Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

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Pahoran
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Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by Pahoran »

Last week we had someone under orders from the mission president speak to our ward about doing a better job sharing the Gospel. It was the harshest talk I have ever heard about members not doing missionary work. To give you a flavor the scripture about warning your neighbor or the sin will be on your head was shared. As well as emphasized that we will be held accountable if we do not share the Gospel.

I am trying to figure out if this emphasis on missionary work is church wide or if it's just my ward that is lagging. Please share if you have any insight.

HVDC
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by HVDC »

Pahoran wrote: January 31st, 2023, 9:03 pm Last week we had someone under orders from the mission president speak to our ward about doing a better job sharing the Gospel. It was the harshest talk I have ever heard about members not doing missionary work. To give you a flavor the scripture about warning your neighbor or the sin will be on your head was shared. As well as emphasized that we will be held accountable if we do not share the Gospel.

I am trying to figure out if this emphasis on missionary work is church wide or if it's just my ward that is lagging. Please share if you have any insight.
I hear the JWs have a pretty good tracting plan.

Sir H

AZRob
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by AZRob »

No big push in my ward/stake. I don't feel the need to share any more. I don't mind talking about the Book of Mormon, but I'm not proud of what my church has become. It no longer stands for anything except moving into the great and spacious building alongside the UN. There's also too much talk of worshiping the prophet ahead of the word of the Lord or the scriptures.

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J2
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by J2 »

AZRob wrote: January 31st, 2023, 9:10 pm No big push in my ward/stake. I don't feel the need to share any more. I don't mind talking about the Book of Mormon, but I'm not proud of what my church has become. It no longer stands for anything except moving into the great and spacious building alongside the UN. There's also too much talk of worshiping the prophet ahead of the word of the Lord or the scriptures.
Agreed.

I used to love being a member missionary during the time when I could actually respect the church as an organization.

Now I hate doing it.

HVDC
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by HVDC »

AZRob wrote: January 31st, 2023, 9:10 pm No big push in my ward/stake. I don't feel the need to share any more. I don't mind talking about the Book of Mormon, but I'm not proud of what my church has become. It no longer stands for anything except moving into the great and spacious building alongside the UN. There's also too much talk of worshiping the prophet ahead of the word of the Lord or the scriptures.
Ditto.

Keeping it light and fluffy with my peeps.

We can make it up during the millienium.

Sir H

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TheDuke
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by TheDuke »

Every once in a while our Mission Presidents seemed to have done the same thing. they get a bit excited and think everything revolves around them and keeping their missionaries fulfilled. I cannot blame them but I surely didn't listen either. We had push after push for years with some MPs. Like in EQ and HP them making quotas for referrals, and meetings in our homes with prospects. then seems many 5 Sunday's were devoted to them.. Then we had the AP's in our ward lots of the time as our ward meets in the building at the temple and before just 4 miles away, so we were near the MP HQ.

Lizzy60
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by Lizzy60 »

Christ will not lose any of His sheep. Not a single one. If this church is where He wants someone to be, He will find a way to bring them to it. So, if someone does NOT feel inspired or prompted to share something about the Mormon Church, they shouldn’t worry about it.

If it’s not from God, it’s not good. Moroni 7.

p8riot
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by p8riot »

AZRob wrote: January 31st, 2023, 9:10 pm No big push in my ward/stake. I don't feel the need to share any more. I don't mind talking about the Book of Mormon, but I'm not proud of what my church has become. It no longer stands for anything except moving into the great and spacious building alongside the UN. There's also too much talk of worshiping the prophet ahead of the word of the Lord or the scriptures.
Yep. I will gladly share about Jesus Christ and the scriptures but I'm embarrassed by what the church is doing.

Pahoran
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by Pahoran »

I was wondering if there was some big push because numbers went down after the pandemic, but looks like this may be a one off from what people are saying so far.

