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Missionary Work? Too Pushy?

Well... I Started the topic because I always hear people saying stuff like:

The Missionaries are too pushy.

The Missionaries need to Teach More and Baptize Less...

The People that the Missionaries just Baptized were not ready.

I wanna know your opinion on this matter.

I personally think that if people actually Read the Manual Preach My Gospel they will come to realize the Need of More Converts!

My Purpose as a Missionary:

To Invite Others To Come Unto Christ! & Baptize!

But anyway... I wanna read your comments.

Pushy Work Missionary

As Missionaries we teach people to repent and be baptized as a way to enter the path to exaltation and follow the path of our Savior.

The missionaries testify of the doctrines of the Christ and then they invite investigators to join Christ's Church.

Moroni 8:10

This does not mean that the new member will know everything there is to know about the Church. I don't even know everything that I need to know and I have been a member since 8 and a true convert later when I learned more about the sweet doctrines of christ.

When someone joins the Church they are stating that they are willing to repent and "enter" the gate to further learning. No one is ready for exaltation when they enter the waters of Baptism, but they are willing to take on those initial covenants.

Baptism is the gate to the kingdom, not a sign that the person is ready for all things that the Gospel has to offer(Just the important stuff like repentance and obedience).

Edited: dbackers on 30th Jul, 2007 - 7:49pm

Missionary Work? Too Pushy? Studies Doctrine Mormon

In my personal experience, missionaries can sometimes be pushy and be too concerned about numbers. I remember once (many years ago) the missionaries invited me to teach a young girl who wasn't convinced to be baptized. When I reached, I found a girl who definitly was not ready for baptism for a large numbers of reasons, she asked me what to do about it and I was honest with her and told her to pray about it and seek the help and guidance she needed.

When the meeting was over, the missionaries were upset with me because I did not tell her to be baptize right away I tried to explain them that I wasn't going to lie but they did not understand.

When I personally receive the discussions (at the age of 11) I took a while to be baptized (along with my sister and grandmother) because I took the commitment very seriously and even though I felt the pressure to be baptized right away I took the time to pray and research on my own. Having said that, I think is important for missionaries to baptized (that's one of their callings) but yes, they can be pushy at times.

Pushy Work Missionary

Baptize less? That doesn't sound so good. However I must say I completely agree with lds_forever's sentiment on this one. I saw it way too often on my own mission. Elders would teach and baptize people who obviously had mental illnesses and would have been just as easily convinced to devote their lives to bigfoot (or is it Cain?). Other elders would teach 12 year olds and nobody else in their family... ick. I want people to be converted to my religion only because I know what it will do for them. Rushed baptisms that nobody in the local ward or branch helped find or teach, become misspelled names with no phone number or address on the ward list and more importantly are robbed of the light of the gospel. There are people out there who were taught by elders who were carrying out some imagined duty, that don't even know that they are members. I have met those people. I think that some of us need to realize that some people should not be baptized just because it is easy to talk them into doing it.

All I am saying is that no one should ever be baptized without a testimony of some of the unique aspects of our religion. The truth is that missionaries sometimes do push people into baptism, and they somehow get baptized not knowing what the BOM is and not knowing who Joseph Smith was. It happens and it shouldn't, it is a botched attempt at sharing the most powerful and important message in the universe, and I do not doubt that there is some consequence for people who do this, whether in this life or the next.

On my mission some zone leader came up with what he called "the pamphlet first discussion" - the elders would just read through the first discussion pamphlet at the doorstep and then it could be counted in the numbers we reported. Two elders read though the entire pamphlet even though they were asked to leave three times. The man found the mission office in the phone book and called and complained to the mission president that the elders would not leave until they were done with their unwanted presentation. That is not the spirit of charity and does a lot to tarnish our image(by the way, those were the same missionaries that were teaching and baptizing children and schizophrenics). We need the spirit of charity. Needless to say the entire mission was scolded. We need to have enough Christ-like love for the people that the elders bring to church that we can't wait to befriend them and ensure that the missionaries are doing their job right.

The argument that people who are baptized without knowing what they really did having a better chance of getting to know the true gospel in the future is of little consequence to me. A rushed baptism is a botched baptism and it is shameful for the missionaries that do it.

Rather off topic, but... Sorry for being a little long winded but I guess as you can tell I feel passionately about this.

Message Edited... LDS_forever: Please use the Spell Check before posting and break your message into paragraphs for easy reading. Thanks.

Pushy Work Missionary

The Lord said that we need to spread the Gospel to every Creature. Once it is done in and by his name then I do not know if we can say it is 'pushy'. Some missionaries are over zealous, but I do not know of any missionary that has kidnapped someone to baptize them. A person really does have to make and do a lot of things before they are baptized, more especially if they are living with someone or smoking, etc. I believe in many cases they DO need an extra push to move forward, but one must have the Spirit of Discernment to know when it is to be applied.

Missionary Work? Too Pushy?

I think every member should read this talk:

https://www.ldsinfobase.net/rh/missn/chall_testify.html

"The Challenging and Testifying Missionary"

It Talks About People "Not Being Ready" which is really a term that a lot of members use when Investigator don't understand doctrines like the Apostasy 100%

In The end who needs to understand it a 100%
Not all members did when they were 8 years old, but anyway.
Comments?

And -JB- I agree totally with you!