Retention and the Parable of the Sower

I do not have very many burrs under my saddle when it comes to the church, but in this case I would like to expose one in the hopes of removing it. It has to do with the retention of new converts.

I think it all started when I served as Ward Mission Leader and then Elder's Quorum President consecutively. I believe that President Hinkley's famous counsel on retention was made when I was a new Ward Mission Leader. My stake leaders at the time, whom I felt were over zealous in general, jumped on this counsel, and in their usual way were going to hold everyone with a stewardship regarding new converts to a high level of accountability in the three areas.

The three areas of need for a new convert are a friend, a responsibility, and nurturing by the word of God - according to President Hinkley. And if any new convert stopped coming to church it was assumed that the ball was dropped in one of these areas, and the ward in question was always at fault.

I do not dispute the wisdom of President Hinkley's counsel in this area, but I do believe that it only addresses one side of the street. The side of the responsibility of long-time local members. But there is another side of the street - in fact I believe this may be a three-way street if you can imagine it. The other sides involve the missionaries, and the new converts themselves.

This months Ensign is completely devoted to new members of the church. There is an excellent article called something like 'What Now?', which I believe is on page 24. I don't know for sure because I gave my copy to a recently inactive new convert in our ward. He and I have become friends of sorts, and I played pool with him last night. It is his favorite hobby. Anyhow, the article addresses the responsibilities of new members. Under the friendshipping section the author mentions that one of the best ways to have a friend is to be one, and suggests that the new member should reach out! Real friendships are always two way streets.

As I thought about resolving some of my issues with this my mind pondered the parable of the sower found in Matthew 13 among other places. Many have suggested that this parable is actually a parable about good soil. Most of you will be familiar with this parable so I won't review the parable in detail now. But it seems that this parable may be the Saviors explanation regarding retention problems involving his own converts. His own explanation of the parable seems clearly to express that the staying power of a new convert is mainly determined by the quality of the soil. The soil being the convert themselves.

My desire here is to recommend that as local church leaders we don't point fingers as much as we play blame-game guilt trips. We simply need to do what we reasonably can to help faithful, honest, and well prepared new converts make a difficult transition. I believe a lack of retention of poorly prepared converts who lack a deep commitment is nearly inevitable, and not necessarily evidence of an unfriendly, irresponsible, and uncharitable ward.

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Spirit of Bloggernacle

To the tune of Spirit of Radio.



Begin the day, with a friendly blog,
A companion unobtrusive.
Writes that post, that's so elusive.
And that magic Mormon makes you morning mood.

Off at your job, on an open break,
There is magic at your fingers.
And the spirit ever lingers,
Undemanding contact in your happy solitude.

Dial up modems crackle with life,
Bright monitors bristle with the energy.
Spiritual feedback on unlimited bandwidth,
Bearing a Pearl of Great Price,
Almost free.......

All this machinery making Mormon blogging
Can still be open-hearted.
Not church correlated
It's really just a question of your honesty
Yeah your honesty.
One likes to believe in the freedom of blogging,
But flattering comments, and sometimes guilty conscience
Shatter the illusion of integrity.

The words on the prophets were linked to the official website.
lds.org
It echoes with the sound of Intellectuals.

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Atonement Theory - Parable of a Perfect Judge

My father got me started on looking at the atonement as something that provides a perfect judgment based on Mosiah Chapter 3. I thought I might take a stab at expressing an atonement theory based on this. Other theories I have read express the perspective of the one seeking eternal life. I decided to write this from the perspective of one who is offering eternal life. Feel free to let me know what you think.

There once was a wealthy, wise, powerful and perfect man, who desired to help others to become as he is. He knew that with his help they could progress farther and faster than they could on their own. He also knew that he could not just give away what he had to someone who could not be trusted with that kind of freedom and power. So he decided to place those who desired to become like him under a period of probation, after which they would be judged by a perfect judge. The perfect judge would determine the quality of the inheritance.

This perfect judge would have to know everyone's circumstances perfectly. He would also have to know exactly what he would do in the same situation. This ability could not come easily. He would not only have to experience directly what many others experienced, he would also have to undergo an intense simulation that would cover every possible contingency.

After this perfect judge completed this experience, he would inherit everything that the wealthy, wise, powerful and perfect man had. Through this perfect judge, all who desired to be like him could potentially gain the same inheritance. Any who were untrustworthy, would receive a lesser inheritance.

