President Utchdorf's Ensign Message about General Conference

[JohnnyL]

I was reminded of the third point from President Utchdorf's Ensign message again tonight. For the next six months, conference report will likely be what I need to concentrate on most. Then, six months after that, it is superseded by the next one, with more messages particular to the next six months. I guess I need to not just listen, but actually have a plan about what I need to do, based on those talks and the Holy Ghost, particularly within that short period of time.

[Nan]

I think you are right. General conference doesn't do us any good unless it changes us for the better somehow. Other wise we may as well not watch it. We need to be proactive with that process.

[Original_Intent]

I agree, but it is also important to remember the target audience is worldwide - stake and regional conference may have more specific and applicable direction for you than general conference. I am not trying to downplay the awesome opportunity general conference provides us to be spiritually fed - I am just saying that it is much more of a shotgun (wide target) message. It applies to you, but if you really want to know what YOU need to be doing, today, there is nothing superior to a message tailored specifically for you by the spirit (which very well may come to you as you prayerfully and attentively listen to general conference.)

[JohnnyL]

I agree, but it is also important to remember the target audience is worldwide - stake and regional conference may have more specific and applicable direction for you than general conference. I am not trying to downplay the awesome opportunity general conference provides us to be spiritually fed - I am just saying that it is much more of a shotgun (wide target) message. It applies to you, but if you really want to know what YOU need to be doing, today, there is nothing superior to a message tailored specifically for you by the spirit (which very well may come to you as you prayerfully and attentively listen to general conference.)

Agree.

[loquaciousmomma]

I must respectfully disagree with OI. I just gave a talk about this very subject this Sunday, and found this quote from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland:

If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you.

The Holy Ghost will send you a very personal message at general conference if you are spiritually ready for it.

Here is the entire passage, it is from his amazing talk An Ensign to the Nations:

Perhaps you already know (but if you don’t you should) that with rare exception, no man or woman who speaks here is assigned a topic. Each is to fast and pray, study and seek, start and stop and start again until he or she is confident that for this conference, at this time, his or hers is the topic the Lord wishes that speaker to present regardless of personal wishes or private preferences. Every man and woman you have heard during the past 10 hours of general conference has tried to be true to that prompting. Each has wept, worried, and earnestly sought the Lord’s direction to guide his or her thoughts and expression. And just as Brigham Young saw an angel standing over this place, so do I see angels standing in it. My brethren and sisters among the general officers of the Church will be uneasy with that description, but that is how I see them—mortal messengers with angelic messages, men and women who have all the physical and financial and family difficulties you and I have but who with faith have consecrated their lives to the callings that have come to them and the duty to preach God’s word, not their own.

Consider the variety of the messages that you hear—all the more miraculous with no coordination except the direction of heaven. But why wouldn’t they be varied? Most of our congregation, seen or unseen, is made up of members of the Church. However, with marvelous new methods of communication, ever larger proportions of the audience for our conferences are not members of the Church—yet. So we must speak to those who know us very well and those who know us not at all. Within the Church alone we must speak to the children, the youth and young adults, the middle-aged, and the elderly. We must speak to families and parents and children at home even as we speak to those who are not married, without children, and perhaps very far from home. In the course of a general conference, we always stress the eternal verities of faith, hope, charity,4 and Christ crucified5 even as we speak forthrightly on very specific moral issues of the day. We are commanded in the scriptures to “say nothing but repentance unto this generation,”6 while at the same time we are to preach “good tidings [to] the meek … [and] bind up the brokenhearted.” Whatever form they take, these conference messages “proclaim liberty to the captives”7 and declare “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”8 In the wide variety of sermons given is the assumption that there will be something for everyone. In this regard, I guess President Harold B. Lee put it best years ago when he said that the gospel is “to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the [comfortable].”9

We always want our teaching in general conference to be as generous and open-armed as Christ taught originally, remembering as we do the discipline that was always inherent in His messages. In the most famous sermon ever given, Jesus began by pronouncing wonderfully gentle blessings which every one of us want to claim—blessings promised to the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the meek.10 How edifying those Beatitudes are and how soothing they are to the soul. They are true. But in that same sermon the Savior went on, showing how increasingly strait the way of the peacemaker and the pure in heart would need to be. “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill,” He observed. “But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother … shall be in danger of the judgment.”11

And likewise,

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:

“But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”12

Obviously as the path of discipleship ascends, that trail gets ever more narrow until we come to that knee-buckling pinnacle of the sermon of which Elder Christofferson just spoke: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”13 What was gentle in the lowlands of initial loyalty becomes deeply strenuous and very demanding at the summit of true discipleship. Clearly anyone who thinks Jesus taught no-fault theology did not read the fine print in the contract! No, in matters of discipleship the Church is not a fast-food outlet; we can’t always have it “our way.” Some day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ and that salvation can only come His way. 14

In wanting to measure up to the stern as well as embrace the soothing in our general conference messages, please be reassured that when we speak on difficult subjects, we understand not everyone is viewing pornography or shirking marriage or having illicit sexual relationships. We know not everyone is violating the Sabbath or bearing false witness or abusing a spouse. We know that most in our audience are not guilty of such things, but we are under a solemn charge to issue warning calls to those who are—wherever they may be in the world. So if you are trying to do the best you can—if, for example, you keep trying to hold family home evening in spite of the bedlam that sometimes reigns in a houseful of little bedlamites—then give yourself high marks and, when we come to that subject, listen for another which addresses a topic where you may be lacking. If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you.

