Creating opportunities for lasting change and strength

 The comments of a fellow laborer have caused me to review what I have learned about engaging others in moving forward the work of the Lord.

What is that work?  It is the work of empowering, blessing, and aiding progress in goodness and discipleship in the lives of those involved and those they seek to assist.

I have seen multiple ways of attempting to engage fellow saints in the work of the Lord.

Encouraging, cheerleading, advertising, talking up, pontificating, making it fun, testifying, socializing, including delicious food, involving competition, forming teams, adding energetic music, persuading, debating, setting goals, providing rewards, tracking and celebrating progress, dramatic performances, expert (or non expert) media, athletics, clean humor, games; any one of them, and more, can be and have been utilized in efforts to increase engagement.

These are not intrinsically bad things. They are often enjoyable and inviting to at least some of the participants we invite. And people of all ages enjoy them and benefit from having them in their lives. However, no matter how engaging and fun they might be, they are, essentially, the equivalent of beach  sand.  They are not, and will never be, what is needed for a lasting foundation for finding, long-term, the peace, hope and vision that the Lord's work offers.   And as we consider employing the ways of involving listed above, we need to remember that.

Employing them as a "way to get people to come or to participate" so that you can "teach them what you want them to know and engage them in the good work" may well get them involved.  But it will never be enough to help them see what is possible. That method of engagement does not, ultimately, work long term.  And sometimes it even distracts or distresses, actually hindering progress.

Our work is to be like Jesus, and in his manner, speak, love and invite to a place where, whatever we are doing, what we create there will help them to feel His love and understand better what is possible.

The only thing I have seen work long-term in our efforts to create lasting fundamental change in the lives of others who we hope to engage in the work of the Lord is this: to make the following combination of elements, listed below, the essence of our work and the essence of every activity we create in our efforts to invite others to experience and engage in that work.

The list:  Loving others honestly, loving the Lord, treating others with dignity, speaking truth with soberness and kindness, listening respectfully and carefully, consecrating what we have to the Lord, living in gratitude, being fully aware of and responding to needs, and following the promptings we are gently given through the Holy Ghost.

That's a tall order. Yet, without those elements (however imperfectly) being at the heart of, and the essence of, every aspect of our work, those we seek to engage will find that they have been invited to build houses, but that too much of what they have been given to build upon is just sand.