Brothers and Sisters,
Last month we were privileged to have Elder Steven E. Snow, a member of the Seventy and the Church Historian, with us to preside over our most recent stake conference. The emphasis of our last stake conference was on ministering, or what President Russell M. Nelson referred to as “a newer, holier approach to caring for and ministering to others.”
With home teaching and visiting teaching (as we once knew it) now “retired,” our challenge as members of the Church will be to minister to others the way the Lord intends.
The key to our effective ministering, in whatever form it takes (home visits, phone calls, texts, notes, etc.), will be to approach it as a labor of love. The apostle Paul said, “for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.” (Hebrews 6:10,11).
When we serve our fellow beings with love, we are truly in the service of our God, and He notices. And lives are blessed, and hearts are touched.
In the months ahead as we minister to others, it is the prayer of the Stake Presidency that we do so diligently, and as a labor of love as the apostle Paul and the Lord would have us do. If we don’t labor in the Lord’s vineyard with true love, we’re probably not ministering; we’re just filling an assignment.
It is our prayer that the ministering brothers and ministering sisters of the Akron Ohio Stake can go forth and serve our fellow saints in need with the charity and pure love that the Lord would have us do.
Akron Ohio Stake News 