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David D. Schaal has been a member of the First Presidency since June 2005, when he was called to serve as a counselor to President Stephen M. Veazey after several years as an apostle in the Council of Twelve. |
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This concludes the Doctrine and Covenants 163 commentary
series.
Watch for the debut of an Enduring Principles commentary series next month.
Doctrine and Covenants 163
Commentary Series
What Matters Most
by David D. Schaal
There are many issues that could easily consume the time and energy of the church. However, the challenge before a prophetic people is to discern and pursue what matters most for the journey ahead. —Doctrine and Covenants 163:11b
Some questions simply ask for data. Some questions invoke our curiosity.
From time to time, however, a question stirs us so deeply that our response
redirects our energies and reorients the way we live.
Jesus was expert in posing such questions. “Who do you say that I am?” he
asked his disciples (see Matthew 16). Their efforts to live out a response
to this question would forever shape their lives. On a lakeshore, after
Peter had denied him three times, Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you
love me?” (see John 21). It was an opportunity for healing, renewal, and
recommitment to the cause of God’s kingdom.
These kinds of questions can be like a compass, causing us to evaluate the
direction and character of our lives.
Such a “compass question” came into the life of the church in March 2007. It
came as we began to ask “What matters most?” in response to Doctrine and
Covenants 163:11b, which asks us to discern and pursue this matter for the
journey ahead.
Let’s look more closely at these words.
Prophetic People
Section 163:11b states that discerning what matters most is the challenge
before a prophetic people. What does it mean to be prophetic? There are many
ways to talk about this, but I want to suggest that being prophetic means
that we are to be “prophet-like.”
What were the prophets like? What did they do? The scope and content of
prophetic activity cannot be described adequately by any single statement.
Nevertheless, I think it can be said that prophets had one foot immersed in
an intimate, dynamic relationship with God. They had the other foot immersed
in the issues of their societies. Prophets, I believe, were people who then
tried to put their feet together, integrating the voice of God amid their
communities.
For instance, consider the content of the prophetic books in the Bible.
Countless topics are addressed. Still, the two most-common concerns seemed
to be (a) Israel’s faithfulness to God, and (b) Israel’s care for the poor,
the broken, the oppressed. Many times these issues were one and the same.
These same concerns resound with prophetic voice in the Book of Mormon and
in the Doctrine and Covenants.
So, if we are a prophetic people, we will not shun the world in religious
isolation. To the contrary, we will be found in the midst of life, engaging
in the real-life issues that men and women, girls and boys deal with every
day. But engaging in the issues of our time is not enough. The church (you
and I) is not being called into some secular effort of social improvement.
We are being asked to share in the work of God’s kingdom. Consequently, our
social action is to be motivated by gospel priorities and shaped by
spiritual practice. This leads us to the next portion of Section 163:11b.
Discern
In Section 163, the church is not asked to brainstorm what matters most, or
to have a goal-setting meeting to figure it out. Neither are we asked to
decide what matters most based on our own understandings of our scriptures,
tradition, or experiences. Instead, Section 163:11b says the challenge
before a prophetic church is to discern what matters most.
For congregations that sense the call to make a difference in their world,
the question is always “What do we do?” It is tempting to look for
successful programs in other congregations that we can mirror in our own.
This, however, rarely works in the long term (as compared to finding
effective “principles” or systems that can be adapted to your local gifts
and circumstances, such as the ideas in Witnessing Community).
It also is tempting to “jump right in” to mission—setting goals and
launching programs based on the needs we see. Sometimes this is exactly the
right thing to do. Many congregations, though, report that such an approach
gathers enthusiasm for a while but often fades as energy dwindles. Many
times this is because of the phenomenon of people giving time and energy to
missional ideas that are good but simply not well-aligned with their gifts,
joys, and sense of call.
Discernment is different. When we engage in discernment we do not rush
ahead, driven by our own ideas and goals. We spend time individually and
collectively with scripture. (The emphasis here is letting scriptures speak
to us first, before we speak our thoughts about them.) In discernment, we
also study hard data, including information about the community, books about
the principles of why churches thrive or decline, etc. We give attention to
our congregational gifts and what we uniquely are positioned to do. And we
give ourselves permission to stop doing what we are not well-equipped to do.
