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Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5–6

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Evangelical Questions: “Paid Ministry?”

by Jennifer Roach, MDiv, LMHC

Welcome back to Come Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions. My name is Jennifer Roach and today we’re going to talk about paid ministry. As you know we’re going through the Come Follow Me readings and addressing common questions that Evangelicals ask about our faith as we go along. Our purpose here is not to fuel debate but to help you understand where your Evangelical friends and family are coming from so that you can have better conversations with them, and perhaps even be able to offer them a bit of our faith in a way they can understand. 

Today’s verse comes from Mark 6:7-9:

And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.

And there is so much in that verse alone to talk about, but I want to focus on a question that comes up a lot between Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals: Is it right to pay clergy or isn’t it? [Read more…] about Come, Follow Me with FAIR: Faithful Answers to New Testament Questions – Matthew 14; Mark 6; John 5–6

Cornerstone: A FAIR Temple Preparation Podcast – Episode 1: The Plan of Salvation with Scott Woodward

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Attending the temple for the first time can be a bit overwhelming. It can seem like a very unfamiliar experience for many, especially because we rarely hear details about what happens there. Understanding the doctrine and purpose underlying the temple will help you be ready and excited to enter the House of the Lord.

The purpose of this podcast is to do just that. We will cover topics such as the Endowment, temple sealings, covenants, ordinances, sacred temple clothing ,and common misconceptions about the temple.

Whether you are preparing for a mission, your own temple sealing, or just desire to receive your own endowment we hope that this podcast will deepen your understanding of the doctrine surrounding the temple.

In this episode, Jacob Crapo talks with Scott Woodward about how the temple and “Plan of Salvation” relate to each other. They discuss what the temple teaches about God’s plan for humanity and how the temple ordinances and covenants play a key role in that plan. Scott teaches religion classes at BYU-Idaho, is a managing director at Scripture Central, and host of the Church History Matters podcast.

 

Jacob Crapo was born and now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. He served his mission in Upstate New York and was an ordinance worker in the Las Vegas Temple. One of Jacob’s dreams is to help build a temple. He is an electrician by trade but his real passion is helping others access the powers of heaven.

FAIR’s Countdown to Conference – 6 Days!

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General Conference is coming up in 6 days! It will be held April 1-2, and will have morning and afternoon sessions on Saturday and Sunday, along with an evening session for everyone on Saturday. More information is available here.

In preparation, we are doing a daily countdown with posts from different people explaining how they feel about General Conference, how they prepare, tips for getting the most out of it, how to deal with associated social media posts, etc.

General Conference for Kids

by Lynn Wilson

The art of motivating children to glean something out of General Conference requires preparation too. I teach them a song to help memorize the twelve apostles by name. I put up pictures so they can identify them more easily when they are speaking. The more I teach them about our leaders, the closer they feel toward them. Sometimes before Conference we talk about themes that might come up in talks. Twelve themes are taped to a cupcake tin. Then during conference I fill each cup with a healthy snack which they get to eat when they identify a theme. This helps the kids (and parents) listen. The Church’s website for General Conference “Bingo,” fill in the blank, word puzzles, and other handouts have been a great help for young ones.

By the time my kids are eight, I encourage them to join in listening to the Saturday sessions too. I have notebooks and pencils for each child. The younger ones draw pictures of what they hear while the older ones take notes. I find dressing them in Sunday clothes helps them to appreciate the sacredness of the experience even if we are staying home. We talk about the Conference talks afterwards at well—during meals, family home evening, and before bedtime prayers. As difficult as it is, the more I sincerely love the messages, the more my children’s interest is piqued.

 

Lynne Hilton Wilson earned her Ph.D. in Theology and American Religious History from Marquette University.  Her doctoral dissertation compared Joseph Smith’s understanding of the Spirit with his contemporaries. Her master’s degree focused on New Testament studies. She attended BYU as an undergraduate and studied nursing and music. She returned to BYU has as an adjunct professor of Religion, and to teach at Education Week. She is presents regularly at the Mormon History Association, Society of Biblical Literature, and the like. She has served in the Church Education System for the past 35 years.  Currently she teaches Institute.  Previous Publications include: Christ’s Emancipation of New Testament Women, Nativity Narratives, Learning the Language of the Lord: A Guidebook to Personal Revelation, To Witness Easter, and articles in BYU Studies, the Interpreter, Religious Educator, and the BYU Religious Studies Center. She is co-founder of BookofMormonCentral.org. She and her husband, Elder Dow R. Wilson live in Palo Alto, California. They have seven children (all with red hair), and eight grandchildren (blond, ginger, and brown).

