The Church’s recent missionary efforts have been focused on three fundamental principles of missionary work. “Love, Share, and Invite’ A quick search of “Love, Share, and Invite” on ChurchofJesusChrist.org will show dozens and dozens of articles, talks, and trainings on the subject. Over the last few years, I have personally attended over a dozen ward/stake trainings/lessons on “Love, Share, and Invite.”
But I have noticed something, often these lessons/trainings focus solely on love, and seldom do they talk about sharing, and even more rare is getting to the actual inviting part. Worse than that, they almost all teach a corrupted role of love in missionary work. A philosophy of men, Satan is attempting to mingle with scripture. That is what I want to talk about today:
How Satan is Corrupting the Role of Love in “Love, Share, and Invite”
When it comes to the importance of love in missionary work, no one will argue that it is all but required for effective missionary work. After all, how could we attempt to teach the God love, or the gospel of love, without love itself? The necessity of love cannot be an attack vector for Satan, so instead his efforts are aimed at the role of love in missionary work. Before I point out Satan’s efforts to counterfeit/corrupt the role of love, I want to address the true role of love.
The Proper Role of Love in Missionary Work
The proper role of “love” in missionary work is a motivating role. We share the gospel because we love others. In June 1999, President James E. Faust counseled new mission presidents at the MTC before they left for their assignments. That “love is the motive” behind missionary work. 13 years later, in the July 2012 Ensign, then Sunday School General President Russell T. Osguthorpe reiterated the point, “love is the motive.” And in the Sept. 2016 First Presidency Message Dieter F. Uchtdorf declared, “Love is the central motive for all we do in the Church.”
But no one put it better than Joseph Smith who taught, “A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race.” (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, Chapter 37 “Charity, the Pure Love of Christ“). Truly this describes the condition of the sons of Mosiah who “were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature.” They, after an intimate interaction with the greatest act of Divine Love, even the Atonement of Jesus Christ, then desired to share the gospel with even their enemies.
From these examples, we have a solid doctrinal foundation that the role of love is one of motivation. True love motivates those who know the gospel to share it with others, sharing the gospel then leads to invitations to act. Just like true faith leads to repentance. Each aspect of the gospel naturally and normally leads to the next.
Satan’s Corrupted/Counterfeit Role of Love in Missionary Work
The role Satan wants us to believe love plays in missionary work is that of factoring in the decision to accept or reject the invitation. Satan wants us to believe that if we love someone enough they will accept the gospel, and inversely, if they do not FEEL OUR LOVE enough they won’t accept the gospel. Satan LOVES mingling “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” with the truths of love, share, and invite. And he is successful, because it makes sense, at a surface level.
This might not sound super nefarious at first, but it completely implodes the love, share, and invite model. If love is a factor in whether someone will accept the gospel, then we should focus lessons and trainings just on love! We suddenly buy into the mindset that we need to build up enough relationship currency to buy their conversion. This completely prevents us from sharing the gospel till we think our friends are ‘ready.’ And if they reject the gospel, it is not because they used their agency, it is because WE did not love them enough; therefore we need to love them more till they accept the gospel.
But worse than that, when you boil Satan’s counterfeit role of love down, it is extremely self-righteous and prideful at its roots. It is saying, “Sure, God may be our loving Father in Heaven. Sure, Jesus Christ might have authored the greatest act of love known as the Atonement. But if someone is going to accept the gospel it will be because they feel MY LOVE.”
If this was the gospel of Jeremy Goff or Bishop John Doe then our love might actually play a role in them accepting the gospel. But this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Someone does not need MORE than JESUS to accept Christ. True conversion is not because they feel my love or your love, it is because they feel HIS LOVE through the Holy Ghost. That experience happens when we SHARE the gospel truths giving the Holy Ghost the opportunity to testify of truth and God’s love.
Love, Share, and Invite: The natural process of missionary work.
Lest I fall into the very trap I spoke of earlier, (that of focusing only on love), I want to briefly address, the roles of love, share, and invite.
How Love Naturally Leads to Sharing
With the motivating force of love, we will have a desire to share the gospel with those around us. We won’t simply wait for people to be ‘ready,’ we will see them as the sons of Mosiah saw them, as the prophets see them, as the Lord sees them! We will attempt to share the gospel with everyone, every contact, every neighbor, and everyone we interact with. And we will do so not out of obligation, or duty, but out of love of God and our fellow men.