In discernment, we spend time in prayer and silence, both as individuals and
as a congregation. All of this, of course, happens under the umbrella of the
question: “For this congregation, in this place, in this time, what matters
most in the work of God’s kingdom?”
The hard part about discernment is that it is not a quick fix. In fact, it
may take a long time before we have a dawning sense of what God is aligning
us to do in our communities. I spoke with a pastor several months ago who
has been leading a discernment effort in her congregation. “We’ve been in a
discernment process for two years now,” she said. “We still don’t know
exactly what our mission is to be, but the process is changing us. Not only
do we have more energy and feel closer to God, but we have become
invitational and are beginning to make new disciples. We’ve stopped doing
what we’re not gifted to do and find ourselves opening up more to our
community.”
Pursue
Section 163:11b implies that understanding what matters most is not enough.
The need is to discern and pursue what matters most. It is in the
pursuing that we come to understand what truly does matter most to us. For
example, someone might proclaim that what matters most to them is to do the
will of God. What if, however, they do nothing to help the poor, pollute the
planet without remorse, never share their faith with others, and rarely
exercise generosity? Most of us learned long ago that what matters most to a
person (or a congregation) rarely is known by what is spoken. Instead, what
matters most is evidenced in what we actually do with our time, energy,
skills, and resources.
Does mission really matter to your congregation? To know the answer, just
watch the congregation’s behavior over a month or two. Is most of the energy
invested in activities designed for and attended mainly by church members?
Or, are resources, time, and effort being poured into your community, into
making new disciples, and otherwise caring for those who are bruised, poor,
or hungry for purpose and meaningful relationships?
Part of pursuing what matters most is looking honestly at which obstacles
tend to get in our way of pursuing mission.
Some obstacles are within our own soul. Feelings of inadequacy, fear of
launching into new experiences, and concerns about what we might have to
give up are among common ones. Some obstacles are circumstantial, such as
economic restraints or time that we must give to other concerns. If any of
these things are obstacles for us, then perhaps we simply need to start
where we can, even if that response is minimal at first.
Earlier in Doctrine and Covenants Section 163 we are told that we are to
give according to our “true capacity.” This principle applies to pursuing
what matters most. If we cannot do everything we would like to do, that
should not stop us. Let us pursue what matters most according to our true
capacity. That capacity then will grow along the way.
Of course, there are obstacles described in Section 163:11 as “issues that
could easily consume the time and energy of the church.” This was very much
on the mind of President Stephen Veazey when he addressed the church April
5, 2009. In that address he said:
It is telling that much of what I have addressed so far is about internal church issues. This is the greatest challenge we face. Will we be able to put internal church issues in proper perspective so we can focus first on our mission to Proclaim Jesus Christ and Promote Communities of Joy, Hope, Love and Peace? Everything else which may be of concern is secondary to pursuing this mission.
When President Veazey spoke these words, he directly confronted an
age-old phenomenon in the church. That is, the ease with which we spend
energy struggling—and sometimes bickering—over countless issues of theology,
historical and scriptural interpretation, etc. Many of these issues are
important. However, when our fretting and bickering over matters of
theology, scripture, and history take us away from the very mission that our
theology, scripture, and history call us to, something is amiss.
God’s Kingdom
Finally, it should be noted that in Section 163, “what matters most” is not
posed as a question. It’s not as though what matters most is “up in the air”
or somehow a mystery to God. What matters most has always been the pursuit
of God’s kingdom work. Section 163:3b says: “Above all else, strive to be
faithful to Christ’s vision of the peaceable Kingdom of God on earth.”
The question before us is to discern what matters most “for the journey
ahead.” The truth is that using kingdom language is pretty easy, but the
phrase “the journey ahead” implies action. Consequently, discerning what
matters most relates directly to our behavior. What will we actually do in
our congregations to help address poverty in the world? We often affirm our
desire for new disciples, but will we really say the words, “Will you come
to church with me?”
In his April 5 address, President Veazey shared words that he felt were in
response to the impress of God’s Spirit. Included was this statement: “God
has chosen you to assist in accomplishing divine purposes if you will choose
to live out of your better natures and potential.”
If we choose such a journey, a fine compass is available.