FAIR’s Countdown to Conference – 7 Days!

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General Conference is coming up in 7 days! It will be held April 1-2, and will have morning and afternoon sessions on Saturday and Sunday, along with an evening session for everyone on Saturday. More information is available here.

In preparation, we are doing a daily countdown with posts from different people explaining how they feel about General Conference, how they prepare, tips for getting the most out of it, how to deal with associated negative social media posts, etc.

How I prepare for General Conference

by Lynn Wilson

General Conference is one of my favorite weekends of the year. Often my enjoyment of it is directly related to my preparation. When I take the time to reread or relisten to previous conference talks, prepare questions I need help with, and prepare my life to take time off for a full-two-day-religious-holiday, I am more apt to feel empowered by the messages. Perhaps the most important preparation is praying for a meek or teachable heart and the Spirit’s witness that the words are inspired from God.

During Conference, I often take notes to help me focus while listening. This way I can also record spiritual promptings. To help me focus, I try to find a core message and give each talk a “title” (my titles are rarely correct, but it’s still helpful). When I am in-tune with the Spirit I feel that I am learning not just from our General Authorities, but directly from our Lord. I try to listen with both the micro and macro view. On a micro level I listen for answers to my questions. On a macro view I listen trying to put myself in the river of God’s revelation.

To solidify my resolve after General Conference, I talk with friends and family about it. I reread my notes and impressions. I often see things I forgot. I always appreciate the chance to slowly go over the written records when they become available.

 

Lynne Hilton Wilson earned her Ph.D. in Theology and American Religious History from Marquette University.  Her doctoral dissertation compared Joseph Smith’s understanding of the Spirit with his contemporaries. Her master’s degree focused on New Testament studies. She attended BYU as an undergraduate and studied nursing and music. She returned to BYU has as an adjunct professor of Religion, and to teach at Education Week. She is presents regularly at the Mormon History Association, Society of Biblical Literature, and the like. She has served in the Church Education System for the past 35 years.  Currently she teaches Institute.  Previous Publications include: Christ’s Emancipation of New Testament Women, Nativity Narratives, Learning the Language of the Lord: A Guidebook to Personal Revelation, To Witness Easter, and articles in BYU Studies, the Interpreter, Religious Educator, and the BYU Religious Studies Center. She is co-founder of BookofMormonCentral.org. She and her husband, Elder Dow R. Wilson live in Palo Alto, California. They have seven children (all with red hair), and eight grandchildren (blond, ginger, and brown).

FAIR’s Countdown to Conference – 8 Days!

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General Conference is coming up in 8 days! It will be held April 1-2, and will have morning and afternoon sessions on Saturday and Sunday, along with an evening session for everyone on Saturday. More information is available here.

In preparation, we are doing a daily countdown with posts from different people explaining how they feel about General Conference, how they prepare, tips for getting the most out of it, how to deal with associated social media posts, etc.

Today, Elder Ammon Holyoak talks about how he prepares for General Conference.

 

Ammon Holyoak is serving as a full-time missionary in the Arizona Mesa Mission. He is from Cedar Hills, Utah.

FAIR’s Countdown to Conference – 9 Days!

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General Conference is coming up in 9 days! It will be held April 1-2, and will have morning and afternoon sessions on Saturday and Sunday, along with an evening session for everyone on Saturday. More information is available here.

In preparation, we are doing a daily countdown with posts from different people explaining how they feel about General Conference, how they prepare, tips for getting the most out of it, how to deal with associated social media posts, etc.

About Those Conference Predictions

by Benjamin Pacini

Anyone who is making conference predictions is probably just trafficking in conference-mania.

