2021
Reaching Out with Love to New Converts and Less-Active Members
July 2021


Teachings of the Presidents of the Church

Reaching Out with Love to New Converts and Less-Active Members

Every new member of the Church needs friendship, a responsibility, and nurturing with the word of God, taught President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910-2008).

With the ever-increasing number of converts, we must make an increasingly substantial effort to assist them as they find their way. Every one of them needs three things: a friend, a responsibility, and nurturing with “the good word of God” (Moroni 6:4). It is our duty and opportunity to provide these things.

Friendship

[Converts] come into the Church with enthusiasm for what they have found. We must immediately build on that enthusiasm. . . . Listen to them, guide them, answer their questions, and be there to help in all circumstances and in all conditions. . . . I invite every member to reach out in friendship and love for those who come into the Church as converts.

We have such an obligation to those who are baptized into the Church. We cannot neglect them. We cannot leave them to stand alone. They need help as they become accustomed to the ways and culture of this Church. And it is our great blessing and opportunity to afford that help. . . . A warm smile, a friendly handshake, an encouraging word will do wonders.

Let us reach out to these people! Let us befriend them! Let us be kind to them! Let us encourage them! Let us add to their faith and their knowledge of this, the work of the Lord.

I plead with you . . . that you will put your arms around those who come into the Church and be friends to them and make them feel welcome and comfort them and we will see wonderful results. The Lord will bless you to aid in this great process of retention of converts.

Responsibility

This Church expects something of people. It has high standards. It has strong doctrine. It expects great service from people. They don’t just idly go along. We expect them to do things. People respond to that. They welcome the opportunity to be of service, and as they do so, they grow in their capacity, in their understanding, and in their qualifications to do things and do them well.

Give [new members] something to do. They will not grow strong in the faith without exercise. Faith and testimony are like the muscles of my arm. If I use those muscles and nourish them, they grow stronger. If I put my arm in a sling and leave it there, it becomes weak and ineffective, and so it is with testimonies.

Now, some of you say they are not ready to assume responsibility. But none of us was ready when the call came. I can say that of myself. Do you think I was ready for this great and sacred calling? I felt overwhelmed. I felt inadequate. I still feel overwhelmed. I still feel inadequate. But I am trying to go forward, seeking the blessing of the Lord and trying to do His will and hoping and praying that my service will be acceptable to Him. The first responsibility I had in this Church was a counselor to a deacons quorum president when I was twelve years of age. I didn’t feel adequate. I felt overwhelmed. But I tried, just as you do, and after that came other responsibilities. Never a feeling of adequacy, but always a feeling of gratitude and a willingness to try.

Every convert who comes into this Church should have an immediate responsibility. It may be ever so small, but it will spell the difference in his life.

Of course, the new convert will not know everything. He likely will make some mistakes. So what? We all make mistakes. The important thing is the growth that will come of activity.

Nurturing with the good word of God

I believe … that these converts have a testimony of the gospel. I believe they have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and know of His divine reality. I believe they have truly repented of their sins and have a determination to serve the Lord.

Moroni [says] concerning them after they are baptized: “And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ; and their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith” (Moroni 6:4).

In these days as in those days, converts are “numbered among the people of the church . . . [to] be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer.” . . . Let us help them as they take their first steps as members.

It is imperative that [every new convert] become affiliated with a priesthood quorum or the Relief Society, the Young Women, the Young Men, the Sunday School, or the Primary. He or she must be encouraged to come to sacrament meeting to partake of the sacrament, to renew the covenants made at the time of baptism.

Gordon B. Hinckley was the 15th President of the Church, serving from March 12, 1995 until January 27, 2008.