Awesome Ward-Missionary Ideas: New member social success!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

New member social success!

(This post was created months ago, but never posted for some reason...)

We had a great 'dessert social' for some of our new members tonight. It was held at the Bishop's home and it went really well. We have about 17 adults who were baptized in the last few years, and of those 17 the Bishop selected 9 (plus their spouses & kids, if applicable) to invite to this social. We were somewhat limited on space because it was held in a home, which was the reason for the limit on attendees, but we hope to have more "socials" like this in the future. It was a great way for newer members to socialize (with each other, the Bishop, and the ward-missionaries) outside of Church.

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What is missionary work?

As a young single adult (and a recent convert of just 2 years) I served a full-time proselyting mission for the Church. The experiences that I had during my mission were incredible, but if I were to select a time in my life that I experienced the most success in sharing the gospel, I would absolutely choose that 2 year period between when I was baptized and when I entered the MTC (Missionary Training Center).

I wasn't serving as any type of "official" missionary at that time. I was just a regular person who was excited about the changes that the gospel had brought into my life. It felt perfectly natural to invite my friends and co-workers to learn more about the Church. It also seemed completely normal to encourage less-active members to participate in our local branch. I was able to have many wonderful experiences without ever worrying for a moment that I was "putting myself out there" for potential rejection. I genuinely felt excited about my new beliefs and just wanted to offer the same experience to everyone around me.

During my full-time mission, I would occasionally feel frustration with the lack of success in an area where I was assigned to serve. It seemed strange how much more effective it had been to casually approach people as a friend, co-worker, or neighbor in my pre-mission days (when I wasn't wearing a nametag). I loved my mission, but I knew that there would come a day when I would be a "normal" member again and could easily mention the gospel to those around me as I had before, without having a door slammed in my face by a stranger.

Could it be possible that member missionary work is easier and more natural than people imagine it is? Can we use principles of friendship and Christ-like love to reach out to our friends and neighbors in a casual way? How can we incorporate those same principles into other areas, like convert retention and reactivation?

I feel that member missionary work should be a natural part of being a member of the Church. You don't have to be a full-time missionary, or even a ward missionary, to have successful gospel-sharing experiences. The concept of being a member missionary seems daunting to many people in the Church, but it doesn't have to be that way.

After my husband and I were called as ward missionaries, I began to search the internet for additional information to help us in our callings. I was seeking tips and information that had been helpful to other ward missionaries (or to member missionaries in general). While I found many articles, websites/blogs, and books devoted to the subject of full-time missions or full-time missionaries, I found shockingly little information specifically about member missionary and ward missionary efforts. I decided to share our own ideas about member missionary work on this blog!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

New member social success!

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