Jacob over at New Cool Thang wrote a post about atonement theories here. He gave a list of questions that a theory ought to address. These questions (with answers) are:

Why was the atonement necessary?

To have a perfect judgment, and determine who has proven themselves to be trusted with a full inheritance.

Why was Christ the only one who could perform the atonement?

He was the only one who could endure the intense simulation.

Why would we have been hopelessly lost without the atonement?

We could not receive any inheritance without proving ourselves to the perfect judge, and we could not achieve it on our own.

What caused Christ to suffer?

The intense simulation caused him to suffer all of the pains, sorrows, effects of sin, limitations, etc. of all people. This was necessary for him to be able to apply a perfect judgment.

What did Christ suffer?

All things that everyone else may suffer during this probation.

What did Christ's suffering accomplish?

A perfect judge emerged from this suffering.

What is the meaning of justice and mercy?

All will be able to stand before a perfect judge.

What is the nature of sin and sinfulness?

To knowingly sin is to show that we can not be trusted. To continue in sin will result in a lesser inheritance.

How does the atonement satisfy justice?

All will be able to be judged by a prefect judge.

How did the atonement bring about the resurrection?

The inheritance is the quality of the resurrection.

How is the atonement related to forgiveness?

The perfect judge will determine if we have repented, or returned to a state of trust. This trust can be communicated through the spirit. Ultimately the final judgment will be a result of the level of forgiveness.

How is the atonement related to repentance?

An individual must show the Lord that he has truly changed, and can now be trusted.

How was the atonement efficacious before it was performed?

Repentance is changing to a state of trust with God. The acceptance of this change could still be communicated. The ends of the atonement will not be completed until after the final judgment.

How is the atonement related to the fall?

The fall initiated the probationary period, the atonement will ultimately be the judgment of that period.

How did the atonement make us free?
The atonement allows us to regain the trust of God, and provides an eternal inheritance for us. These things would not even be available to us without an atonement.

Well, I rushed through this pretty fast. Let me know what holes are left in this theory.

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I Want to be a Missionary - Right Now!

I was told that a brother in our ward went out knocking doors with his young daughter last Sunday afternoon. What do you think of the appropriateness of this?

The daughter is a real ham who loves attention. I imagine she was thrilled to do this, and it was probably even her idea. (I do not know this, but I would not be surprised). They went out with pass along cards and a Book of Mormon and were tracting the neighborhood just like missionaries. They apparently were not very successful.

I don't know about you, but this sort of creeps me out.

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Hope for Sustain'd

For the benefit of some family and friends who read Small and Simple but do not venture into the LDS web log community I would like to briefly describe Sustain'd. Sustain'd is a web site that ranks posts according to sustaining votes. One can go to Sustain'd and see what posts have been sustained and how many times they have been sustained. It seems a neat way to catch the highlights of what is going on.

Some may have noticed a 'Sustain This!' button on the bottom of my posts here. This is an easy way to sustain one of my posts and thus recommend it to other readers. If you click this button you will be asked to type in a user name and password of your choice, and then you can click on the word sustain in a small blue/gray box to add your sustaining vote. So I would encourage you to click on this button anytime you see it on a post that you like - here or elsewhere. It can be a great way - in addition to giving comments - to support your local LDS blogger. It is a bit of a Taboo for an author to sustain their own posts. I did this once mostly to make sure that the button was functioning properly, but I most likely will not sustain any more of my own stuff. I will leave that to the reader.

Now for what I hope Sustain'd will do for the LDS web log community (bloggernackle).

I hope that there are a lot of people out there who are a lot like me who have more time to read blogs from all over, and that they will 'sustain' the good ones in this way. This would be a great help to me. I am certain that I miss a lot of good stuff out there.

I also hope that this will keep good posts alive for a long time. I sometimes marvel at how quickly good posts fade into oblivion. Like stories in yesterdays newspaper they become discarded. A good post with lots of sustaining votes can stick around for quite a while it seems.

I hope this goes a ways towards removing some of the clannish nature of blogging. It appears to me that the bloggernackle is loosing some of it's community feel. It is getting quite vast. It seems to me that something must bring it together in some way or the term bloggernackle will loose any meaning whatsoever. I am not really sure that sustain'd or anything else will be able to do that in a long-term and meaningful way. But I am hopeful.

