Missionary Work Part 3 - How will missionary work change over the next several decades

We had very little time for the lesson on Sunday (15 minutes), but I was actually pleased with how well it went.

As I realized how long I would have to teach, I started thinking about how to start the lesson quickly and effectively. I was going to tell a few stories first, but that would take too much time. I remembered Pres. McKay had said that each member should bring 1 person into the church every year. So, I asked the question, "How many people should an active member who lives until the age of 82 bring into the church in his/her lifetime?" People gave answers of around 10-15. I then gave Pres. McKay's quote and said, "65" (you get first 15 years off and also your 2 mission years don't count; also re-activations do count).

Then the question was, is this just him stating the ideal, or is this something that is really expected of us? I was impressed that many said it is actually something achievable and expected (though obviously very few do this in the church). I agree. I believe Pres. McKay was being prophetic. There are some very clear analogs for this scenario. The Word of Wisdom was received in 1831; Brigham Young taught it as the expectation several times while prophet. It wasn't until Heber Grant became prophet (1917) that the Word of Wisdom was widely "enforced", and finally it became a requirement for the temple some time after that.

Therefore, it took about 100 years for the Word of Wisdom to become the norm in the church. By that standard/timeline, missionary work has 5 more decades (assuming Pres. McKay was the first to state something like this) before members will be starting to be that effective. I think the church is making strides in that direction. In addition, in order for the gospel to be preached in all the world, the "average, faithful" LDS member will need to be a very good missionary.

We then spoke about how the gospel will be preached in all the world. Here's the comments:

1) church established in most/all nations

2) church members better at spreading the word (discussed above)

3) social media helps spread the word where members are not

I agree with all of these. That is how the word will fill the world.

Focusing on social media - mormon.org allows members to place profiles. My brother taught a Baptist on his mission who was heavily influenced by reading the profile of a former Baptist who joined the church and explained her conversion story/process on Mormon.org. Many of us have unique backgrounds and perspectives that could help others on mormon.org. For instance, maybe someone from Eastern Washington who grew up on a dairy farm would like to hear about the gospel from someone like him/her, and that would be me :) Every member should post their profile on mormon.org.

Finally, we discussed if we can tell who will join the church. One great member said that you can tell with the help of the Spirit. We established this was the exception rather than the rule. It is possible but more often than not we can not tell, which means we need to invite everyone.

We had a very good lesson. I appreciated the chance to teach it. I really like that topic and committed to inviting someone to church in the next 2 months.