Worldwide leadership broadcast: Elder Bruce D. Porter
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Worldwide leadership broadcast: President Henry B. Eyring
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Worldwide leadership broadcast: Elder Dallin H. Oaks
Worldwide leadership broadcast: Elder Quentin L. Cook
November 2010 worldwide leadership broadcast: Special broadcast introduces changes
From lds.org: Serving in the Church
Elder Bruce D. Porter of the Seventy prepared a message for the worldwide leadership training broadcast by focusing on Chapter 17 of the Church handbooks. Circumstances precluded Elder Porter from appearing in the broadcast, so his message was delivered by his fellow Seventy, Elder W. Craig Zwick.
The Church, said Elder Porter, has grown into a vast international organization encompassing more than 170 nations. Leaders from around the world face unique situations for which no ready answer can always be found in the handbook. What works, say, in a ward in Utah may not always work in a ward in the Philippines.
Given the dramatic differences found in different units throughout the Church, local leaders must feel they have the authority to make adaptions as guided by the Spirit.
“Yet, while some adaptions are necessary, there are certain sacred, revealed and fundamental elements of the Church that cannot be changed at local discretion,” said Elder Porter.
Chapter 17, he explained, is divided into two main sections. The first section concerns those things that must remain uniform throughout the Church. The second outlines those conditions that allow adaptions by local leaders. After citing from that chapter a list of things from that require uniformity such as scriptures, commandments, standards and purity of doctrine Elder Porter declared that the Church “ought to have the same Spirit, the same feeling and the same basic structure worldwide.”
The conditions that allow local leaders to make adaptations are grouped into five general categories, he said. The first, “Family Circumstances,” applies to every unit of the Church worldwide.
“Everywhere leaders should take into account family circumstances as they organize wards and branches, plan meetings and events and make callings....Members should not be asked to make excessive family sacrifices to serve in callings or to support programs and activities.”
The second set of conditions concerns “Transportation and Communication.”
Millions of members rely on public transportation, bicycles or walking to get around. Many do not have telephones or e-mail connections.
The third circumstance permitting adaptation is “Small Quorum or Class Size.” Local leaders, for example, can allow elders quorums and high priest groups to meet every Sunday together in one class if their numbers are few. The same flexibility applies in organizing Sunday classes for Young Men, Young Women and Primary groups.
The fourth condition is “Leadership Resources.”
“When wards and branches do not have sufficient leadership to fill all positions, they should simplify the organization and programs, fitting them to the size and needs of the unit,” said Elder Porter.
Do not try to make the ward fit the organizational chart -- reduce the organizational chart to fit the ward.
Finally, “Security Conditions.”
“There are places in the world where crime or political unrest makes it unsafe to travel at night. In those places, it is simply impossible for wards and branches to schedule activities or meetings during the work week, which in some countries lasts six days.
“Therefore, for these units, it would be appropriate to hold Mutual, for example, on Sunday.”
Elder Porter said it would be inappropriate to participate in activities such as sports or swimming on the Sabbath. Instead, enjoy quieter kinds of recreation and learning activities.
Appropriate adaptations do not weaken the Church, he concluded. They strengthen it.
“Our local leaders should not feel that in making them, they are settling for less than the ideal. They should know that every unit of the Church has access to the doctrines, to the ordinances, the priesthood power and the gifts of the Spirit necessary for the salvation and exaltation of God's children.”