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Reluctant Watchman
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by Reluctant Watchman »

I’ve become a far more avid missionary the past two years. :)

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Wolfwoman
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by Wolfwoman »

We had stake conference this past Sunday and there was a push to do more missionary work. I wouldn’t say it was harsh or a call to repentance. It was said in love - truly. But yes, we were asked to do as much sharing the gospel as we have been doing temple and family history work (we do a lot of that in our stake).

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nightlight
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by nightlight »

An organization can't give out literature that is so blatantly contrary to their every day conduct and expect a surge in adult missionary work from it's lay members

"Hey! I'm a member of COJCOLDS.....here is a book that teaches our land is the Promise Land, that it's a land of Liberty...even ZION!!!!
It is also a book warning our country about the inevitable conspiracies and secret societies who will try to take our liberty and harm us. But don't forget to follow the prophet!"

tribrac
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by tribrac »

Do the latest missionary lessons emphasize the prophet like all the youth firesides and conference talks do?

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Moroni104
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by Moroni104 »

So far no push like this in Central Texas (Austin/San Antonio)

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Chip
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by Chip »

Just raise your hand and when called, say that you don't feel inspired to bring people into the church nowadays because it has become about men, not Christ, despite the rhetoric.

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Theveilofforgetting
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by Theveilofforgetting »

We don't really hear about missionary work that often (compared to years ago).. Someone did say, " you should tell people why you don't drink coffee". Um yeah, because it's a habit now and I don't care for it?!

We have 4 missionaries in our ward, two are older sister missionaries. We see the Elders about once a week. I just found out their goal for convert baptisms last year was 5. I laughed because 3 were my sons. All born in the Church, in the covenant. The other 2 were older kids of member families. We were the only ward in the Stake to reach the target so the number this year is 14. So there may be a push for missionary work.

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h_p
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by h_p »

Reminds me of my first mission president, who would get us all together in a room every month and then yell at us, "WHY ARE YOU ROBBING THE BLESSINGS FROM MY PEOPLE!!!" We could never work hard enough or obey the rules enough to satisfy him. I constantly felt guilty the entire first year of my mission.

He was a GA, btw.

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Niemand
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by Niemand »

nightlight wrote: January 31st, 2023, 10:13 pm An organization can't give out literature that is so blatantly contrary to their every day conduct and expect a surge in adult missionary work from it's lay members

"Hey! I'm a member of COJCOLDS.....here is a book that teaches our land is the Promise Land, that it's a land of Liberty...even ZION!!!!
It is also a book warning our country about the inevitable conspiracies and secret societies who will try to take our liberty and harm us. But don't forget to follow the prophet!"
They don't even hand out the Book of Mormon anymore, they just give you a QR code to scan.

Pahoran
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by Pahoran »

Chip wrote: January 31st, 2023, 11:07 pm Just raise your hand and when called, say that you don't feel inspired to bring people into the church nowadays because it has become about men, not Christ, despite the rhetoric.
You are like reading my mind which can sometimes be jumbled up, organizing it, packaging it and communicating it perfectly. Ha.

PaulH
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by PaulH »

The church has replaced the message of "come listen to a prophets voice and hear the word of God", to "come hear a profit lie to you". It doesn't attract very many people.

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Niemand
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by Niemand »

Nelson's birthday bash looked weird to me. Don't know how it looks to others.

He's managed to sabotage public recognition of the church with his "war on Mormon" and getting MoTab to rename itself to something none of the public know or remember and which severs its connection with the church too.

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oneClimbs
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by oneClimbs »

“The intensity of our desire to share the gospel is a great indicator of the extent of our personal conversion.” — Dallin H. Oaks

I've loved this quote for a long time and think it's true. I think the reason people aren't sharing the gospel is that an ever growing number of members are only converted to the culture and ideology. If you asked the question: "How many of you have received a baptism of fire and have been born of God?" A very small portion would raise their hands and most would look at you like you were asking a ridiculous question.

We baptize people at 8, per what we accept as the instructions of the Lord in D&C. But then we point them right to the temple with no mentorship on completing their baptism. Joseph Smith said "y You might as well baptize a bag of sand as a man, if not done in view of the remission of sins and getting of the Holy Ghost. Baptism by water is but half a baptism, and is good for nothing without the other half-that is, baptism of the Holy Ghost.”

