Living Missionary Work
I spoke on this topic yesterday in Sacrament Meeting. I don't want to recreate my talk here, but I do think it's an important topic.
As in all things, Christ set the perfect example of missionary work. I find it interesting that most of the teachings we have of His were not given as organized or pre-arranged sermons, but as spontaneous responses to teaching opportunities that arose while he was serving others - going about doing good, as it is said of Him. This seems to be the best path to follow in sharing the gospel.
I think that too often we are so anxious to share the gospel that we go about it in a sort of backwards way. We use as contrivances things that should be a natural outgrowth of a charitable perspective on life. I mean things like taking cookies to our neighbors, helping people move into a new home, and other acts of service. We sometimes do these things with the specific intention of generating a missionary discussion. I don't think Christ worked that way. I think He served others out of genuine love for them and then taught them as a natural outgrowth of that love and service. The service He performed helped them want to listen.
That's not to say that he never did anything with the intention of teaching. Obviously, He came here in part to give us the new law. Sometimes the teaching was the service. It's just that the multitudes followed him because he loved them before preaching to them. I think we would do well to follow that example.
When he did preach, he set another example. I think there's a great pattern of how to approach missionary teaching in 3 Nephi 11. I won't detail it here, but next time you read it you might be interested to look for and ponder these things:
1. The people were prepared to hear as a result of a change in their lives
2. Their conversation had centered on Christ naturally before the teaching began
3. They didn't understand His voice the first time
4. The first thing that Christ did was give them a chance to learn who He was
5. The second thing He mentioned was prophets
6. The third thing was the atonement
7. The fourth was obedience to God
8. He gave them all a chance to individually be converted to what he had taught so far
9. When they were converted, He immediately made arrangements for their baptism
10. He counseled them not to allow contention in their midst
11. He began teaching them from the scriptures, warning that anything but His doctrine would cause them to fall
More things could be added to that list, but those are a few of the principles I extracted from this chapter.
I think the important thing here is to see people as Christ sees them and make a unified effort to redeem their souls because we love their souls.
That's what Jesus taught so well and valued so greatly: the worth of souls.
As in all things, Christ set the perfect example of missionary work. I find it interesting that most of the teachings we have of His were not given as organized or pre-arranged sermons, but as spontaneous responses to teaching opportunities that arose while he was serving others - going about doing good, as it is said of Him. This seems to be the best path to follow in sharing the gospel.
I think that too often we are so anxious to share the gospel that we go about it in a sort of backwards way. We use as contrivances things that should be a natural outgrowth of a charitable perspective on life. I mean things like taking cookies to our neighbors, helping people move into a new home, and other acts of service. We sometimes do these things with the specific intention of generating a missionary discussion. I don't think Christ worked that way. I think He served others out of genuine love for them and then taught them as a natural outgrowth of that love and service. The service He performed helped them want to listen.
That's not to say that he never did anything with the intention of teaching. Obviously, He came here in part to give us the new law. Sometimes the teaching was the service. It's just that the multitudes followed him because he loved them before preaching to them. I think we would do well to follow that example.
When he did preach, he set another example. I think there's a great pattern of how to approach missionary teaching in 3 Nephi 11. I won't detail it here, but next time you read it you might be interested to look for and ponder these things:
1. The people were prepared to hear as a result of a change in their lives
2. Their conversation had centered on Christ naturally before the teaching began
3. They didn't understand His voice the first time
4. The first thing that Christ did was give them a chance to learn who He was
5. The second thing He mentioned was prophets
6. The third thing was the atonement
7. The fourth was obedience to God
8. He gave them all a chance to individually be converted to what he had taught so far
9. When they were converted, He immediately made arrangements for their baptism
10. He counseled them not to allow contention in their midst
11. He began teaching them from the scriptures, warning that anything but His doctrine would cause them to fall
More things could be added to that list, but those are a few of the principles I extracted from this chapter.
I think the important thing here is to see people as Christ sees them and make a unified effort to redeem their souls because we love their souls.
That's what Jesus taught so well and valued so greatly: the worth of souls.
Comments