what (specifically) it has done for you and how specific principles help you in your daily life. Non-leading find-out questions are also very important. For example, asking your acquaintance how he or she understands faith, what they enjoy reading in the scriptures, etc. can be good starting points that can help you to have meaningful discussions and introduce more of the gospel through your personal testimony and experiences as well as scriptures of personal meaning to you. The key is to make it personal, rather than simply quoting something someone else said which may be of limited meaning to you. Some members expect the missionaries to bear the entire responsibility for talking to their acquaintance about the gospel, and such referrals are generally much less effective because your acquaintance will not think that the gospel is genuinely very important to you unless you are willing and able to have open gospel conversations. A non-threatening way you can approach non-members who are not ready initially to meet with the missionaries is to explain some of the activities the church offers (dances, scouts, activities, homemaking, etc.) and suggest that they might enjoy attending some of them.
It is very important to prepare the person as much as possible, especially since it may take some time before the referral is followed up on, and if the initial contact was weak, the person may remember little or nothing and their interest may have dropped off by the time missionaries arrive. Make sure that the person understands as much as possible about the process. Tell them about the missionaries who will come and visit and what they will talk about so that there will be no surprises when the missionaries contact the person. Giving the person some kind of church literature (preferably in their native language, but a pamphlet in English is much better than nothing) - especially a copy of the Book of Mormon and the Joseph Smith tract - is important because it builds a link that will last long after the contact with you is over (what church did that person tell me about, anyway?) Missionaries try to keep an active turnover, and time lost following up disinterested contacts is time that could be spent teaching other people. Preparing the contact as much as possible is absolutely crucial. The best possible situation is when the person is willing to initiate contact with the church himself or herself, because this shows a much higher level of interest than simply accepting visits. Please give the contact person the phone number and address of the appropriate mission office if possible and explain that because mission offices are open generally only during working hours and take time off for conferences and preparation days, they may have to call several times to get through.
Obtain permission
first
It is important to be completely up front with nonmember acquaintances and ask their permission before sending a referral to the local missionaries. If one does not have the contact's permission, the relationship of trust may be disrupted when the contact figures out who submitted his or her name. If people aren't genuinely excited about the church when they talk to a person who they know, it is very unlikely they will react positively to missionaries who they don't know.
I recall one episode from my mission where a member gave us a referral of a friend of hers without telling the friend that she had referred her. We called up the contact, and she was very upset with us and with the member who referred her, perhaps justifiably so. Not only did we not get in the door, but her relationship with her member friend was seriously damaged. Fortunately, we called in advance, so we did not lose time tracking her down that could have been spent finding other people with greater interest in the gospel.
I remember as a missionary trying to track down referrals at non-existent addresses and calling non-existent phone numbers. Some that we did reach claimed no recollection of ever speaking with anyone about the church! Many of these referrals were written by individuals who were excited about meeting someone from Russia, but did little to familiarize them with the church.
Referrals can be very helpful if they are appropriately prepared. If the person has not expressed a real interest in the church, it is more appropriate to continue working with the person rather than send on referral for someone else to do the work. The desire to submit premature referrals can be great, but it often does more harm than good. It is virtually never appropriate to submit a referral without the knowledge and consent of the person being referred.
Submit the Referral
In preparing a referral, it is very important to include as much information as possible, including name, address, phone number, occupation (if known), your relationship with the person, what contact she has had with the church, the level of interest he or she has expressed, when to best reach him or her, and any other special instructions.
The more information included with a referral, the greater the missionaries' ability to approach the person effectively. A standard form with only a name, address, and telephone is not nearly as helpful as a letter - or even a paragraph - describing the type and extent of the person's contact with the Church, the level of interest expressed, and what interested the person.
Was the person a self-referral, or does he or she not even know that an acquaintance has referred him or her? Have they read part of the Book of Mormon and attended church, or are they more interested in the Church from a philosophical standpoint? When missionaries have this information, they can often build on common ground and break the ice with the person referred. It is important to encourage those who submit referrals to include this information.
The referral may or may not have a phone, but if they do that is important information since public transportation can be is poor and sometimes missionaries can give up on referrals who are consistently not home, especially when they live in an inconvenient or distant location. It is a good ice-breaker when missionaries know the name of the person who submitted the referral and can use that to bring back memories and build a common ground.
Referrals can be sent directly to the mission or indirectly through the missionary department at the church office building in Salt Lake City, although in some cases it can take a considerable amount of time for the referral to be received and acted upon. Obviously the fewer hands a referral passes through, the more rapidly and more reliably it will reach its destination.
