Category Archives: Callings

Reflections of an elders quorum president

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Two and a half years is quite a good stretch of time to serve as an elders quorum president. When I first started out, I was maintaining the status quo (e.g. focus on home teaching). After a year or so, my outlook changed, and I knew I need to focus my attention to more fundamental issues.

I have served as elders quorum president longer than the four presidents prior to me. I’ve reflected on my efforts often. My bishop seems to think I am doing swell, bang-up job. He must see something I don’t see because I don’t see any evidence that anything I’ve done in the last 2.5 years has made a difference.

Anyone who’s been a longtime reader has probably picked up on this through some of my posts. It doesn’t take much to read between the lines. In fact, it may even be more obvious than I thought.

Anyhow, while studying my scriptures tonight, I came across this scripture.

“When my brethren saw that I was about to build a ship, they began to murmur against me, saying: Our brother is a fool, for he thinketh that he can build a ship; yea, and he also thinketh that he can cross these great waters.” (1 Ne. 17:17)

The word “great” got me thinking, and my mind was shortly thereafter brought to D&C 64:33. In particular, the last line:

Out of small things proceedeth that which is great.

I decided to turn to the verse and read it in context. That’s when the first part of the verse jumped out at me.

Be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work.

That verse hit me pretty hard. It gave me some comfort.

I still don’t know if what I am doing is making a difference, but at least I have the feelng that I’m going in the right direction.

If verse 33 provided comfort, verse 34 provided encouragement:

the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.

If nothing else, I’ll try to be less self-deprecating and more optimistic. More willing I suppose would be a better phrase.

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To be called of God

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There have been a few discussions going on in the bloggernacle about being called of God (or the lack of it). Most of the discussion focuses around past and present bishopric members of various wards talking about how hard it is to staff a ward and that it is impossible to have the stamp of approval from the Lord on every calling extended. I’m not sure what the purpose of their discussion is. They aren’t looking for any answers. They don’t seem to have any intention of correcting the situation. Perhaps it’s just a big pity-fest to help them rationalize why they aren’t doing their callings correctly. who knows?

If we turn to the scriptures, we find in the fifth article of faith that “a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.”

Well, I guess one out of two ain’t bad…

President Packer gave a good talk on callings. He points out that:

“When there is a need for someone to serve, the leaders talk about it and pray about it?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùoften more than once. They seek a confirmation from the Spirit, for calls should be made prayerfully and accepted in the same spirit.”

As a lowly member of the ward, am I asking too much that my leaders follow the prescribed pattern in making callings?

President Packer goes on to say:

“One who has authority to issue a call must rely on inspiration to avoid overburdening those who are always willing.”

I wonder if the reason why these bishoprics have such a problem staffing the ward is because they consistently fail in this one area? This talk is a goldmine in information for anyone issuing callings out of “desperation”.

Let’s see what the handbook says regarding issuing callings:

Doctrines of Callings and Releases

A person must be called of God to serve in the Church (see Articles of Faith 1:5). These callings come as the Holy Ghost inspires presiding officers to issue them. Releases from Church callings should also come by inspiration, except when a person’s change of residence necessitates a release or when a calling is for a specific time period, such as full-time missionary service.

Again, we see the need for inspiration in issuing callings in the church.

So, I guess my question is “why do bishoprics take shortcuts and offer calls of desperation, and then wonder why they have such a hard time staffing the ward?”

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We Need Some New Callings

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Over time and through some painful experiences, I have learned to keep my skills as a “computer geek” secret from members of any ward I live in.?Ǭ† I even act dumb when asked?Ǭ† if I know anything about printer drivers so they can print home teaching reports, etc. if I happen to be passing by the clerks office.?Ǭ† I have found that if “They” ever find out about my superpowers, I’ll get roped into a “computer related” calling and be stuck there until I move or die.

I was talking to a friend about this.?Ǭ† His profession is in finance and investing.?Ǭ† Because of this, he was shackled to the financial clerk chains for many years, even though he knew nothing about accounting.?Ǭ† His leaders always commented that they were grateful that they had him because someone with his experience made things go so much smoother in the ward.?Ǭ† He would always joke to me that he had zero experience before he took the calling.

I believe we have others who are typecast into certain callings.?Ǭ† Of course this won’t be 100% of the time, but it is very common in my experience.?Ǭ† I was in a ward where a lady worked as a head librarian at a city library… bet you can guess what her calling was.

To me, the odds of this being “inspired” 100% of the time is pretty small.?Ǭ† I believe these are callings of convenience.?Ǭ† To me, it was disheartening to have to do my computer job all week long, and then in my spare time have to tend to the computer needs of the ward and the family history center.?Ǭ† I never got a break.

Locally, (again, not 100% of the time) my experience is that the leadership callings of the ward and stake are reserved for the “professionals”.?Ǭ† High councils are mostly full of doctors, dentists,?Ǭ†and lawyers.?Ǭ† Bishops are dentists, lawyers and doctors.?Ǭ† And I can see why, it’s because there is no calling in the gospel that coincides with their profession.

