I receive a lot of questions like these… How do I get ward leaders to do their ministering? How do I get people to show up to activities? How do I get my bishop to be open to my ideas? How do I get youth to get off their phones? How do I get people to magnify their...
As we explore the concept of membership councils, it would always be wise to get very familiar with this section in the General Church Handbook. However, like most things, the Handbook focuses more on the administration of membership councils rather than the human...
Let’s tip-toe into the world of membership councils (formerly known as disciplinary councils). I’ve had my personal experience with this topic as a bishop and a member of a stake presidency. I have heard them framed as the most spiritual meetings in the Church (that...
The last two messages (this one and this one) have both been about my church marathon experience where I visited 3 Protestant churches on one Sunday. I’d like to share one final lesson from that experience. It is simply this… Latter-day Saints and Protestants should...
In my last newsletter, I talked about visiting three different Protestant churches on one Sunday and highlighted some things that I appreciated about how they ran their services. In fact, you can watch the video HERE on Hello Saints. Now, I’d like to turn the tables...
I was kidnapped by an Evangelical pastor and forced to go to church. Okay, that sounds a little dramatic, but seriously, my friend Pastor Jeff from Hello Saints asked if he could take me to 3 different types of Protestant church traditions and get my reaction. So...
We have remarkable doctrine, tradition, and practice around the concept of “church.” We believe it to be the restored Church of Jesus Christ that He originally founded long ago. I believe this completely. However, I wonder if the nature of our approach to “church” has...
Bishoprics are notorious for long meetings. Unfortunately, two- to three-hour bishopric meetings have become the norm for our leadership culture and many assume that is just part of the gig. Plus, even though long meetings can be draining, they also fill your brain...
Recently the Church published a fantastic resource found in the Gospel Library to help individuals in a faith struggle, Seeking Answers to Questions and Helping Others with Questions. There’s a lot of great advice and direction there and I would encourage you to spend...
Soon after Elder Patrick Kearon’s call to the Quorum of the Twelve, I came across an old Church News announcement from when Elder Kearon was called as a stake president. I was surprised to see that he was listed with two middle names: Robert David. So why haven’t we...
