|
Here are some helpful articles and links to help you accomplish your goals to
Commit to reach out to one less active member each month-call one you do know, or visit and introduce yourself to one you don’t know.
Personally get to know those who have been reached and want further contact-invite them to a church or social event every month.
TO THOSE REACHING OUT
 Words of the General Authorities
"Bring Him Home"
We can, with the Lord’s help, reach out and rescue those for whom we have responsibility.
Thomas S. Monson (Ensign, November 2003)
"Restoring His Lost Sheep"
This work of reclaiming the lost sheep, as Jesus so vividly expressed it, must receive top priority by every stake, ward, branch, and quorum leader. All inactive members should be considered candidates for activation regardless of their response to any previous approach. We must use kindness, patience, long-suffering, love, faith, and diligence. They must feel our genuine concern and untiring love.
Joseph B. Wirthlin (Ensign, May 1994)
"They Taught and Did Minister One to Another"
May we truly minister and teach all of our people, but especially reach out to those who plead in their hearts and through the long, lonely nights for help—our widows, our divorced, our nonmembers, our aged, our less active—to let them know of our concern, our love, and the love of God, until a happier people cannot be found upon the whole land.
James M. Paramore (Ensign, May 1986)
"Stand in Your Appointed Place"
Let us reach out to rescue those who so need our help and lift them to the higher road and the better way. Let us focus our thinking on the needs of priesthood holders and their wives and children who have slipped from the path of activity. May we listen to the unspoken message from their hearts:
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday.
The work of reactivation is no task for the idler or dreamer. Children grow, parents age, and time waits for no man. Don’t postpone a prompting; rather, act on it, and the Lord will open the way.
Thomas S. Monson (Ensign, May 2003)
"What This Work is All About"
There are tens of thousands … in this Church whose hearts are touched and who are brought back into activity by a great sense of concern, a quiet expression of love, and a challenge to serve from bishops and others. But there are many, many more who need similar attention.
This work of ours is a great work of redemption. All of us must do more because the consequences can be so remarkable and everlasting. This is our Father’s work, and He has laid upon us a divine injunction to seek out and strengthen those in need and those who are weak. As we do so, the homes of our people will be filled with an increased measure of love; the nation, whatever nation it be, will be strengthened by reason of the virtue of such people; and the Church and kingdom of God will roll forward in majesty and power on its divinely appointed mission.
Gordon B. Hinckley (Ensign, August 2002)
 Scriptures
3 Nephi 26:19
They taught and did minister one to another; and they had all things in common among them, every man dealing justly, one with another.
Mosiah 2:17
When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God.
TO THOSE TRYING TO COME BACK
Words of the General Authorities
"Please Hear the Call!"
Most of us have experienced times of isolation and loneliness in our lives. The fact that people are physically nearby, regardless of the setting, does not always equate to feelings of acceptance, understanding, inclusion, and fellowship. In too many cases, the reverse may be true. Feelings of acceptance and inclusion come when someone invites us into their circle of friendship and activity. Far beyond fun and games, activities represent at least one nonthreatening way to accept, include, understand, and fellowship others. Perceived in this manner, activities become another vehicle to show charity, love, kindness, forgiveness, service, and to include and not exclude.
Adney Y. Komatsu Of the Seventy (Ensign, May 1992)
"Putting My Hand in the Lord’s"
The challenge is to love God, keep our covenants, and live the great plan of happiness even when loved ones die and other trials and disappointments occur. It is not just the attractive, smart, and wealthy who are expected to endure in faith to the end. That is expected of all of us. The challenge is to remember why we are here: to work out our salvation, alone or married, childless or with a quiver full of children; to shout for joy and then to work at being joyful; to remember that the Lord stands ready to succor us through the Holy Ghost. He will go before us and be on our right hand and on our left.
Diane Terry Woolf (Ensign, January 2009)
"The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness"
The gospel teaches us that relief from torment and guilt can be earned through repentance. Save for those few who defect to perdition after having known a fulness, there is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression, no offense exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness.
Boyd K. Packer (Ensign, November 1995)
Scriptures
Isaiah 1:18
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Matthew 11:28-30
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
 Additional Resources
News of the Church
So much depends upon our willingness to make up our minds, collectively and individually, that present levels of performance are not acceptable either to ourselves or to the Lord. In saying that, I am not calling for flashy, temporary differences in our performance levels, but a quiet resolve on the part of General Authorities, Regional Representatives of the Twelve, stake presidents, bishops, mission presidents, and branch presidents to do a better job—to lengthen our stride.
Spencer W. Kimball (Ensign, November 1974
|
