This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the modern day Church Welfare program.
I’ve been asked to teach a lesson from two talks at last GC that relate to principles of Church Welfare.
“The Sanctifying Work of Welfare” by Bishop H. David Burton and
“Opportunities to Do Good” by President Henry B. Eyring
Bishop Burton is called Bishop because he is the Presiding Bishop of the whole Church. One of his responsibilities is to oversee how all the tithing and other offerings, like fast offerings, or humanitarian aid offerings are distributed throughout the world, both inside and outside of the Church.
These offerings certainly are part of the church welfare program, so you can see that he has probably thought about the guiding principles that relate to welfare.
The title of his talk is “The Sanctifying Work of Welfare.” I’d like to consider his choice of title because it really adds depth or meaning to what we are really doing when we speak of welfare work.
So to start out our lesson today first I want to talk about the word SANCTIFY and secondly I want to talk about what we are actually talking about when we use the word WELFARE.
In the church setting when we used the word sanctify we need to understand its meaning. Sanctification is defined as: The process of becoming free from sin, pure, clean, and holy.
So in his title, Bishop Burton is telling us that we can become free from sin, pure, clean and holy through participating in the work of welfare. We are acting in the way Jesus would act.
The other word from his title is word that is used often in the Church, WELFARE…
When we talk about WELFARE in the church context, what are we talking about?
There are two main categories we break welfare work into (Put on Board)
1. Self Reliance and 2. Care for the Poor and Needy and Service
First we’ll talk about Self Reliance.
Self-reliance is the ability, commitment and effort to provide spiritual and temporal necessities of life for self and for family members.
Within the church we even go so far as to define 6 areas in which we should become self-reliant. And as we rely on God for inspiration and as we work hard, we can achieve this self-reliance.
Many of you know the areas in which we should work on being self-reliant (health, education, employment, home storage, finances and spiritual strength... and the purpose of our lesson today is not to review those, but they are something for us to consider at another time. You can find more info on those six areas at the end of the lesson. Or,if you have online access you are free to read the 6 areas of focus in the Church Handbook 2, which is available for all to see and study on line at the lds.org site. The Welfare section is chapter 6 and I’d encourage you to take a day this week to study that section and evaluate through your study and prayer areas you might want to work on.
But let’s read a quote from Bishop Burton about self-reliance from his talk. Listen for the important principles he identifies:
“Each generation is required to learn anew the foundational principles of self-reliance: avoid debt, implement principles of thrift, prepare for times of distress, listen to and follow the words of the living oracles, develop the discipline to distinguish between needs and wants and then live accordingly.”
Discuss Bishop Burton’s principles.
I thought we could read a section from our new book, “Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of RS.” The story illustrates some of these principles of self-reliance that we’re taught today by Bishop Burton. (Story starts with the heading, Wheat. p.52-54, 66-67)
After we read the story, we’ll bring the discussion back to the 21st C. and figure out what these 5
principles from Bishop Burton mean to us today.
? Comments on this story and how it relates to Bishop Burton’s principles up here on the board?
? I’d like us to share how you’ve learned these principles of self-reliance in your life.
? Or how have you taught these principles to friends or family members around you?
? How can living these 5 principles help you and me become more like Christ? More free from sin, more pure, more holy?
? How does the condition of our heart change as we try to become more self reliant, try to follow these principles?
Avoid debt principle…example of driving old car
Part 2 of Welfare is our need to
II. Seek out the Poor and Needy
The Purpose of President Eyring’s talk, “Opportunities to Do Good” is to inspire us to act on our desires to help those in need. He reminds us that we’ve all made covenants to help out our neighbors in need.
Pres. Eyrings says, “He (God) has invited and commanded us to participate in His work to lift up those in need. We make a covenant to do that in the waters of baptism and in the holy temples of God. We renew the covenant on Sundays when we partake of the sacrament.
ALSO at the beginning of his talk he repeats several times that we need to do more than have sympathy with those who are in need, we need to act. Let me read you some of the phrases he uses:
“My hope is to renew and strengthen your commitment to act.
“They turned their feelings of sympathy into a decision to act on their covenants.”
“Those who heard of the tragedy felt sympathy, and some felt the call to do good.”
“Wherever you live, you have seen that miracle of sympathy turned to unselfish action.”
“I could feel sympathy in the room but some suggested names of people who might employ the person who needed work.”
“We feel compassion, and we know how to act in the Lord’s way to help.”
? What tips or triggers can you offer the women in the room that might inspire them to move from having sympathy for someone in a tough spot, to then acting on those feelings to do something more?
President Eyring transitions from inspiring us to ACT to giving us some principles again, that have guided him when he wanted to help in the Lord’s way and also when he’s been helped by others.
“First, all people are happier and feel more self-respect when they can provide for themselves and their family and then reach out to take care of others.
I have been grateful for those who helped me meet my needs. I have been even more grateful over the years for those who helped me become self-reliant. And then I have been most grateful for those who showed me how to use some of my surplus to help others.
I have learned that the way to have a surplus is to spend less than I earn. With that surplus I have been able to learn that it really is better to give than to receive. That is partly because when we give help in the Lord’s way, He blesses us.”
