Leadership for Saints: Part 64

Are “Management Techniques” Applicable in Your Church Calling?

by Rodger Dean Duncan and Ed J. Pinegar

Challenge:

In my calling I’m expected to work with people who aren’t as committed as I am. This is frustrating to me. How should I handle the situation?

Opportunity:

One of my great joys as stake president was greeting missionaries on their return home and extending to them an honorable release from their service. I’d then invite them to attend our next high council meeting and report to the brethren.

One young missionary returned to our stake after serving two years in Korea. He reported to us that during the first several months in Korea, his mission president assigned him to work with the so-called “problem elders” – those young men who had special struggles with immaturity or fragile testimonies or even disobedience.

For a while—this returned missionary told us—he resented this assignment. After all, he didn’t go half way around the world to baby sit with boys from California and Indiana and North Carolina. He went to Korea to teach the gospel to Koreans.

Then it finally dawned on him: He had agreed—unconditionally—to teach Father’s children . . . any of Father’s children. This wonderful young elder learned many lessons on his mission. And one of those lessons is articulated in the lyrics to Hymn #219 – which he spontaneously sang a cappella to the high council:

This young man—who already understood the fatherhood of God—had come face-to-face with the reality of the brotherhood of man. And he had caught the vision of the 107th section of the Doctrine & Covenants.  “Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence” (D&C 107:99).

It’s true that we’re sometimes asked to work with people who are not as experienced or as gifted or even as committed as we would like. It’s also true that, no matter where we are on the experience-gifts-commitment scale, someone, somewhere was patient and loving enough to help us along. That’s precisely what the Lord expects. He never promised that serving him and his children would always be fun or convenient or easy. He promised only that it would be worth it.            

– Rodger Dean Duncan

Challenge:

The people I lead have some fears and need to be trained in some skills. How can I prepare them to be more proficient in their duties?

Opportunity:    

The new missionaries arrived. They were nervously anticipating the work before them. We fed them dinner, gave them a blessing, let them bear their testimonies and they prepared for their first day in the mission. The following morning my assistants spent four hours teaching them some of the procedures and proselyting skills necessary to do contacting. Then the new missionaries met their companions who told them, “Here’s where we’ll work and here’s where we’ll baptize.” We sang the mission song and sent them out on the streets with their new dialogues—questions they could use to start up a gospel conversation.

The missionaries went out, then returned bubbling with enthusiasm. They had found people actually willing to listen to a discussion, actually willing to accept a copy of the Book of Mormon and read it and have a return appointment to discuss how they felt about it. It was exciting. So many missionaries would come out with fear and doubts, but once they had been taught, once they had been trained and once they had practiced the things they had been taught, their fears were overcome. They were full of love, they were prepared, they had the knowledge, and being faithful missionaries, the experience of door-to-door and street contacting caused them to overcome all fears.

In all leadership roles, we must remember that people need to participate in order to overcome fears and doubts. In the gospel of Jesus Christ, many people are less active simply because of their lack of involvement, and people don’t want to be involved because they’re fearful. Fear can be overcome with faith, love, knowledge, preparation and an experience where they can practice the things they’ve been taught.  

– Ed J. Pinegar

Quotes Worth Remembering

As all of us blend into the programs of the Church, it behooves us to set goals for ourselves in order to reap the blessings of self-improvement and excellent performance in given assignments. – Marvin J. Ashton 3

Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.

– D&C 58:27

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

– James 4:17

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. – Hebrews 10:36

Note: The excerpts of Leadership for Saints posted on Meridian are only a fraction of the contents of this 349-page book. To learn more about this ground-breaking book and to order copies, click here.

© by Rodger Dean Duncan & Ed J. Pinegar, All Rights Reserved