Current mailing and phone information on each mission can be obtained by calling the Church's LiveConnect system. Instructions are found at http://www.mission.net/en/mnt_liveconnect.html . Referrals can also be submitted online at http://www.lds.org/
Follow-up
In spite of your best efforts, some referrals still slip through the cracks. Missions do not give feedback to those submitting referrals, and so you will have no way of knowing whether the referral was followed up on, or how it went, without taking personal initiative. Therefore, follow-up is imperative. I recommend sending a letter to the mission office several weeks after the initial referral was submitted, including all the initial information again and stating that you feel that this person is interested in the church (specifically noting signs of interest) and reaffirming that they wish to be contacted by the missionaries if they have not been contacted already. Also, keep in contact with the person yourself as a friend. This will also allow you to verify that the person is being taught by the missionaries and that progress is being made. The attitude of "I've done my part in submitting a referral - it's the missionaries responsibility now" is a recipe for failure. Mail can be slow and unreliable, so if you have any question about whether the referral has been received and acted upon, please call the mission office and speak with a human being.
Building
Self-sufficient and Self-perpetuating Branches
Elder Ezra Taft Benson reported that the period during World War II when young men served in the army rather than on missions actually resulted in more conversions than any comparable period in the church's history to that date! Similarly, when local members could meet openly in East Germany but foreign missionaries were prohibited, the growth rates of church units in East Germany frequently far exceeded those of West German units with large complements of foreign full-time missionaries. Consistent, quality member-missionary efforts can ensure the rapid growth of the Church, even in areas where few or no full-time missionaries are available.
There are 119 countries, with over half of the world's population, which forbid or seriously restrict foreign missionaries (K.P. Yohannan, "The Revolution in World Missions"). With over 80% of full-time LDS missionaries still coming from the United States, many obstacles are presented for sharing the gospel in these nations. Due to either political or logistical issues, it frequently takes many years for long-term foreign missionaries to enter areas where denominations that are able to sustain and perpetuate growth with local member efforts have flourished. Compared to native missionaries and member-missionaries, foreign missionaries are always the last to enter and the first to leave in areas of political unrest or restricted religious freedom.
Periods when foreign missionaries have been banned or have visited only occasionally have, with few exceptions, been periods of little growth. One might examine the track record in Nicaragua from 1978-1989, or in India from 1853-1993. While LDS missionaries first entered India in 1853 and visited many times subsequently, they failed to establish self-perpetuating branches. When the India Bangalore mission was organized in 1993, there were only 1150 members in the nation. This same period saw tremendous growth of other denominations: There are over 24 million Christians in India today, including over five million Baptists and five million Lutherans. While LDS membership quickly grew to 2000 once the mission was established, what will the future hold now that foreign missionaries have again been removed? The number of southern Baptist churches among one interior Indian people has grown from 36 in 1993 to 2000 in 1998, with the number of churches doubling every year. Almost all of the Baptist's work is done through native missionaries and member-missionaries.
The twenty-year period in Indonesia when foreign missionaries were banned was a time of little growth. The situation in Nicaragua and most other areas that have experienced periods when foreign missionaries have been withdrawn is similar. Make no mistake about it; these periods have seen dramatic growth of Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, and a variety of other groups. With political situations in many areas remaining volatile and limited prospects for foreign missionaries, the ability of local branches to become not only self-sufficient, but self-perpetuating and capable of consistent growth, is not simply a far-fetched idealistic goal, but a desperate need.
The need for self-perpetuating branches is similar in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Armenia, Turkey, etc., where opportunities for foreign missionaries may be limited, but where member-missionary opportunities are virtually unlimited. Make no mistake about it: these opportunities have not been lost on other denominations, which have organized hundreds of congregations in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, etc. over the past several years. The best period for missionary work is the period of spontaneous religious interest, when large groups of individuals will turn out to investigate denominations, often with nothing more than a simple invitation. Yet, there may be some period between the establishment of religious freedoms in a nation, and the establishment of unlimited opportunities for foreign missionaries. Therefore, a high dependence on intensive efforts of full-time foreign missionaries results in a loss of some of the best opportunities. Even in areas where full-time missionaries are permitted, successful establishment of self-sufficient and self-perpetuating branches leads to vastly improved growth. It is probable that the main factors leading to the growth of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia to over 120,000 active members during a period that has seen LDS church growth to only 12,000-13,000 (with only 30-40% activity in most areas) is the success of the Jehovah's Witnesses in (a) achieving high convert retention with immediate post-baptismal spiritual self-sufficiency through adequate pre-baptismal teaching and (b) establishing a framework in which new members are immediately integrated into ongoing member-missionary efforts.
