7 But a
commandment I give unto you, that ye shall declare whatsoever thing ye declare
in my name, in solemnity of heart, in the spirit of meekness, in all things.
8 And I
give unto you this promise, that inasmuch as ye do this the Holy Ghost shall be
shed forth in bearing record unto all things whatsoever ye shall say. (D&C
100:7-8)
I did a study on
meekness a while back, and I was struck by this scripture that mentions
meekness is needed when doing missionary work. Meekness means teachable-ness,
so this caused me to wonder in way a missionary (or a member missionary) is
supposed to teach the gospel while demonstrating they themselves are
teachable? How do they learn while
teaching? Is it only learning from the Spirit, or are they supposed to
demonstrate they can learn from the investigator? And if so, what would that
look like?
I ran into one answer
in Clayton Christensen’s book The Power
of Everyday Missionaries on page 26-30. He explained how people are generally
not attracted to the church by its doctrines (only around 10% are), but by the promise of finding
happiness, meaning, and purpose to their lives. He suggested that when people
ask us about the church, we then ask them why they are curious and find out
what they know or what they are interested in knowing. He even includes an
experience he had discussing with a colleague the disinterest in religion in
general society. Christensen asked him, “Why do you think that is?” and wanted
to know this friend’s difficulties with organized religion.
Rather than
trying to convince Stephen that he needed our church or any church, I said,
“Why do you think so many people are exiting rather than entering churches? Are
there any big deal-breaking questions that caused you to despair of organized
religion because the churches didn’t have answers to those questions?”
Stephen
responded that he’d like to take some time to put them together “in a cogent
list.”
I said, “I
would love to discuss these
questions, because I think about this a lot too. And if by chance the LDS
perspective shines any light on a question, I’ll offer it to you.” Stephen was
amenable, and we set up a meeting early the next week.
At the next
meeting I was quite stunned: Stephen had some very good questions—about the
purpose of life, if there is one; what is God, if there is one; and so on. He
said, “As I went through college and graduate school, the churches I attended
just could not answer my questions. So I stopped going to church and have been
looking for answers in philosophy and science instead. Frankly, they can’t
answer them any better than churches can.”
We started at
the top of Stephen’s list. I asked questions about his first question, just to
understand why it was important to him, and why he hadn’t been impressed with
the answers that others had offered. I then found and discussed answers to that
question in the Book of Mormon.
I noticed that
he crossed the first question off his list. “Why did you cross it off?” I
asked.
“You answered
it,” he replied.
We then
organized the subsequent lessons with the missionaries around the remaining
questions on his list. When we scheduled a time for the zone leaders to
interview Stephen for baptism, we listed all of the concepts, doctrines, and
practices that are covered in the four lessons. We were delighted that we had
covered every one of them, but in a sequence that answered Stephen’s questions.
(p28-29)
In the process of
trying to understand his friend’s questions, Brother Christensen was
demonstrating meekness and solemnity, taking his questions seriously, seeking
to hear first before speaking, seeking to understand without judgment or
dismissiveness. I suspect that is part of the meekness the Lord asks us to
cultivate. (I also notice that Brother Christensen’s friend was honest enough
to accept good answers when they were presented to him, rather than trying to
go on the attack.)
So if anyone asks us
about our church, rather than launching into a recital of our favorite aspects,
only telling what we want them to
know, we can ask, “Why do you ask?” or “Do you have any questions about
religious issues that you’ve been wondering about or that you haven’t been able
to get good answers for?”
I love the promise the above
scripture gives if we declare the gospel with solemnity and meekness: “that
inasmuch as ye do this the Holy Ghost shall be shed forth in bearing record
unto all things whatsoever ye shall say.” That is what we need. It’s what we hope
will happen so that others can feel and know it.
What do you think? ? Is there anything else involved in
teaching this way? What
experiences have you had with teaching with solemnity and meekness
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