Effective Ways to Affect your Quorum

Three simple principles can make a major difference in helping others.

Quorum activities such as campouts, dodgeball, capture the flag, or game nights can make for some really fun times with your friends. But what about for the guys who don’t come? They need to know that they’re welcomed and wanted. And quorum activities provide a natural way to fellowship them in a setting that’s often more comfortable for them than coming straight back to a Sunday meeting. Here’s how quorum presidencies from Georgia and Nebraska, USA, have made the most of their activities.

Get to Know Your Quorum Members First

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Photographs by Church Publishing Services

You won’t know how to best help others until you know what interests them and what they need.

Let quorum members know you care about them.

“There were two brothers in my quorum who weren’t coming to activities. I found out they like soccer, so I took a guy in my ward who plays soccer with me to their house. We found some cool ways to relate the gospel to soccer and made sure they knew we still cared and that we wanted them to come back and feel the Spirit.” —Caleb F., Georgia, USA

Serve less-active quorum members.

“I think that if you serve them, they really appreciate it. When they see a priesthood group coming to serve them, it shows them that we’re all willing to help, and it lets them know that we’re their friends.” —Louis H., Georgia, USA

Invite quorum members to activities outside of Church or Scouting activities.

“I’ve found that activities outside of Church activities can also be effective. Hang out with them and let them know that you’re their friend. If you’re going out with a group of friends, invite the less-active members along. Let them know that you’re thinking of them.” —Cyrus C., Nebraska, USA

Plan Fun, Exciting Activities

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Once you know your quorum members, you can plan more effective ways to help them through activities.

Plan activities based on their interests.

“Find something that the less-active guys like to do, and then do that for an activity. If they like wrestling, get a group of people and go to the gym and have a wrestling match. Just be a good friend. Sooner or later, you’ll find out what they like to do.” —Shaun E., Nebraska, USA

Focus on friendships, not activities.

“There was a guy in my quorum who would only come to activities that were more sports-based. Usually when we focused on Scouts or spiritual things, he wouldn’t come. But I just focused on being his friend and we became best friends. Now every Wednesday it doesn’t matter what we’re going to do. My friend is always asking me if I’m going to go, and as long as I’m going, he’s going to be there.” —Chase W., Georgia, USA

Organize a ride to the activity.

“Some guys are less-active and their parents don’t really support them doing things with the Church. We play a lot of Frisbee for activities, and the parents of some of the guys seem more open to that than to them coming to church on Sunday. We just have to organize a ride for them to get there.” —Zach L., Georgia, USA

Don’t Forget to Involve the Spirit

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Remember that the Spirit will help everyone involved get the most out of any activity.

Relate the spiritual thought to the activity.

“When we were having a sports activity, we had our leader share a spiritual experience that related sports to the gospel. The guys who are less-active listened and asked questions, and they came to other activities too.” —Caleb F., Georgia, USA

Start and end activities with a prayer.

“After an activity, get everybody together and have a prayer. One time, a guy who was very inactive came to a dart-gun war in the gym. Afterward we asked him to say the prayer. We helped him because he’d never said a prayer before. It was awesome! We could all feel the Spirit really strong.” —Conner B., Nebraska, USA

Editor’s note: Not everyone will feel comfortable praying in front of people, especially if they haven’t been to activities in a while; be sensitive to their needs and the promptings of the Spirit. You may want to ask them individually ahead of time in case they wouldn’t want to do it and would feel embarrassed about being asked in front of the group.

Be an example of choosing the right.

“When we do Scouting activities, we usually invite two brothers who are less-active to come with us. We always make sure to keep our standards high and invite them to pray with us.” —Samuel F., Nebraska, USA

Activity Ideas

Find lots of ideas for meaningful activities at lds.org/go/activitiesNE4.

To Summarize

You can help create activities where less-active members of your group will feel welcome by doing the following:

• Make sure everyone has a genuine friend at the activity.

• Plan activities that are interesting to quorum members.

• Create a comfortable setting where quorum members can feel the Spirit.

Applicable to All

While this article focuses on what young men can do to help plan activities for less-active quorum members, the principles apply to Young Women classes as well.