Areas with very high missionary-member ratios generally report poor success when missionaries devote large amounts of time to working with the same few members. After nine years of missionary effort, there still has only one officially-organized branch in Belarus -- down from two branches in Minsk in 1994. Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, where contacting has been restricted and where work with members has dominated missionary finding techniques, has always lagged far behind Donetsk and Kharkov in active membership in spite of a similar missionary complement.) The correlation between the number of missionaries serving in an area and the productivity of member-missionary efforts is, at best, highly dubious: there is clearly no basis to believe that putting more missionaries in an area will "help members to work better" or increase the number of member referrals in any way. Rather, data suggests that high missionary-member ratios and frequent missionary-member visits in a non-proselyting setting (i.e. dinner appointments, etc.) foster complacency among members and may actually dissuade members from sharing the gospel.
How do local branches become self-sufficient and self-perpetuating? Achievement of local self-sufficiency leads to substantial increases in both long-term growth and retention. This question is particularly important because the volatile political situations in many areas of the world permit local missionaries, but not foreign ones. LDS missionary work is generally perceived as being highly dependent on missionaries, even in well-established wards and branches.
Missionary quotas of member visits or member hours frequently transform productive proselyting-based missionary-member relationships into primarily social relationships which rarely produce meaningful referrals (i.e. missionary dinner programs, etc.) The highest reported baptism rates from member- missionary efforts have been in areas with large member to missionary ratios (i.e. Armenia, Mongolia, Idaho, Washington State) or in areas even in areas with no missionaries at all.
In discussing the establishment of self-sufficient and self-perpetuating branches, it is necessary to dispel some philosophies of men that have gained wide credence in the LDS community. First, many believe that spiritual growth of new converts is simply a matter of time, and that the acquisition of daily scripture-reading and member-missionary habits will occur at some point after baptism. This theory has gained popularity because it rationalizes shoddy pre-baptismal teaching. I would point out that there is no correlation whatever between the length of time one has been a member of the Church, and one's obedience to basic commandments. Life-long members in Utah are some of the most reprobate with regard to sharing the gospel: wards in Utah average only about 1.5 baptisms per year. Any missionary text (including the 'white handbook') will state plainly that new members are generally a far better source of referrals than longer-term members, many of whom have acquired bad habits of saying but not doing. Nor are rates of daily scripture reading any higher among long-term members, than among new converts. Those who poll long-time members in Utah, or even bodies of local priesthood leaders, for daily scripture reading will consistently find that this basic habit is surprisingly rare. With time, new converts may learn the nomenclature and social protocols of the Church, and it is likely that this -- and not the acquisition of new spiritual habits -- accounts for most of the 'growth' with time that some observe. In light of this, it is particularly ironic that wards and branches in the United States, and particularly in Utah, are frequently considered to be models for establishing the Church. The saints in Utah undoubtedly have much more to learn about sacrifice, obedience, etc. from saints in Russia, Hungary, Bulgaria, etc. than vice-versa. There is no doubt that the best time to take inspired counsels is the first time. Elder Henry B. Eyring notes:
"Another fallacy is to believe that the choice to accept or not accept the counsel of prophets is no more than deciding whether to accept good advice and gain its benefits or to stay where we are. But the choice not to take prophetic counsel changes the very ground upon which we stand. It becomes more dangerous. The failure to take prophetic counsel lessens our power to take inspired counsel in the future. The best time to have decided to help Noah build the ark was the first time he asked. Each time he asked after that, each failure to respond would have lessened sensitivity to the Spirit. And so each time his request would have seemed more foolish, until the rain came. And then it was too late." (Henry B. Eyring, LDS General Conference, April 1997).
Note carefully -- when inspired counsel is not followed the first time it is heard, the power of the hearer to follow it in the future declines dramatically. This explains why new converts are often much more inclined to follow inspired counsels than many long-time members who may simply tune them out. Let there be no doubt: missionaries need to ensure that fundamental gospel habits, including daily scripture reading, weekly church attendance, full observance of the Sabbath, daily prayer, and regular member-missionary participation are firmly in place before baptism. Sharing the gospel on a regular basis, too, is a basic scriptural commitment that should be firmly established before baptism. The serious member problems and widespread inactivity that have arisen in many areas are not the result of the natural and necessary process of the growth of the Church, but rather the inevitable consequence of inadequate pre-baptismal teaching which failed to instill these vital habits in many new converts. When basic habits are not acquired at the time of baptism, it becomes improbable that the convert will ever acquire them. It is not 'more efficient' to baptize converts hastily and pick up the pieces afterwards. Rather, any outstanding deficit in basic gospel habits at the time of baptism will have to be paid later, many times over, yet without the benefits which appropriate initial teaching could have bestowed. The best time to address problems is by anticipating them before they occur -- before baptism-- rather than waiting until their dire sequelae no longer allow them to be ignored. It does not require years of time-intensive work with members for missionaries working effectively to establish viable branches capable of independent existence or growth. This objective can be accomplished within much more reasonable periods of time when pre-baptismal teaching is appropriate.
