Dad's talk in Stake Conf PH Session May 2013. Delegation and PH Leader Roles.

Stake Conference May 18, 2013 Priesthood Session Delegation and Priesthood Leader Roles. Donald Wall Dear Brethren. It is a great blessing and honor to be here this afternoon. It is good to see you again gathered together. There are other places you could be on a Saturday afternoon. You are in the right place, may God bless you today for your obedience. Brethren, we hold the priesthood of God. We have a great work to do. I want to tell you about a dream that Elder Jeffery Olsen, our Area Seventy, had, a dream that became a nightmare. He shared this with us a couple months ago in a leadership training meeting in NYC. In his dream he was the acting Bishop. Members of his ward were falling from the sky. Bishop Olsen was running to catch them. But there were too many of them. He could not catch them all, and his dream became a nightmare. Bishops, do you ever feel like this? Perhaps you have had the same dream? Perhaps you will now. When he awoke he realized that he needed to do something different. He could not do it all by himself. In reading the handbooks he was inspired to think the thought, “The Lord has blessed me with a quorum.” In that same leadership training meeting Elder L. Tom Perry of the quorum of the twelve Apostles taught us, “We need to use the priesthood, we need to organize the priesthood” Elder Perry reminded us of an experience that he had. He was with President Spencer W. Kimball and Elder Packer in Denmark. They came to a group of large and beautiful statues of Christ and his Apostles. The statue of Peter was holding a prominent set of keys, representing the keys of the kingdom of God promised to Peter by Christ as we can read in Matthew chapter 16. President Kimball turned to the gentleman who was guiding them that day and exclaimed “I hold the keys” and he went on to say, making reference to the statues of the Apostles, “ these are dead Apostles” and then pointing to Elders Packer and Perry, he said, “These are living Apostles.” Truly, as it says in DC 65:2, “The keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto men on the earth and from thence shall the gospel role forth unto the ends of the earth as the stone which was cut out of the mountain without hands shall roll forth until it has filled the whole earth.” Brethren, it is my testimony to you that President Scott Ey holds the keys for the administration of the church in our area. For Dutchess, Ulster, Sullivan, and Orange Counties. These keys were bestowed upon him three years ago under the administration of Elder Lynn Robins of the Seventy who was under direct assignment from President Boyd K Packer of the quorum of twelve Apostles. Scott Ey is a “living” Stake President. The keys of the priesthood are here today. The key word for learning that we may get from Elder Olsen’s dream and particularly important to our good bishops is: Delegation Delegate to the HPGL, the EQP, the Home Teachers, and even the Missionaries. You know, just a word about the missionaries bishops. Elder Perry likes math. He has instructed that our mission force now has 2.6 million hours of service available each week. He instructs, and President Morgan, our mission president, agreed that these 2.6 million hours are available to you. Bishops, what are you going to do with them? You ought to be able to think of something constructive and useful that you can do with 2.6 million hours each week. Elder Perry further instructs, “We cannot afford to lose even one hour.” So why would this delegation be a good idea? To answer this question we get a little help from Elder Tad R Callister of the Presidency of the Seventy from our last General Conference Priesthood Session in April. Elder Callister tells us a story of his Great Grand Father, George F Richards. The year was 1878. George was only 17 years old, but he had recently been given the Melchezidek Priesthood and ordained to the office of elder. This was sometimes the case in those days as Elder Callister explained. I would add here that my father was also ordained to the office of elder when he was only 17 years old. He received special permission from the 1st presidency so that he could be married in the Idaho Falls temple to my sweet mother. It was a long time ago also, but not 1878! One Sunday George’s mother was groaning in intense pain. George’s father was not available. Therefore, the Bishop and several others were invited to give her a blessing. But no relief came. Accordingly she turned to her son George and ask him to lay hands on her head. George wrote in his diary, “In the midst of my tears for my mother’s suffering and the task of performing an administration such as I had never yet done, I retired to another room where I wept and prayed.” When he became composed, George laid his hands on his mother’s head and gave her a very simple blessing. Later he reports, “My mother ceased her groaning and received relief from her suffering while my hands were yet on her head.“ He recorded in his diary this most insightful observation. He said he had always felt that the reason his mother did not get relief from the bishop’s blessing was not because the Lord failed to honor the bishop’s blessing but because the Lord had reserved this blessing for a boy, to teach him a lesson. That the priesthood in the boy is just as powerful as the priesthood in the man when exercised in righteousness. Do you remember that story? So what does this have to do with delegation? Elder Callister continues. He says as a mission president he observed “dramatic increase in the spirituality and leadership skills of the young men during their mission years. “ He attributed this accelerated rate of learning and progress to 3 key things. 1. We trust the young men as never before 2. We have high but loving expectations of them 3. We train them and re-train them so they can fulfill those expectations with excellence. We, as a Stake Presidency, believe this same principle being taught would apply to all priesthood holders and not just the young missionaries. So we could potentially increase the spiritually and the leadership skills of all our priesthood holders in the Newburgh Stake if we were to place on them a greater trust, if we were raise for them in a very loving way our expectation of them, and finally if we were to train them more extensively and thoroughly and comprehensively so they could fulfill those expectations with excellence. Brethren, as a church and a people we often like to give all our responsibilities to our bishops. And that seems good because our bishops are so capable and are so willing to help. But you know it is not fair. The bishops are getting all the blessings. And we need to keep in mind Elder Olsen’s dream……..or rather nightmare, and the inspiration that he received from it. That having the bishop do everything is not the best option. There are some things that the bishop cannot delegate. For example, his precious work with the youth as President of the Aaronic Priesthood, or his stewardship and care for the sinner as a common judge in Israel. But there are, we believe, many things that the bishop commonly does do that he could delegate. Today in our priesthood session we want to talk to you about an idea, an idea that is consistent with all the marvelous teachings and insights that we have received from our leaders and also consistent with the comprehensive handbooks of the church. Let’s work to delegate more of the responsibility from the bishop to the priesthood leaders and also all the priesthood holders. Today we will discuss and explore some very specific opportunities. - Let’s use the priesthood more extensively than we have in the past. - Let’s organize the priesthood so that some common assignments normally done by the bishop can be done by others. - Let’s remember what we learned from Elder Olsen’s dream that we cannot expect the bishop to do it all and that we have priesthood quorums that can help. - Let’s remember what we were recently taught in General Conference by Elder Callister that the priesthood in the boy, or in the elder’s quorum president or the high priest group leader, is just as powerful as the priesthood in the man, or in the bishop, when exercised in righteousness. Why is this delegation of priesthood responsibility a good idea? - Because it will more effectively meet the needs of the members. - Because it will more expansively save the lives of the people. - Because it will more poignantly grow the talent and increase the experience of the priesthood servants in the Newburgh Stake. - Because this is the way the Lord intends Elder Callister finally taught, “You have magnified your calling best not when you give a great lesson but when you help another to give a great lesson, not when you rescue the one but when you help someone else to do so.“ Then I have added for our specific application today in reference to our great bishops, not when you, bishop, meet all the needs of the people in your ward by yourself, which in itself is a great accomplishment, but rather, you magnify your calling best, when you help and inspire and allow others to work in the vineyard side by side to minister to the needs of the people. This is a true principle of which I testify, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.