I served a mission in place where the church was new. When I arrived the most experience a member had was being a member for 4 years, most had less. Because of this the missionaries served as Branch Presidents and Relief Society Presidents and in every other capacity necessary. My mission president would tell us that our job was to work ourselves out of a job. In large part that meant taking new members under our wing. A missionary serving as Branch President would choose two newly baptized members (or one) to be his counselors and train them to be Branch President. The best scenario would be new members serving as Branch President and counselor, while a missionary served as the other counselor, offering love and support to the brothers he assisted as he encouraged them in their new capacity. Serving as both Relief Society President and missionary, I worked with newly baptized sisters and less active sisters to train them, or in one case find and teach someone that, through the inspiration of the spirit I knew would fill that role when I left. I don’t see the role of leaders in the church anywhere I have lived since then that much different. But something troubles me.
I often see people passed over for callings because they aren’t deemed to have enough experience, are too new in the church, don’t know the church culture sufficiently, or are supposed not to have a foundation that comes from being a member for decades. Sometimes it’s because the person is from another culture, has an accent, or dresses poorer than or better than the rest of the local body of the church. I don’t fault leaders for doing this, it’s just a bad habit from being in a big church and in places where the church is well established. I also don’t think members realize what is happening when they make these snap judgments. The problem is that people get baptized, and then without love and tutelage, will years, even decades, wallow in the same place they started, often without a calling.
It is not easy to be a new member of the church. New members need to feel needed. They need to feel like they have something to contribute and are often overwhelmed with feelings of inadequacy. When new members aren’t given a chance year after year to take leadership roles, they tend to feel even less adequate, never quite caught up to the learning curve in the gospel. When we don’t give new members callings we miss out on what they have to offer. Their experiences with the grace of Jesus in their lives will strengthen us and help us feel the spirit on our own spiritual journey.
Recently while serving in my own calling I spoke with a sister who has been a member of the church for many years. She asked me that she please not be asked to teach, convinced she didn’t know enough and would say something wrong. “I haven’t read enough church books“, she explained. She insisted that she hadn’t read any books by apostles or prophets (something she thought was important), but read stacks of Mormon fiction, seemingly still trying to figure out and fit into the culture. I wondered if she had been taken under someone’s wing and team-taught primary, Sunday school, Relief Society, Young Women or served in some other capacity if she would feel more adequate. Maybe if she was sooner called to serve as a counselor in the Primary presidency or Relief Society presidency, to serve alongside sisters that truly cared about her and had faith in her even though she had never taught primary before, or was not familiar with how Relief Society is run, she would feel like she had something to offer. If we always call seasoned leaders and teachers, none of us will best be able to grow and develop.
Not mixing things up makes church stale in both how the members relate to one another and in our capacities to develop charity, compassion, and trust in the Lord. Surely if there is anything we should do in the church it is be patient with each other when a mistake is made while teaching a lesson, or an accent once in a while makes us rely a little more on the spirit to understand the heartfelt testimony of someone not quite like us, or when someone uses words that are more familiar to them when expressing their faith–maybe words they brought with them from a former religious denomination. We need to realize that new sisters and brothers have important things to teach us. We need to realize we need them as much as they need to feel needed.
How have you incorporated others into your church service or worked yourself out of a job? Do you see better retention with new members given teaching and leadership opportunities than those given less prominent callings (“entry level“ callings)? How do you help members who were never given a chance get a chance now and feel comfortable teaching or serving in various capacities? How have you been blessed by the service of new members?
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