Second, it is necessary to address the notion of unsuccessful efforts as "sowing seeds." While it is true when missionaries are fully obedient and work effectively, they may see results that extend beyond those souls who they personally reach, the present realities must be addressed. In most areas, instead of seeing a great proliferation of spontaneous and successful missionary work at ward and branch levels once the original missionaries leave, one much more commonly observes those who were thought to have been converted falling away to inactivity. With LDS retention rates worldwide declining over the past decade (although they have improved substantially in many regions of Eastern Europe with a greater emphasis on pre-baptismal teaching), an objective observer must consider a missionary's ultimate productivity to be, on average, not some multiple of the number of converts, but a fraction thereof. While missionary service, spontaneous and successful member-missionary efforts, and transmission of faithful church service to progeny do occur, these events are distinctly less common than inactivity, which consumes 70-80% of converts in Latin America and Asia -- the areas of the Church's most rapid growth. By recognizing that inactivity is the overwhelmingly likely outcome of converts baptized without having gospel habits firmly established before baptism, missionaries can take steps to rectify their teaching patterns and thus greatly increase their ultimate productivity.
Living testimonies require constant nourishment, and the most efficacious and most dependable form of spiritual nourishment is self-nourishment. Those who depend on others to replenish the oil in their spiritual lamps will find that their lamps run dry. New members who join with established habits of daily scripture reading, Sabbath Day observance, daily prayer, etc. are spiritually self-sufficient. Their habits provide not only for continued activity in the Church, but for cumulative growth. When they join, they are immediately able to strengthen the Church and to reach out to struggling members and non-members alike. They become givers, rather than takers. In contrast, poorly-taught members who are baptized without these basic habits are highly dependent on missionaries and other members for spiritual and growth-related experiences. Due largely to differences in pre-baptismal teaching patterns, some new branches quickly become self-sustaining and self-perpetuating, while others grow dependent and stagnant. By consistently ensuring the presence of growth-generating gospel habits in new converts before baptism, effective missionaries can reproducibly and relatively rapidly establish branches of members who are spiritually self-sufficient.
The key to self-perpetuation and autonomous growth of local branches, then, is only an extension of the principle of self-sufficiency. This, again, requires a re-orientation of perspectives away from commonly-circulated philosophies of men and towards our divine mandates. The failure of a ward or branch to grow autonomously -- however prevalent such failure may be in the U.S. or other areas where the Church has been long established -- must not be considered to be a 'norm,' but rather a pathological state resulting from a deficiency of basic gospel habits among its members. The autonomous growth of a branch is the natural outgrowth of obedience and consistency in basic gospel habits. Where the Church is healthy, it is growing in real terms, and not simply "on paper" as occurs when converts leave out the back door as quickly as they come in the front. Autonomous growth is generated not as much by the institution of brilliant new programs, as by the recognition and removal of spiritual pathologies that hamper growth. It is a waste of time to discuss new missionary programs when members are not faithfully reading their scriptures each day, observing the Sabbath Day, and keeping other commandments that are necessary for the fellowship of the Holy Ghost. When members have these habits, they spontaneously share the joy of the gospel with others.
It is important to involve new members early in home and visiting teaching and in missionary visits to non-members. Even in tracting and street contacting are frequently appropriate. The fear and apprehension towards sharing the gospel message cited by some long-time members are not feelings of those who live and comprehend the gospel or who truly love their neighbors. As with all gospel habits, the best and most reliable time for member-missionary habits to be established is the first time the counsel is heard: before baptism. Investigators and new members are excited about the gospel, while fearfulness is acquired with time. The longer one waits to introduce new members to missionary work, the more artificial barriers are built up. Members who associate mainly with other members and who do little to share the gospel may lose touch with how non-members think and feel, and their circle of friendship may close off to non-members. Any interval between the time of conversion and the institution of member-missionary efforts, or breaks in later member-missionary efforts, make the subsequent acquisition of effective member-missionary habits progressively more difficult. By instilling appropriate member-missionary habits in new converts before baptism, these difficulties can be averted and the autonomous growth of new branches can be assured.