An example of this comes from the Jan. 2007 Ensign: “Spencer W. Kimball of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was sitting with a group that included four missionaries. After ordering bread and milk, Elder Kimball asked the waiter if he had children. The waiter replied that he had a son. Elder Kimball then said, ‘Bread and milk will make him healthy, but he will be even healthier if you will feed him the food these young men have to give.’ The waiter appeared unsure what to make of this statement. Then Elder Kimball indicated that the young men he referred to were missionaries and that they taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. The waiter said he would be interested in listening to their teaching.”
President Kimball did not wait till the waiter felt his love, but rather being motivated by love he shared the gospel with a complete stranger. There are countless stories just like this, of faithful disciples who share the gospel with complete strangers who are then touched by the Spirit.
Sharing Testimony Invites A Witness
The role of sharing the gospel is to invite the Spirit in to teach an individual. It is, in fact, sharing our testimony. James E. Faust, in the aforementioned Mission President Training, taught that “the Spirit is the key,” and Elder Osguthorpe expounded that not only is it key, “The Spirit is the teacher.”
I see so many people afraid to share the gospel out of fear they might not know all the answers to all the questions. Simply put, they don’t and won’t ever know “all the answers.” But neither does anyone! Myself included. It is not a matter of how much we know, but a matter of how faithful we are to what we DO know, how willing we are to testify of the witness we have. Brigham Young was NOT converted by the member who knew everything, but by the member who shared his TESTIMONY.
Whereas we should strive to deepen our gospel learning, we should not put off missionary work to some future day where we “know more.” Right here, right now we can start sharing by testifying of what we do know which invites the Spirit who is the true teacher in missionary work to then do the heavy lifting. One of the best member missionaries I know is a lady in Maine who struggles with every commandment with “Law” in it, but she is ALWAYS testifying to friends, neighbors, and even strangers on the street that the gospel is true AND then inviting them to learn more. I know of at least three of her ‘friends’ that have been baptized so far.
Inviting Others To Use Their Agency
The final, and I would argue the most neglected step of missionary work is inviting others to use their agency to follow Christ. THIS STEP IS VITAL. We are under obligation to warn our neighbors, to rid ourselves of the blood of their sins leaving them without excuse at judgment day. That might seem blunt, but it is the word of the Lord: “Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor. Therefore, they are left without excuse, and their sins are upon their own heads.” D&C 88:81-82.
When we fail to invite others to follow Christ, we fail to allow them to use their agency thus leaving them excuse. Not only that, when we fail to invite, then their sins will stain our garments at the last day. As John Taylor put it, “God will hold you responsible for those you might have saved, had you done your duty.” (As quoted by Thomas S. Monson, GC: Apr. 1986)
The act of inviting not only is the logical conclusion of love, share, and invite, it is also the act by which agency is honored. This is why missionaries are instructed to testify of the restoration immediately and invite those hearing to act because the combination of sharing the gospel, testifying of truth, and inviting others to act on the message places them in a situation where they are required to use their agency to choose Christ or not.
There is power in the invitation to act. I can testify of this from personal experience. My brother came back to the Church because he was invited to act. He had gone less active, completely inactive actually, post receiving the endowment. It broke my family’s heart. One day, I had a frank conversation with him where I asked him why he was not living what he knew to be true… He had no answer. I then invited him to come back, to come with me, to Church. A few months later, in the Celestial Room of the Mount Timpanogos Temple, the night before his temple marriage he came to me with teary eyes thanking me for having the courage to invite him back. I believe that many, like my brother, simply need someone to invite them to come back.
Conclusion
Oh, what I could give if in one of the many lessons/trainings on love, share, and invite I have attended the presenter said, “Can everyone who thinks they love their neighbors raise their hand? Can everyone who has loved them enough to share the gospel keep their hands up? And can those who loved them enough to invite them after sharing keep their hands up still? This is the process of love, share invite.”
Am I perfect at love, share, and invite? No, but it is something I am striving towards! I am trying and I invite you to join with me. Let us love God enough to overcome fear to share the gospel with those around us, and then in the boldness of the Spirit testify and invite all to come and see, and ultimately come and stay.
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