What Does it Mean to Minister?

With home and visiting teaching being replaced with ministering, many are asking what exactly it means to minister. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland calls ministering “a heaven-sent opportunity as an entire Church to demonstrate ‘pure religion … undefiled before God’—‘to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light’ and to ‘comfort those that stand in need of comfort,’ to minister to the widows and the fatherless, the married and the single, the strong and the distraught, the downtrodden and the robust, the happy and the sad—in short, all of us, every one of us, because we all need to feel the warm hand of friendship and hear the firm declaration of faith.”1

Sister Jean B. Bingham defines ministering as loving as the Savior does. She said it can be “going for a walk, getting together for a game night, offering service, or even serving together, … visiting in person or talking on the phone or chatting online or texting. It [can be] delivering a birthday card and cheering at a soccer game, … sharing a scripture or a quote from a conference talk that would be meaningful, … discussing a gospel questions and sharing testimony to bring clarity and peace. It [is] becoming part of someone’s life and caring about him or her.”2

In reality, isn’t that how we should have been doing our home and visiting teaching all along? Sadly, it seems that at times there has been more importance placed on lists and lessons than on people and purpose. Let me share an unfortunate example of this. One of the sisters my daughter visited was a very good friend of hers. They saw and spoke with each other weekly, if not more. While her friend was having a baby, my daughter watched her little girl and then she and her companion took in a meal. When my daughter was asked to report her visiting teaching for the month, she was told that since there was no message given to this sister, what she had done was not considered visiting teaching. She called me to ask if that was right. I must admit, I was shocked! A few months earlier, I had attended a training with the general Relief Society presidency where Sister Julie B. Beck stressed the importance of caring for our sisters. She encouraged us to get out of the mindset of reporting that our visiting teaching was “done” and to start counting the caring, reminding us that caring for our sisters is never done. Clearly the service rendered by my daughter and her companion was tender care to a sister they visited.

In the Relief Society meeting of October 2010 General Conference, Sister Barbara Thompson, one of Sister Beck’s counselors, had taught this principle to us all, “I am one who has visited several women each month and then proudly declared with a sigh of relief, ‘My visiting teaching is done!’ Well, the part I report on may be done, but if that is the only reason I do it, what a shame. The beauty of visiting teaching is not to see 100 percent on the monthly report; the beauty of visiting teaching is seeing lives changed, tears wiped away, testimonies growing, people loved, families strengthened, people cheered, the hungry fed, the sick visited, and those who are mourning comforted. Actually, visiting teaching is never done because we watch over and strengthen always.”3

Let’s change the words from visiting teaching to ministering. The beauty of ministering is seeing lives changed, tears wiped away, testimonies growing, people loved, families strengthened, people cheered, the hungry fed, the sick visited, and those who are mourning comforted. Ministering is never done because we watch over and strengthen always. Doesn’t that sound a lot like what Elder Holland and Sister Bingham taught us ministering is? We, in fact, have been asked to minister for many years.

President Russell M. Nelson said, “A hallmark of the Lord’s true and living Church will always be an organized, directed effort to minister to individual children of God and their families. Because it is His Church, we as His servants will minister to the one, just as He did.”4

“The Savior showed by example what it means to minister as He served out of love for His Father and for each person. He loved, taught, prayed for, comforted, and blessed those around Him, inviting all to follow Him.”5 If we accept the Savior’s invitation to follow Him, we will love, teach, pray for and bless those around us, especially those to whom we have been called to minister. We will have the most effective impact if we, like the Savior, focus on “the one.” “Ministering is led by the Spirit, it is flexible, and it is customized to the needs of each member.”5

One of the greatest things we can do as we begin this “new era of ministering”6 is to learn to listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. “To provide Christlike service, [we] cannot rely on routine visits or predetermined messages; [we] seek inspiration and counsel with family members to best care for those to whom [we] are assigned—using the time and resources [we] have.”5 Pray specifically to know what each person needs and then listen to the promptings that surely will come. President Russell M. Nelson reminds us, “Through the manifestations of the Holy Ghost, the Lord will assist us in all our righteous pursuits.”7 Ministering is most definitely a righteous pursuit!

Sister Bingham declared, “After all is said and done, true ministering is accomplished one by one with love as the motivation. The value and merit and wonder of sincere ministering is that it truly changes lives!”2 True ministering is what the Savior is asking us to do. President Nelson made that quite clear when he said, “The Lord has made important adjustments in the way we care for each other.”6 As we accept the invitation given to us “to care for one another in a bold, new, holier way,”1 miracles will happen because we will have heavenly help!