This leads me to think that we need some new callings in the church.?Ǭ† We need to have the ward doctor, the ward, dentist, the ward lawyer.?Ǭ† They would then be on call 24/7 and be able to use their professional expertise to help the members of the ward FOR FREE, just like I do when I use my computer skills in a calling.?Ǭ† Who knows, maybe we’d see more convert baptisms if people knew they had access to those types of resources as a result of being a member of the church!

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New Apostle, New Counsellor

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With President Faust’s death this morning, inevitably an apostle will be called to fill his vacancy in the Twelve. Likewise, President Hinckley will call at least one new counsellor.

Any guesses on either of the replacements?

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“Opposed… if any?”

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I hear those words, almost on a weekly basis.

On a weekly basis, I get a few more drops of courage to actually raise my hand.

?Ǭ†Why is it that we don’t oppose when it’s how we feel sometimes??Ǭ† I must admit, I have never done it in a public meeting.?Ǭ† The closest I ever got was a few weeks ago when I had a PPI / HT interview with the EQP.?Ǭ† I told them point blank that I opposed a number of things they were doing in the quorum.?Ǭ† I didn’t try to be a jerk about it, but I let them know how I felt and why.?Ǭ† And, then to make it clear, I told them if they continued, I could not sustain them.?Ǭ† I / They left it there.?Ǭ† Nothing has changed.?Ǭ† They now know where I stand.

So, I’m thinking about our ward and stake conference that are comming up, where I’ll have another chance to oppose in public.?Ǭ† Honestly, I don’t know that I have the guts to do it.?Ǭ† I think I’d be more inclined to not raise my hand to sustain and afterwards, go to whoever and voice my opposition.?Ǭ† I admit that is the easier way out.

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Leadership Now & Then

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There’s something I don’t get.

My entire married life, the only callings I have received have been leadership callings. Elders quorum presidencies, ward mission leader, young men presidency, stake mission presidency, ward clerk. I have no idea why. I don’t think I do a particularly good job, and I honestly don’t think I have any leadership skills; I’m certainly not a very good motivator.

But what really gets me is that this is completely opposite of my mission experience. I never once had any leadership experience on my mission (except for my last trunky month training). No district leader, no zone leader, no AP. I was never even a senior companion (always a “co-companion”).

I don’t know why there’s this contrast either. On my mission, I read my scriptures every day (for at least an hour). I prayed often. I got along with my companions. Sure, every so often, I slept in or caught a video. But I loved to teach and I was good at it. I struggled with resolving concerns for the first half of my mission or so, but the last half, I was a pretty good teacher.

I hated finding though. I detested it in fact. I wish back then I had a secretary to make my appointments for me like I do now. I hated asking for referrals and knocking on doors (selective tracting is what we called it in Utah). All I wanted to do was teach.

The baptisms weren’t even that important. Sure I was caught up in all the hype and the numbers game, but teaching and seeing progression was the real thrill for me.

I certainly teach less now. I read my scriptures less. I pray less. I watch TV and movies more. I listen to music more. I even kiss more.

So why? Why is it now that I seem to be focusing less on spiritual things and more on temporal things, I am given leadership callings? And for that matter, only leadership callings?

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Call them, don’t ask them

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The following is found on page 13 of the August 2006 Ensign:

President Boyd K. Packer . . . has described an experience he had during a leadership training meeting in which a bishop indicated he couldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t get anyone to serve as the ward Primary president. The frustrated bishop said he had talked to nine different sisters in the ward, and not one of them had agreed to accept the call.

President Packer told the bishop he knew why none of the sisters had agreed to serve: ?¢‚Ǩ?ìYou asked them?¢‚Ǩ‚Äùyou didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t call them.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù President Packer said that if the call had been extended properly, it would not have taken nine attempts to get someone to accept the call.

Out of curiosity, if you were in that bishop’s place, how useful would you have found this advice?

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How would they announce my name if I were a general authority?

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Let’s pretend I am a general authority. Yeah, yeah, I know. But let’s just pretend.

There seems to be a cultural phenomenon of including a middle initial when announcing a general authority’s name (i.e. Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson, Boyd K. Packer, etc).

Now, how would they announce my name? Would they use just one initial? If so, which one, the first, second or third? The second would technically be the middle initial. At the same time, others don’t just use their middle initials, but also their second initials. I guess either way, my name would still be “Elder Kim J. Siever”.

Then again, other general authorities presumably have all their initials (since many simply have one) announced. In that case, would I too have all my initials announced? Would my name be announced as “Elder Kim J. J. B. Siever”?

Or would they avoid the issue and simply go back to the good ol’ days and refer to me as “Elder Kim Siever”? Better yet, would they ask for my preference?

Well, this exercise is likely moot anyhow.

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