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As a Man Thinketh

There is a familiar phrase in the scriptures that says 'For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he'. (Proverbs 23:7) I am now wondering how literally to take this.

I am in the midst of taking a 12 week Dale Carnegie training course called 'Effective Communication and Human Relations'. My company is sending me to this course to help develop some leadership skills. This course promises all kinds of things, and they are mainly based in self confidence. In the reading assignment after the first week, I came across an interesting suggestion. Mr. Carnegie suggests that if you need self confidence, and you don't feel you have enough, act as if you have self confidence. He claims that this can be a very powerful way of gaining self confidence. I suppose that if you can convince yourself to act and behave in a certain way, and good results come from it, that this will reinforce the mindset and behavior.

I think I have seen this in some people. They think they are smart, they act smart, people perceive them as smart. Heck, they may as well be smart. And nobody knows their actual IQ. In many ways this will be every bit at good as being smart. And as long as your actual lack of intelligence is not so severe as to be obvious, you will pull it off.

I wonder if this can work for a testimony in the gospel, or some aspect of it. I have heard it said that if you want a testimony of a principle, then live it. So you act as if you have a testimony of something by being willing to change your behavior for a time. And if there are some favorable results, then this behavior and testimony are reinforced. This approach may work for things like the Word of Wisdom, Tithing, Sabbath observance, etc. Act as if you believe in these principles for a while, and you may eventually find that it is not an act.

Might we see this type of 'act' in the church at times in terms of perceived righteousness? I mean, someone could think of themselves as righteous, act righteous, speak of righteousness, and people might perceive them as being righteous. Heck, they may as well be righteous. And nobody really knows their actual level of righteousness (except God). And as long as your actual lack of righteousness is not to severe, you might pull it off.

This post might rub some people the wrong way. I am still trying to sort some of this out. Is the scriptural statement literally true? 'For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he'.

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Worlds Without Number (9) THE END!

Worlds Without Number (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)


Lyda told Tom about the discussion that she had about the church. Tom listened with much interest. This church seemed to teach the same basic principles that that his church did on earth. It seemed to have the same organization. It also had a slight variation of the same name. All of these things worked to strengthen the beliefs of both Tom and Lyda. They spoke of how ironic it was that Tom had to travel all this distance to get his religious beliefs stirring again, and to be part of the conversion of Lyda.


Lyda embraced Tom again, and she expressed how sad she was going to be when it was time for Tom to return to earth. She told him that she had been hoping to find the right man, and now that she thought she had found him, he was just going to leave - never to return. Tom knew this was his chance.

Tom told Lyda that he was falling in love with her, and that he was considering not returning to earth at all. He explained how the ship was able to return on its own, and that there was nobody on earth for him to return to. Lyda questioned if he really wanted to give up his life, and his home planet, to remain here with her. He firmly answered that he did, and that it was no sacrifice at all. Lyda told Tom that she did love him, and that having him stay here with her would make her very happy. Their kiss was an expression of love and commitment. They both understood that this decision was a very significant one. Unexpressed doubt or reluctance would not do. They both knew their lives were going to make a fundamental change for the better.

The practical mind in Tom began working again in a few minutes. He asked Lyda if the government would allow him to remain on this planet. Lyda laughed. She said that from what she had gathered, the government was trying to find ways to convince Tom to stay as long as possible. The technology of the ship, and Tom's knowledge of it, was very valuable. She imagined that if Tom was willing to stay, that any necessary arrangements would easily be made.

The arrangements were made. Tom would be given a position in the space program, and well paid. The ship would remain on the planet for several months to allow scientists to gain as much knowledge of the technology as they reasonably could. Tom would assist as much as he was able.

Lyda was eventually baptized, and she and Tom were able to attend church together. Tom was able to come and go anywhere he pleased. Arrangements were made for their wedding. There were temples available for that sort of thing.

Eventually the day came to send the ship back to earth. Lyda offered one more time to allow Tom to change his mind. Of course he didn't. As they watched the ship leave the planet, Lyda asked if he had any regrets. Tom said, 'I only wish my parents were here to see this. This would make my mom very happy. She would have liked you.'

Lyda asked if he were given a chance to leave this planet to go to another inhabited planet if he would like to go. Tom said that he wouldn't be interested, he was pretty sure what he would find. More of God's children, working out their salvation, the same as on other worlds - worlds without number. Besides, Tom now had better things to do.

The End.

So, what do you think?

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