People are not being mentored because there is a severe lack of people who have done this themselves. We draw near to him with our lips but our hearts are far from him. We'll say Lord, Lord, have we not done many mighty works in your name? He'll say depart from me, I never KNEW you, and I would add, you never KNEW him.

But this is a solvable problem. We personally can seek out and receive our baptism of fire even if we were baptized long ago, perhaps like Enos or Alma the Younger and his companions. We can receive it and be filled with the love of God and undergo a mighty change of heart and then be ready to help others do the same. We need more of this because this is the promise of the gospel, it's the most basic and fundamental part of Christ's doctrine and we're failing at it.

Until this happens it is pointless to talk about "missionary work" and even dumber to chastise people about it. That shows a complete lack of understanding about how this all works. If your people are not bearing witness of the Lord, it's not their fault, it's a leadership problem. It's like blaming the starving for not eating when it is your job to feed them. Maybe if they found a source for food then they'd have a reason to invite other starving souls.
Last edited by oneClimbs on February 1st, 2023, 10:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

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hedgehog
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by hedgehog »

"Come join our corporation! We stand for, well umm... let me check latest updates.. "

Is rightly a hard sell.

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TheDuke
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by TheDuke »

Lizzy60 wrote: January 31st, 2023, 9:20 pm Christ will not lose any of His sheep. Not a single one. If this church is where He wants someone to be, He will find a way to bring them to it. So, if someone does NOT feel inspired or prompted to share something about the Mormon Church, they shouldn’t worry about it.

If it’s not from God, it’s not good. Moroni 7.
This is conflating scriptures. Jesus says his sheep hear his voice. He also says he lost not one elect, that is those given him of his father. these are two different things.

BTW I'm not saying that any true follower of Jesus will not listen or eventually be found. I don't know how that works. but that is different from the pre-mortal elect of the Father's that Jesus accepted on this creation of which he has lost none. Those were not converted by Jesus but by the Father, and are the great and noble ones Abraham was shone. Elect from before birth, or saved or what ever term you want to use from the specific scripture, but all the same.

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hedgehog
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Re: Ward called to repentance for not doing enough missionary work. Anyone else?

Post by hedgehog »

oneClimbs wrote: February 1st, 2023, 10:39 am “The intensity of our desire to share the gospel is a great indicator of the extent of our personal conversion.” — Dallin H. Oaks

I've loved this quote for a long time and think it's true. I think the reason people aren't sharing the gospel is that an ever growing number of members are only converted to the culture and ideology. If you asked the question: "How many of you have received a baptism of fire and have been born of God?" A very small portion would raise their hands and most would look at you like you were asking a ridiculous question.

We baptize people at 8, per what we accept as the instructions of the Lord in D&C. But then we point them right to the temple with no mentorship on completing their baptism. Joseph Smith said "y You might as well baptize a bag of sand as a man, if not done in view of the remission of sins and getting of the Holy Ghost. Baptism by water is but half a baptism, and is good for nothing without the other half-that is, baptism of the Holy Ghost.”

People are not being mentored because there is a severe lack of people who have done this themselves. We draw near to him with our lips but our hearts are far from him. We'll say Lord, Lord, have we not done many mighty works in your name? He'll say depart from me, I never KNEW you, and I would add, you never KNEW him.

But this is a solvable problem. We personally can seek out and receive our baptism of fire even if we were baptized long ago, perhaps like Enos or Alma the Younger and his companions. We can receive it and be filled with the love of God and undergo a mighty change of heart and then be ready to help others do the same. We need more of this because this is the promise of the gospel, it's the most basic and fundamental part of Christ's doctrine and we're failing at it.

Until this happens it is pointless to talk about "missionary work" and even dumber to chastise people about it. That shows a complete lack of understanding about how this all works. If your people are not bearing witness of the Lord, it's not their fault, it's a leadership problem. It's like blaming the starving for not eating when it is your job to feed them. Maybe if they found a source for food then they'd have a reason to invite other starving souls.
well said

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