Return
to home page
Return to Stake
Leadership Meeting Ideas
We just did a stake RS leadership meeting on this and it turned out great!
We made a sheep for each sister in our stake and had them color coded by wards and put it on a 9' x 6' board. We had a picture of the Savior in the center and those attending meetings on one side and those who did not on his back side. The visual was stunning. We then had about a 20 minute lesson on it. (SEE BELOW)
I also showed the first part of the video from the YW leadership on the Summer of the sheep based on Sis. Maitland's talk a few years ago. It was a very spiritual and moving meeting and a month later I am still hearing a lot about it and it has motivated our sisters to do shepherding visits in their wards which is what we wanted.
Linda in SC
*****
FEED MY SHEEP
Show video of “The Summer of the Sheep.” (10 min.) (Stop when she says she was older before she understood what her father said.)
NOTE: I don’t have information for obtaining this video. Check with Deseret Book or Church Distribution.
Are you a shepherd, sheepherder or a sheep?
Discuss: What is the difference?
The Savior talked a lot about sheep. He was called the Good shepherd. He gave the parable of the sheep, leaving the 99 and going after the one that was lost. In Isaiah, he was prophesied to feed his flock like a shepherd. After his resurrection, before he left his disciples, he gave Peter this charge found in John 21:15-17.
Review the charge to Peter found in John 21: 15-17. We have been given the same charge. He also told his disciples, “You will do the work which ye see me do.” If we love the Savior, we show it by working to feed his sheep and bringing them back into the fold. This is a major part of our callings as leaders in Relief Society.
Show display of sheep from each ward.
Tell each color coding for each ward.
Show those who attend and those do not.
Take a few minutes to look over the numbers.
Discuss: We all have an important work to do in finding those sheep. Many of these women who are lost are wives of the prospective elders that our stake has asked us to work on and to pray for. It can be very overwhelming. Where do we start?
Realize that the Sunday part of our callings are the smallest degree of what our time is spent in doing. Education Counselor and Homemaking counselor’s duties are for the programs of Relief Society but the RSP is over the welfare, compassionate service and visiting teaching of every sister. This is a big responsibility and counselors and secretaries help in this.
Steps to discuss:
1. Identify your sheep and get to know them. The scriptures tell us the shepherd knew his sheep by name and the sheep knew his voice. To have and influence on sisters, you have develop a relationship with them.
If you feel overwhelmed, talk these names over with your bishop and prayerfully seek the Lord’s help in where and who to start with.
SOME SISTERS TO IDENTIFY:
2. Make sure every sister is assigned a visiting teacher. Pres. Sanders said there is no such thing as a Do Not Contact. Your sisters may not be able to make a physical contact monthly to some sisters, but make some kind of contact as you can and give them opportunities to return to the fold. Pray that their hearts will be softened.
ASK: How do we do this when we have 2/3 inactive sisters? Assign every sister a visiting teacher. That may mean that some partners have 12 sisters. You visit those you can and of those you are trying to identify, you split them up and make a contact to a few one month and some another. You maybe send a month church calendar or handout on an event to some. You may send some a quick note. That way, every few months, they are all getting as much contact as you can give them.
3. As a presidency, try to talk to every sister who is at church on Sundays. Get to church early and stay later so you have an opportunity to greet every sister.
4. Identify those who are not at church on Sunday and check on them. (Meet a few minutes and make a list together of who was not there and then divide them up and make a call or send a card to check on them. As you feel prompted, may a personal visit. So many times we see people in their Sunday best and do not know what is going on in their lives and if they need extra support and care.
5. Plan to make regular scheduled shepherding visits to those in need. Once you get started, you will never be ahead of your list of those to visit. I have a firm testimony in the importance of shepherding visits. Getting into your sister’s homes will open many doors to relationships and trust that they will have. They will know that you care.
6. As possible, try to get many sisters involved in service and the Relief Society Programs on Sunday as well as homemaking meetings.
As the scriptures tell us, we reap what we sow. We may feel overwhelmed with trying to make a lot of visits and contact with our sisters, but the rewards and blessings will come back to you over and over. I can testify of that.
One of the greatest benefits of this type of service is feeling that you are a vessel in the Lord’s hands. There was one time a counselor and I felt impressed to visit an inactive sister in our ward. She had moved and all we knew that she lived in a trailer in Wellford. Not much to go on! We prayed that we would find it. We knew where there were a few trailers together and went and boldly knocked on a door. That trailer was next to the trailer where they lived. A chance? No, a miracle. The Lord led us there. She ended up having complications in a pregnancy and needed our help but we did not know this until we went to her home.
WENDY’S STORY: One summer about seven years ago, we had a young college student come home from the summer. One her first Monday home, she was on her way to a job interview when her truck took a curve too fast and she flipped over. She was gravely injured and not expected to live. Through a priesthood blessing, she did live and then began the long rehabilitative road. Many of you know Wendy Ricks. I was the Relief Society President when this happened. It was a wonderful thing to see the ward in action. Our ward gave this family its entire support. We had no problem getting meals and transportation lined up, and any kind of help that the family needed. Sign up sheets for help was done weeks in advance throughout that summer. We also had a young mother who was pregnant and put at bedrest with her pregnancy and the ward pitched in there too. One of my sons called it the summer of service. Our ward grew very close. When Wendy was well enough to be moved to an Atlanta Hospital for rehabilitation, many ward members visited her any time we were in Atlanta. That was probably the most unified supportive care I had ever seen a ward do over a three month period of time.
Another incident happened that spring summer. About the time Wendy came home from college, a young man in our ward decided to drop out of seminary. During that summer, he quit coming to church. He is 23 years old now. He should have received the Melchizedek Priesthood. He should have gone on a mission. Did our ward rally around his family and go after this lost sheep like we rallied around Wendy and the pregnant mother? I think a few attempts were made but nothing intense was done and we failed. There was no total ward support rallying around this young man by many, many people. Now, he is one of the statistics of prospective Elders that Pres. Sanders talks about.
I realize that it is much easier to help with physical needs that spiritual needs. But, which of these two young people’s eternal lives was at more risk? Should we not have rallied around this young man to save his eternal soul?
Visits are not easy. They can be scary and intimidating but we need to go as the Lord’s servants and have the Lord use us as his hands. One sister called me at church one Sunday and needed to talk to someone. Her family was on the brink of falling apart. Our bishop was out of town and I had developed a trusting and caring relationship with her and she wanted me there. I went over and spent the afternoon listening to her crying and helping her with the faith to go on. We had a long intense gospel discussion and I left her able to cope until she could go to the Bishop and begin working things out. It was a very emotionally exhausting day. At the end of that day, as I prayed for this sister, I felt like I had been given a big hug and felt overwhelming love. Now, whenever I hear the scripture about being in the Arms of His Love, I feel that I have experienced it.
Every one of our us has in our wards, many of heavenly father’s children, his sheep (REFER BACK TO THE SHEEP) who are lost. We have all been called as the shepherds. I can testify that the most important part of your calling is reaching those lost sheep one on one and working to bring them back into the fold. You may have an instant success.
A couple of years ago, I just wrote a note to a new sister who had moved into our boundaries. I did not know that she had been living there for six years. It took that one letter of introduction and a phone call to make a visit. It took one visit to get her back into the church. You may not have instant success. You may be planting seeds of activity that will come years down the road. Our job is to keep trying and to do all in our power to bring those lost sheep back into the fold of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Love them in. The Lord cannot work miracles if we do not do our part. The spirit will work through us and again I testify the blessings will be overwhelming to each of you are you make this effort.
By the way, we had a special musical # after this "Dear to the Heart
of the Shepherd."