Ask me how I know. [Read more…] about FAIR’s Countdown to Conference – 9 Days!

Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 9: The Early Church – The Witnesses [B]

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Last week, I briefly mentioned some of the insults and ill-treatment that have come my way because of writing these posts. One of the primary accusations made against me was that I was trying to make a name for myself. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

I have personally advertised these posts a grand total of six times: when I made my first Reddit post regarding the CES Letter, I went to a private LDS-related sub with about 30 active members and asked that if anyone had anything further they’d found, to share it in the comments of the post; when FAIR asked if they could repost them, I linked to the first one on my Facebook account and told my friends for the first time what I’d been doing for the past six months; I also mentioned when FAIR and Jennifer Roach each graciously invited me onto their podcasts; I announced this current series on Facebook; and I thanked FAIR for giving me an award at last year’s Conference, as well as all of the people who had been so supportive of me to that point. That’s it. [Read more…] about Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 9: The Early Church – The Witnesses [B]

FAIR’s Countdown to Conference – 10 Days!

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General Conference is coming up in 10 days! It will be held April 1-2, and will have morning and afternoon sessions on Saturday and Sunday, along with an evening session for everyone on Saturday. More information is available here.

In preparation, we are doing a daily countdown with posts from different people explaining how they feel about General Conference, how they prepare, tips for getting the most out of it, how to deal with associated social media posts, etc.

Contextually Concrete Revelation

by Samuel Major

When I moved to Chicago to begin my master’s degree in marriage and family therapy, I went with the intention to be unashamed about the gospel and a desire to be fully prepared to defend it. From orientation week forward I made it well known that I was one of those “Mormons” and that my religion was everything to me. I was going to be an intellectual missionary for the church. I would prepare for General Conference with the intention of figuring out new ways to clearly defend the gospel so that I could articulate its precepts to a room full of hostile, secular academics. This meant that I would watch General Conference like I would listen to a university lecture in a philosophy department- organizing notes about gospel doctrines logically and preparing rebuttals for the arguments I anticipated would be brought up in class.  [Read more…] about FAIR’s Countdown to Conference – 10 Days!

The Gospel Brings Life and Immortality to Light

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by Jennifer Ann Mackley

Willing to Sacrifice

On August 7, 1839, a very ill Wilford Woodruff prepared to leave his pregnant wife, Phebe, and his one-year-old daughter, Sarah Emma, to serve a mission with other members of the Quorum of the Twelve in the British Isles. He wrote, “I make a sacrifice of my all for Christ’s sake to do his work. It is no small trial of faith.”

In November 1839, he was still recovering from his illness and preaching the gospel in New York while awaiting the departure of their ship to England. Over the course of three weeks, he recorded three dreams about his wife and child. On November 8, he wrote, “I saw Mrs. Woodruff in deep affliction in a dream at Montrose. I did not see Sarah Emma.” Three days later he noted, “I had a dream during the night and had an interview with Mrs. Woodruff, but did not see Sarah Emma.” [Read more…] about The Gospel Brings Life and Immortality to Light

History Came to Life in First Ever Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation Conference

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by Maddie Christensen and Kristy Wheelwright Taylor

Wilford Woodruff kept a journal from the time of his baptism at the close of 1833 until his death in 1898, saying, “I have ever been impressed . . . of the deep importance of keeping a journal and record of the dealings of God with his people.”1 His sixty-plus years of records comprise over 115,000 written pages (26,000 of which have been located), left to us as journals, letters, discourses, autobiographies, and personal papers. These records document a large part of the early Restoration of the gospel. Three years ago, Jennifer Mackley and Don Parry created the Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation, whose mission is to digitally preserve and publish Wilford Woodruff’s eyewitness account of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It seeks to make Wilford Woodruff’s records universally accessible to inspire all people, especially the rising generation, to study and to increase their faith in Jesus Christ. In celebration of these newly published documents, the Foundation hosted its first conference, Building Latter-day Faith. The conference was held at the Hinckley Center on the campus of Brigham Young University on Saturday, March 4, 2023, with over 350 people in attendance. [Read more…] about History Came to Life in First Ever Wilford Woodruff Papers Foundation Conference