Contributed by: Ann "Bishop, Help!"
Elder Dallin H. Oaks
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Ensign, May 1997, 22
My brothers and sisters, I begin by sharing an
event from a large ward in Provo about 20 years ago. During a sacrament meeting, a little
boy made a big disturbance. After several minutes of trying to quiet this noisy
three-year-old, the mother desperately handed him to the father, who was seated on the
aisle close to the front of the chapel. By this time the noise distracted the speaker and
audience, and everyone was very conscious of the parents’ plight. The father’s
patience was much shorter than the mother’s. In a few moments he put the little boy
over his shoulder, stood up, and started for the back door. Looking back over his
father’s shoulder and sensing his determined steps, the little boy became quiet and
apprehensive. Just as the father approached the rear door of the chapel, the little fellow
reached his arms out toward the stand and shouted, "Bishop, help!"
There are times in the lives of all of us when we
must reach out to our bishop or his counselors for help. Perhaps we need inspired counsel
and direction to help with our families or our occupations. Perhaps we seek increased
understanding of the gospel or the duties of our callings. We may need temporal assistance
in a time of stress. We may even reach out for discipline to assist us in getting back on
the path of growth. Always we benefit from their stalwart examples. Thank heaven for
faithful and inspired bishops and branch presidents and their counselors!
A bishop (or branch president) has many duties.
As the president of the Aaronic Priesthood, he personally oversees the programs and
activities of the young men and young women in the ward. He and his counselors interview
each one each year. They give special attention to teaching correct principles. Always
they encourage our youth to prepare for the covenants they will make in the temple.
As the presiding high priest, the bishop gives
direction to all quorums, auxiliaries, activities, and programs in the ward. Calls to ward
positions are under his direction. So is home teaching and visiting teaching, and the
performing of ordinances like baptism. Assisted in all of this by his counselors, he is
responsible for sacrament meeting and for the teaching of the gospel in all classes in the
ward. The bishopric also directs all of the other meetings of the ward, including the
priesthood executive committee and the ward council.
The bishopric is also responsible for monitoring
the Church service time of all ward members serving under their direction. Knowing the
circumstances of the ward, they determine the appropriate balance of ward meetings and
activities and the time remaining for families. They are also conscious of the purpose of
our Sunday consolidated meeting schedule, which was not established to give time for more
Sabbath meetings but to allow increased time for families to be together and for
individual gospel study and service.
The bishopric (or branch presidency) is also in
charge of unit finances. They receive tithes and offerings, oversee the unit budget and
expenditures, remit funds, and see that records are properly kept. The bishop is the judge
who determines how Church commodities and funds are used to provide for the temporal needs
of the members. He is also responsible for seeking out the poor and the needy.
The bishop is the judge and the shepherd who has
the power of discernment and the right to revelation and inspiration for the guidance of
the flock. He is responsible for holding worthiness interviews in order to authorize
attendance at the temple, callings to ward positions, ordinations to priesthood offices,
and the callings of missionaries. He administers formal and informal discipline for
violation of the laws of the Church, and he counsels and helps members avoid the necessity
for discipline.
Although some of their duties cannot be
delegated, in most of these tasks the bishop and his counselors need the assistance of
many others working under their direction: executive secretary, clerks, presidencies and
group leadership of quorums, presidencies of auxiliaries, and officers and teachers. A
bishop needs to be a skillful delegator, or he will be crushed under the burden of his
responsibilities or frustrated at seeing so many of them unfilled.
I marvel at the work of our bishops and branch
presidents. In my lifetime, our family has had many bishops. We have loved each of them
and their counselors, and we have felt their love and assistance in our lives. Each of
them was different in his personality, but each was a devoted servant of the Lord. I have
seen the mantle of responsibility increase their stature, and I have rejoiced in their
magnificent service to the people. God bless the bishops and bishoprics of this Church!
There is something else we should mention about
bishops. They are not specialists. We do not have bishops whose sole attentions are
directed toward the youth, the aged, the married, the abused, or any particular
occupational or ethnic group. Under the revelations of the Lord and the directions of His
prophets, a bishop is ordained and set apart to preside over a ward whose boundaries are
geographic and whose membership includes all who reside there. For this reason, a bishop
looks after the old and the young, the married and the single, the rich and the poor, the
active and the less active. In this he seeks to unify the flock so that we may be taught
and serve in groups of Saints that transcend considerations of age, marital status,
ancestry, and economic condition. Our bishops lead us all in our efforts to follow the
Savior’s commandment to "be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine" (D&C 38:27).
The Lord told the early members of His Church
that the voice of His servants is the voice of the Lord, and that the hand of His servants
is the hand of the Lord (see D&C
1:38; D&C 36:2). I
testify to the truthfulness of that principle, which imposes a solemn duty upon the
members of this Church to be loyal to their leaders and faithful in following their
direction. I affirm that the Lord will bless us for doing so. That principle also imposes
a great responsibility on the holders of office in this Church. Leaders must assure that
they exercise their sacred authority "by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness
and meekness, and by love unfeigned" (D&C 121:41).
