Preaching with boldness

[Greg West]

I recently read an anecdote about Joseph Smith where he was criticized by some members of the Church who said that he wasn't "meek" enough. Joseph offered to model the meekness of Jesus for them as an example in his sermon. From there, he began to cry with a loud voice "Woe unto ye lawyers, scribes, and Pharisees; woe unto ye hypocrites, etc." Joseph then went on to explain that Jesus was bold when it came to declaring the gospel and preaching against evil. He was meek when it came to accepting food and accomodations from others. Joseph followed that example declaring that he had never once complained about the food or lodging he had been offered by others when he went out to preach the gospel.

In Nauvoo, after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum, Brigham Young greatly expanded the role of the Seventies' quorums and the Church built a building called the Seventies' Hall. This was basically the first missionary training center. The Seventies practiced principles of public speaking and critiqued one another. They worked at becoming effective presenters of the gospel message.

In recent years, I have noticed a trend among members of the Church to simply read an entire Ensign article or a General Conference address as a sacrament meeting talk. As Seanette recently pointed out, testimonies borne in our testimony meetings are often no more than travelogues or inspirational thoughts. It seems sometimes that we are losing touch with our legacy of powerful gospel preachers.

Certainly, the Church has been blessed with many of them. Joseph Smith was not a confident public speaker when he began, so he often relied on Oliver Cowdery and Sidney Rigdon to be his spokesmen. As he developed his abilities, he became a riveting speaker, not in an affected, self-conscious fashion, but in a natural, engaging style. His delivery was down-to-earth insomuch that simple farmers and shopkeepers could understand readily, yet his command of the gospel and the scriptures was such that he interlaced scriptural references as commonly as any other part of his natural speech.

Orson Pratt, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Hyde, Heber C. Kimball, Brigham Young, John Taylor, and Wilford Woodruff were all powerful, bold preachers of righteousness. They were not timid in the least when it came to declaring the gospel. Unfortunately, all that most members of the Church have heard from these preachers of righteousness are little quotes in manuals. This practice makes it easy for anti-Mormons to find some out-of-context quote from Journal of Discourses and magnify it to sound like the old Church leaders taught some weird stuff. If you actually read their sermons in context, you'll see that our adversaries have turned the plain meaning upside down in most cases. It is a very useful thing to read and study the words of the early general authorities. The prophetic gifts they had were remarkable.

In my own lifetime, I have been privileged to hear such wonderful orators as Elder LeGrand Richards and Elder Mark E. Peterson. Today, we are blessed with many great speakers among the ranks of the general authorities. Nobody who has read Elder Holland's talk "None Were With HIm" could ever question whether Mormons believed in Jesus Christ. Likewise, President Monson's talks are always memorable and inspiring.

I recall sitting in a general priesthood meeting in Alaska one Sunday evening, listening to President Hinckley speak. He was not yet the President of the Church. All the other members of the First Presidency were seriously ill and infirm with the effects of advanced age. He must have borne a tremendous burden shouldering the load as a third counselor in the First Presidency. In that talk, I recall him pleading with the saints to overcome evil with good. The spirit of meekness was also filled with a deep passion for the work of the Lord. We could all feel it. I knew in that very moment, that if Jesus Christ himself were standing there, he would say nothing different. I heard the voice of Jesus in the words of President Hinckley. When he became President of the Church, I needed no further witness that he was God's prophet. What a blessing it is to hear men and women speak who are inspired of God. We should look to emulate their manner of preaching, not just quote their words from the Ensign magazine.

When I read some of the blog posts of our brother, Keith Lionel Brown, I am amazed at the power of the Spirit that God has given him. He preaches the gospel with great clarity and forthrightness. There is never any doubt where he stands. Many of those posts are talks he has given in sacrament meeting. His ward is blessed if they have the opportunity to hear someone who can bring the gospel in to such a clear focus.

I think perhaps, that as we are encouraged to emulate the examples of the prophets and the apostles, some of our members think that means that they should simply give the talk given by a general authority instead of using it as a point of reference and personalizing it. As I continue to work occasionally with our missionaries, I see a trend, especially since "Preach My Gospel" has become available. Never have missionaries had more autonomy to preach the gospel by the Spirit. The "Preach My Gospel" manual is an invaluable tool to help us develop our abilities to share the gospel with others. Yet many of these elders, who are all fine young men and worthy representatives of the Church, don't have any fire or passion about the gospel.

I appreciate that our style of preaching is not the same as some "fire and brimstone" Evangelist. Nevertheless, the gospel is good news. It's something to get excited about. There's more to preaching the gospel than dryly explaining the Plan of Salvation or the First Vision and having an investigator read a few passages of scripture. Our missionaries need to anticipate questions and have the answers ready. We need to lead the investigator through the process of discovery and obtaining a testimony.

It seems that there is almost an entire generation of Church members who have spent year after year in the Church and in General Conference meetings, who have never considered how we need to present the gospel to others. They don't know how to preach with power, how to rely on the Spirit, and how to open your mouth and expect it to be filled by the Holy Ghost. Out of fear of being contentious, or being accused of not being "meek" they have not learned how to truly cry repentance in such a manner that will motivate others to believe them. A scripture comes to mind here:

"And there began to be men inspired from heaven and sent forth, standing among the people in all the land, preaching and testifying boldly of the sins and iniquities of the people, and testifying unto them concerning the redemption which the Lord would make for his people, or in other words, the resurrection of Christ; and they did testify boldly of his death and sufferings. Now there were many of the people who were exceedingly angry because of those who testified of these things; and those who were angry were chiefly the chief judges, and they who had been high priests and lawyers; yea, all those who were lawyers were angry with those who testified of these things." (3 Nephi 6:20-21)

If we preach the gospel in such a manner that it does not stir up the residents of Babylon to repentance or to anger, we haven't really done our job. If they get the point, they'll either be pricked in their conscience or be angry with us. Sometime both of those happen. I feel that if I share the gospel with someone and I don't move them, I've failed. My words should move them to decide if my testimony is of God or not. If I leave them undecided on that, I've failed. Our mission is to get everyone to make a decision. There is no salvation to be had sitting on the fence. Good preaching instills courage and a desire to keep covenants.

I hope each of us will consider what we can do to become more effective gospel teachers and preachers in our assignments in sacrament meetings, in our classes, and in sharing the gospel with non-members..