The Great Paradox: Someone Else's Job Syndrome WE REAP WHAT WE SOW
A tremendous amount can be understood about the cause of missionary difficulties by realizing, as Pres. Ballard stated in the August 1999 Conversion and retention fireside, that only 3-5% of *active* members in the US and Canada are regularly involved in missionary work. When one takes out the stake missionaries - probably 2-3% of active membership - who does that leave? All too often, we don't practice what we preach. The large majority of missionaries do not know how to preach the gospel effectively in their own culture, because most of them have never done it in earnest. When the burden of a difficult language and a very different culture are added to that, it is no wonder that even after two years in the country many don't understand how to be effective missionaries. So often missionaries must focus so much on learning the fundamentals gospel and gaining a testimony for themselves, that they are unable to adequately focus on reaching the local people effectively. The general lack of serious pre-mission (and post-mission!) member-missionary efforts is especially unfortunate because a foundation in effective member-missionary work is crucial for effective full-time missionary work. Too often, this foundation is deficient, and as a result the quality of missionary work at all levels suffers.
THE NEED FOR FULL OBEDIENCE
President David O. McKay introduced the "every member a missionary" program in 1960. Unfortunately, we have not obeyed his words as we should. Instead of rising to meet the vision of inspired leaders like President Kimball, President Benson, and President Hinckley, most members have retreated. The Jehovah's Witnesses have implemented "every member a missionary" consistently and effectively, while the average LDS member has done very little to implement President McKay's program. Can we receive blessings any other way than by obedience?
THE GREAT PARADOX
The great paradox of missionary work is that there is a widespread perception of members is that the Church is growing in leaps and bounds, and yet as the statistics cited by Elder Ballard document, the average member in North America does little or nothing to share the gospel. Why such a tremendous disparity between perception and reality? Because of "someone else's job" syndrome. Everyone seems to be confident that "someone else" is doing missionary work, but that he or she personally is "exempt." As a result, often little real sharing of the gospel is done. Often we lead ourselves into complacency with impressive numbers of members and baptisms "on paper," when all to often members are not aware that activity rates in the international church are very low -- generally between fifteen and thirty percent. As President Ballard said, we cannot establish the church with numbers on paper -- we must have real growth.
SOMEONE ELSE'S JOB SYNDROME
Over the years I've perceived a tremendous amount of responsibility shifting when it comes to contacting. The "someone else's job" syndrome is, I suppose, immensely attractive to human nature. So often I find that missionaries think that members who know the local people, have friends & relatives, etc) ought to be finding investigators for them, while many members think that missionaries (who serve full time without job, family responsibilities, etc.) ought to be doing the finding. The truth is that both are wrong. When people think this, usually very little missionary work is done on either side and very few people have an opportunity to hear about the Church. My father once pointed out to me that thinking that members ought to do the finding is wonderful attitude for members, but a terrible attitude for missionaries. The bottom line is, whatever our role (member or missionary), we need to recognize that speaking with everyone we come into contact with about the church is our job -- not someone else's. Period.
A dominant missionary focus on member referrals is a "someone else's job" program for missionaries. Especially in areas with low member to missionary ratios, any "someone else's job" member referral program is vastly less effective when advocated by missionaries than "my job" programs of contacting. When missionaries rely on members to find investigators without being simultaneously consistently engaged in vigorous independent contacting efforts, stagnation almost inevitably occurs. I believe that the track record of the past decade demonstrates this. What are needed are not someone else's job" programs, but "my job" attitudes among missionaries who contact enthusiastically and "my job" attitude among members who share the gospel with friends and acquaintances. Only in this setting does optimal growth occur. Members do immeasurably better at finding quality referrals when missionaries are effective in finding and baptizing quality converts. We must first set the example of effectiveness before we credibly motivate others or genuinely help others to be effective.
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