I can’t get enough of the words “Everything we do in the church.” This phrase always lures me in. Some of my favorite sermons have come at the point the speaker brings up this idea.
Neil J. Anderson has stated “Everything that we do in the Church should point us as individuals and as families to temple ordinances. All of the ordinances of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ invite us to improve our lives and to come to the Savior.”
Richard G. Hinckley spoke of prophetic priorities when he observed: “Everything we do in this Church requires optimism. The building of temples is a sign of great optimism. The creation of new stakes and new missions; the opening of new areas to missionary work; the building of hundreds of meetinghouses every year, year after year; the tremendous humanitarian effort we carry forth; the continued support of this great educational institution—all are signs of great optimism.”
Bruce R. McConkie mixed it up and admonished what we ought to do in the church: “Â This is what we ought to do in the Church. We ought to lean how to teach by the power of the Spirit, so that when we get through talking about the gospel subjects we’ll know whether what we’ve said is right, and we’ll be in a position to bear testimony, not alone of the truth and the divinity of the work, but also that the doctrine we proclaim and the everlasting truths which we expound are right, that they are the mind and voice and will of the Lord. Now, the glorious, wondrous thing about this work and about these doctrines is that they are true. There isn’t anything in this world, no truth that we can conceive of, to compare with the truth that the work we’re engaged in is true, that the Lord’s hand is here. It’s a literal fact that we have the gift and power of the Holy Ghost. We have the spirit of revelation, the spirit of testimony, the spirit of prophecy. These things must be, or else we’re not the church and kingdom of God; we’re not the Lord’s people.”