The Power of Everyday Missionaries

Key Takeaways

The one passage Kyle has quoted elsewhere in the wiki is the “Using Mormon Words” section, copied into the Alma 17–22 study notes: Christensen’s practice of deliberately dropping religious and “Mormon” words into ordinary conversation — “I go to the Mormon church in Belmont…”, “When I was a Mormon missionary in Korea…”, “My daughter who is a student at BYU…” — as a low-pressure invitation. His framing: “it is like I am opening a door for people to a conversation about the Church. The vast majority, of course, don’t walk through the door, and that’s fine. But sometimes they walk through the door by asking, ‘Oh, so you’re Mormon?’”

Connections

Concepts: Missionary Work — the book is one of Kyle’s standing sources on member-missionary practice, sitting alongside Preach My Gospel and Keys to Successful Member-Missionary Work in the Alma 17–22 source list; Conversion — the “open a door, let them walk through it” model of invitation rather than persuasion.

People: Clayton M. Christensen — author; the same disruption theorist behind The Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovator’s Solution, here writing on ordinary member missionary work.

Highlights

From Roam

Roam page metadata — Reading Status: Books Read · Source: https://medium.com/@kwharrison13/2018-in-books-part-i-7d3590e7f5e8 · Tags: #Books

• ==Highlighted Quotes==
  • ==START REVIEWING HERE>>>==
  • “In this church you don’t have to believe anything that isn’t true. You go over to the University of Arizona and learn everything that you can, and whatever is true is part of the gospel.” Spiritual Quotes: Greatest Hits
  • “This experience also taught us that we don’t need to transform our relationships into friendships as a prerequisite to inviting others to learn about the gospel. Whether our platform with people is as neighbors, classmates, work associates, store clerks, or those riding on the same bus, there is no requirement to change that platform before we can invite them. Indeed, we need not and should not alter our relationships with others in order to invite them.”
  • A friend gave me the first idea: to use religous words and “Mormon” words in my day-to-day conversations such as these:
    • “I go to the Mormon church in Belmont, and a friend who gave the sermon last Sunday said something that is exactly how we need to start this presentation…”
    • “When I was a Mormon missionary in Korea…”
    • “My daughter who is a student at BYU…”
  • When I use these words in my conversation, it is like I am opening a door for people to a conversation about the Church. The vast majority, of course, don’t walk through the door, and that’s fine. But sometimes they walk through the door by asking, “Oh, so you’re Mormon?”
  • “Because God gives answers when we ask questions, it is a good way to do missionary work. People will learn when they are ready to learn, not when we are ready to teach them. Discovering what questions are on people’s minds about religion helps me see that I actually am surrounded by many more people who are religious than I had imagined — because they have questions.”

Also referenced (no wiki page yet): Spiritual Quotes: Greatest Hits