“A second gospel principle that has been a guide to me in welfare work is the (power and blessing of unity.)
That increased feeling of brotherhood is true for the receiver as well as the giver. To this day, a man with whom I shoveled mud side by side in his flooded Rexburg home feels a bond with me. And he feels greater personal dignity for having done all he could for himself and for his family. If we had worked alone, both of us would have lost a spiritual blessing.”
I feel more of a bond with Kathryn L. because we worked out at Foothills Park together picking up fallen tree limbs.
“That leads to the third principle of action in welfare work for me: (Draw your family into the work with you so that they can learn to care for each other as they care for others.)
Your sons and daughters who work with you to serve others in need will be more likely to help each other when they are in need.”
? How have you seen this play out in your life?
“The fourth valuable principle of Church welfare I learned as a bishop. It came from following the scriptural command to seek out the poor. It is the duty of the bishop to find and provide help to those who still need assistance after all they and their families can do. I found that the Lord sends the Holy Ghost to make it possible to “seek, and ye shall find” in caring for the poor as He does in finding truth. But I also learned to involve the Relief Society president in the search. She may get the revelation before you do. (The HG will help you seek out and find those who are in need.)”
I remember when I was serving in the RS presidency I received a phone call from a sister in the ward. She told me that she had felt prompted to reach out to another sister in the ward who she felt was suffering. She didn’t want to know details, but she just wanted to know if I thought the inspiration was correct, which it was. I was so thankful that the HG helped this woman find this other sister who was in need.
This reminds me of a quote from our General RS President, Julie Beck, that we should all ponder and act on. She said, “The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life.”
So I hope we can adjust our lives where necessary to do this, “qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation.” It’s in this way we are able to know who to reach out to and what to do.
My 9 year old son just interviewed me for a class project about coming to California. One of the questions was what was the hardest thing for me to get used to when I moved here? I moved to Berkeley when I was 18 to go to college from a clean, well-manicured Phoenix neighborhood. I told him the hardest thing for me to get used to was walking to school past and sometimes stepping over homeless people.
You can imagine when I went to institute and discussed everyday application of the principles we were reading in the scriptures, that we had discussions about how to handle the many homeless people we encountered each day.
As we studied the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 4, I remember the words of my institute teacher. He counseled us to live our lives in a way that the spirit could direct us as we had daily encounters with so many destitute and mentally ill people. He said that we would need to be able to discern very quickly case by case, how we were going to handle the approach of a beggar. I had some very sacred and unique experiences during those times.
I feel very thankful for this counsel from President Eyring to seek the guidance of the Spirit when these situations arise. I’ve felt directed on many occasions.
As we reach out to the poor and needy, certainly their lives are blessed, but in a unintentional way, we are sanctified, or made holy through service to others.
AND FROM Bishop Burton, “This is the sacred work the Savior expects from His disciples. It is the work He loved when He walked the earth. It is the work I know we would find Him doing were He here among us today.”
If time, we’ll ponder the quotes below and discuss.
Quotes to ponder from Bishop Burton on Seeking Out the Poor and Needy
“As sons and daughters of God, we cannot inherit the full measure of eternal life without being fully invested in caring for each other while we are here on earth. It is in the benevolent practice of sacrifice and giving of ourselves to others that we learn the celestial principles of sacrifice and consecration.”
“The great King Benjamin taught that one of the reasons we impart of our substance to the poor
and administer to their relief is so that we may retain a remission of our sins from day to day and walk guiltless before God.”
“Since the foundation of the world, the cloth of righteous societies has ever been woven from the golden threads of charity. We yearn for a peaceful world and for prosperous communities. We pray for kind and virtuous societies where wickedness is forsaken and goodness and right prevail. No matter how many temples we build, no matter how large our membership grows, no matter how positively we are perceived in the eyes of the world—should we fail in this great core commandment to “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees,” or turn our hearts from those who suffer and mourn, we are under condemnation and cannot please the Lord and the jubilant hope of our hearts will ever be distant.”
“This is the sacred work the Savior expects from His disciples. It is the work He loved when He walked the earth. It is the work I know we would find Him doing were He here among us today.”
Class Handout and Description of 6 Areas of Focus related to Self-Reliance BELOW:
Self-Reliance Areas of Focus
1. Health (Wof W, nutritious food, exercise regularly, control weight, adequate sleep, good
sanitation, hygience, obtain adequate medical/dental care, cultivate good relationships w/ family and others.)
2. Education (study scrips & other good books, improve ability to read, write, basic math, obtain as much edu as possible,including formal or technical schooling where possible.)
3. Employment (work is the foundation upon which self-reliance & temporal well-being rest, become skilled at it, diligent, trustworthy, give honest work for the pay and benefits received.)
4. Home Storage (3 month storage of normal diet, gradually build longer-term supply, store drinking water.)
5. Finances (pay tithes, offerings, avoid unnecessary debt, use a budget, live w/in a plan, build
reserves by regularly saving a portion of your income)
6. Spiritual Strength (pray daily, study scripts & latter-day prophets, attend Church mtgs, serve
in callings or assignments, obey commands, exercise faith in HF and Jesus, develop their
testimonies.)
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