We now have over 15,000 bishops and over 8,000
branch presidents in this Church. When we count their counselors, the total serving in
bishoprics and branch presidencies is over 65,000. We praise and honor these worthy
shepherds of the flock, judges in Israel, leaders and teachers of the people, men who love
and are loved by those whom they serve as undershepherds of the Lord Jesus Christ. God
bless these good men! And God bless their faithful wives, whose loyalty and support make
their service possible.
As I began this talk, I quoted the words of a
three-year-old who called, "Bishop, help!" I will now reverse those words and
make them a challenge for each of us: "Help [the] bishop!"
Our current circumstances are different from
those experienced by bishops and their counselors and members in earlier times. Today we
have local leaders in most parts of the world. Many geographic wards and branches are in
large cities and include hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. Some bishops
travel during the week or commute long hours and great distances to work, effectively
isolated from their families and their members for most of the hours of the week.
Nevertheless, we also have communication and transportation resources undreamed of in
earlier times. Whatever the physical changes over time, the nature of our local
leaders’ callings has not changed, nor has their compensation. They are totally
uncompensated by the coin of mortality. For the reward of their labors, all rely on the
Lord’s deferred compensation plan.
Unchanged also is the fact that as they struggle
with the heavy duties of their callings, bishops and their counselors must also earn a
living and fulfill other family responsibilities. They do this not only because of their
love for their wife and children, but also because they are responsible for being role
models for the members of their flock. The burden is a heavy one that cannot be fulfilled
without the supportive efforts of ward officers and members.
How do we help? To lighten the load of the
bishopric, auxiliary presidencies and Melchizedek Priesthood quorum presidencies and group
leaders need to exercise initiative and fully function in the great responsibilities of
their callings. Bishops are responsible to call; they should not be required to beg or
push. All of us should accept the callings we are given and serve in all diligence. The
most common calling received for men is home teacher and for women is Relief Society
visiting teacher. When properly performed, these vital callings can substantially lighten
the load of the bishopric. Home teachers and visiting teachers are the eyes and ears and
hands of the bishop. Brothers and sisters, help the bishop and his counselors by reliable,
faithful performance of your visits and oversight as home teachers and visiting teachers.
Each of us should do all that we can, in the
spirit of gospel self-reliance, to provide for ourselves and our families in a temporal
and a spiritual way. Then, if it is necessary to reach out for help, we know we have first
done all that we can. This includes helping the members of our immediate and extended
families to the maximum extent possible so that the bishop is not faced with burdens that
should be handled in the first instance by the individual or by the extended family.
Another way to help our busy bishops and their
counselors is to be careful not to occupy their time with matters that others can handle.
If we need an address or a phone number or help with some other routine task, we should
not call a member of the bishopric. Let us reserve their time for the heavy
responsibilities that are uniquely theirs. Let us call on others for the things others can
handle.
When contacting our local leaders is
necessary, we should remember that they have employment responsibilities too. Don’t
contact them at their place of work unless there is a true emergency. Let us be careful
not to put our leaders’ employment in jeopardy. Members should also be careful not to
expect their local leaders to give them the products of those leaders’ occupations.
Our leaders are called to give us Church service, not professional services or merchandise
inventories.
We should remember that our leaders are also
husbands and fathers. They are bishops or counselors for a season, but they will never be
released from their family responsibilities, which are for eternity. Our leaders need time
to perform their family responsibilities also, and our thoughtful consideration will help.
My heart ached for a young mother who wondered
what would necessitate her bishop-husband’s spending six hours counseling a needy
member on a Sunday following sacrament meeting. He did not arrive home until 6:00 P.M.,
which is bad enough, but this particular Sunday happened to be Christmas Day. I am sure
the bishop felt he needed to give the help that was requested, but I also wonder whether a
member in distress could not have held some of that need in abeyance long enough for a
bishop to enjoy this Christmas afternoon with his family. That is admittedly an extreme
example, but the problem is not an exceptional one, as many bishops and their wives would
affirm.
A more familiar example was mentioned in a ward I
recently attended in Salt Lake City. A wife of a member of the bishopric was speaking in
sacrament meeting. She thanked the members of the ward for not phoning their home on
Monday evening. She said that was the only time in the week when she and her children
could plan to have their husband and father all to themselves. That forbearance would be
good for all wards and branches.
Brothers and sisters, the offices of bishop and
branch president and counselors are sacred in this Church. The men who hold those offices
are respected by the Lord, inspired by His Spirit, and given the powers of discernment
necessary to their office. We honor and love them, and we show this by our consideration
for them.
I testify of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose Church
this is and whose servants they are. I ask the blessings of the Lord on the members and
leaders of this Church, general and local. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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