[loquaciousmomma]

I agree, but it is also important to remember the target audience is worldwide - stake and regional conference may have more specific and applicable direction for you than general conference. I am not trying to downplay the awesome opportunity general conference provides us to be spiritually fed - I am just saying that it is much more of a shotgun (wide target) message. It applies to you, but if you really want to know what YOU need to be doing, today, there is nothing superior to a message tailored specifically for you by the spirit (which very well may come to you as you prayerfully and attentively listen to general conference.)

In digesting the overall point of this post, I missed the last part. I see that you understand the gist of what I just posted. I do still disagree with your premise that we should focus more on stake and regional conference than general conference.

I believe it is like our quad scriptures. Each has a different part of the gospel message that it is best at sharing with us, but each is vital to our gospel understanding. The stick of Judah and Ephraim are given to us together. The same goes for the various levels of conferences. Stake conference is the way that the Lord sets the tone and direction for that six months on the stake level. Things that we, as members of our particular stake, need to focus on and be aware of will be shared. This is just as important as the opportunity to sit at the feet of apostles and prophets who have been asked to speak on behalf of the Lord to share the message he directly wants us to hear as a church, and as individuals. I don't think that the wide target approach metaphor is accurate. I see it more as each speaker sending a well placed shot in a different direction with the assistance of the Holy Ghost to make sure it hits it's mark.

[Original_Intent]

Dear loquacious,

It seems you really want to disagree with me. I did not say "focus more on stake and regional conference" - I said, if you are looking at what you need to be DOING over the next six month period, you are more likely to get targetted, specific information at the local level than at general conference. This, of course, is not counting the spiritual guidance as we have both already agreed.

My point that I obviously failed to make is member in the U.S. that will have certain challenges to face that do not apply to the rest of the world - are not likely to get counsel regarding those issues over the pulpit at general conference. That's all. Not a matter of "focus more" as much as "don't wait for a message in general conference that is highly unlikely to come." General conference is going to focus on the things that we ALL need to be doing, regional and stake conference is, by design and heavenly order, going to be a lot more specific (and the most specific is going to be the 1-to-1 communication).

Indeed, your post reinforces what I was trying to say:

So we must speak to those who know us very well and those who know us not at all. Within the Church alone we must speak to the children, the youth and young adults, the middle-aged, and the elderly. We must speak to families and parents and children at home even as we speak to those who are not married, without children, and perhaps very far from home.

The point I take from this - at general conference they are not only speaking to the world wide membership but to the world. As such, the message is often very open-armed, non-challenging/threatening and in many ways can be viewed as a worldwide missionary discussion. As such, in general, a good percentage of general conference talks are going to focus on some very basic (still critically important!) principles, and largely non-controversial. I t could be said that it is very much a message to try to save the tares as much as it is a message to strengthen the wheat. And sometimes we all need some of both messages. So I am not trying to dilute general conference. They are my favorite two weekends of the year as far as church attendance. As much as I love the meassage delivered over the pulpit, the messages conveyed by the spirit are so much more important (and sometimes they are related to the subject being spoken about and sometimes it is like a lightning bolt on a completely unrelated or very tenuously related topic.)

So I really don;t think we have anything to disagree about. Other than I disagree with you putting words in my mouth. :ymhug:

[loquaciousmomma]

I apologize, OI. I only addressed what I saw in your post. I clearly misunderstood you. :ymsigh:

I do not want to argue. When I read your post it didn't sit well with me and I chose to address my concerns.

No harm, no foul, I hope. :ymhug:

[Original_Intent]

I apologize, OI. I only addressed what I saw in your post. I clearly misunderstood you. :ymsigh:

I do not want to argue. When I read your post it didn't sit well with me and I chose to address my concerns.

No harm, no foul, I hope. :ymhug:

No indeed. In fact I felt prompted during the first post to say "not trying to downplay the awesome opportunity that General conference presents..." - I was trying to defuse the conclusion that I knew many would jump to ("He's saying General conference isn;t important! BURN HIM!" )

Definitely did not want to contend with you either, I jsut wanted to clarify that I didn't say what you thought I said.

:ymhug:

[HeirofNumenor]

Last Sunday evening was my stake's priesthood meeting...My stake Pres. said that

"if we write down 2-3 things we are concerned about, I promise you that in this coming General Conference - your concerns will all be answered..." O:-)

I have a big list.....better condense it down to my Big Three... :YMPRAY:

[AussieOi]

let me guess

go away and pray about it
fasting helps
family prayer will shelter your family
i better go to the temple and ponder it
family home evening

so if my question is should i marry Jimbo?
What about, should I invest in the sharemarket?
what about- are Bush and Cheney and now Obama war criminals
how about, why did a prophet of a world-wide church dedicate a bank/ building in teh USA- doesnt hge have more important thigs to do?
or- when will the President of the Church next visit Sydney?

i dont disagree of course, but

[Rob]

Last Sunday evening was my stake's priesthood meeting...My stake Pres. said that

"if we write down 2-3 things we are concerned about, I promise you that in this coming General Conference - your concerns will all be answered..." O:-)

I have a big list.....better condense it down to my Big Three... :YMPRAY:

Thanks, Heiro. My wife and I will be doing this, and we will encourage our little ones to do so as well.

[JohnnyL]

let me guess

go away and pray about it
fasting helps
family prayer will shelter your family
i better go to the temple and ponder it
family home evening

so if my question is should i marry Jimbo? That's a good one to keep in mind! Good luck with it.
What about, should I invest in the sharemarket? Speculation might be addressed...
what about- are Bush and Cheney and now Obama war criminals That's a far one, but...
how about, why did a prophet of a world-wide church dedicate a bank/ building in teh USA- doesnt hge have more important thigs to do? Sometimes they talk about stuff like this.
or- when will the President of the Church next visit Sydney? I'll keep my ears open! But seriously, if these are your top five questions...
i dont disagree of course, but