Mission of the Church

President Boyd K. Packer has said:

We urge you now to concentrate on the mission of the Church rather than to merely manage organizations and programs. . . .

You may wonder how to proceed to implement the mission of the Church in the lives of your members. Where should you focus your attention and energy? . . .

We are to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man by concentrating on ordinances and on thecovenants associated with them. . . .

If we will set . . . our mind to the words ordinance and covenant, and then look up, light will come through. Then you will know how to fix your position and plot your course. . . .

A good and useful and true test of every major decision made by a leader in the Church is whether a given course leads toward or away from the making and keeping of covenants. . . .

We would do well to see that in administering the organizations of the Church, all roads lead to the temple. For it is there that we are prepared in all things to qualify us to enter the presence of the Lord. (Address at Regional Representatives' seminar, 3 Apr. 1987, 3-5; emphasis added)

To accomplish that, you should see that the written agenda for each executive meeting, especially on the ward or quorum level, focuses mainly on people rather than programs—and then make sure that you follow your agenda. The purposes of the meeting should be clear, and it should start and end on time. If you are the presiding officer, allow sufficient time to discuss people's needs. As you consider each name on the agenda, invite your counselors to suggest ideas and recommendations for helping the person advance through the ordinances and covenants of the gospel. After listening carefully and sincerely to these recommendations, make a decision or assignment that will result in a specific, measurable course of action. It's important to make such decisions prayerfully, and it's also important that you and your counselors are in agreement on the action to be taken.

Of course, it's not enough to simply talk about what should be done. We must also do it. Thus all decisions and assignments should be recorded and should be communicated to those who need to be involved in carrying them out. One member of the bishopric or presidency should be asked to take responsibility for each assignment, and he or she should be asked to "" on an agreed-upon date. (An ongoing assignment list, maintained by your secretary or executive secretary, will enable you to call for a brief accounting on all assignments as their due dates are reached.) Also, when an assignment is delegated, it should normally be communicated in terms of "what" rather than "how"; that is, the person receiving it should be accountable for the result to be achieved rather than the specific methods to be used. This allows him or her to seek inspiration and to exercise creativity, within established Church policies and procedures, in accomplishing the task that has been delegated.

M. Russell Ballard, Counseling with Our Councils: Learning to Minister Together in the Church and in the Family[Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1997], 124.)

Gospel Pressure

Gordon B. Hinckley

There is much more to be achieved than statistical improvement. More importantly, we should be concerned with the spiritual dimension of our people and the enlargement of this dimension. There is a tendency in all of us to ask for better statistical performance. There is a tendency to impose quotas behind which usually lies imposition of pressure to achieve improved statistics. In the work of the Lord there is a more appropriate motivation than pressure. There is the motivation that comes of true conversion. When there throbs in the heart of an individual Latter-day Saint a great and vital testimony of the truth of this work, he will be found doing his duty in the Church. He will be found in his sacrament meetings. He will be found in his priesthood meetings. He will be found paying his honest tithes and offerings. He will be doing his home teaching. He will be found in attendance at the temple as frequently as his circumstances will permit. He will have within him a great desire to share the Gospel with others. He will be found strengthening and lifting his brethren and sisters. It is conversion that makes the difference.

Regional Representatives Seminar, 6 April 1984.