We've a Story to Tell
Community of Christ President Stephen M. Veazey shared the following message on Sunday, March 27, 2011 at Kirtland Temple in Kirtland, Ohio. The worship service celebrated the 175th anniversary of the Kirtland Temple dedication.
Listen carefully to your own story as a people, for it is a sacred journey and it has taught you many things you must know for the journey yet to come.—Doctrine and Covenants 162:2a
The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive….—Barry Lopez, The Crow and the Weasel
A sacred story that reaches beyond time and place to bless lives in many generations is truly a powerful story and a blessing of God’s grace!
As a young boy, growing up in the church in Tennessee but not traveling much beyond my home area, I felt the Kirtland Temple story spiritually cared for me. It enriched my faith long before I could visit this sacred space. I repeatedly heard that story in Sunday school classes, sermons, testimonies, and offertories. I saw pictures in history texts and slide shows.
It was only after I was in college that a friend and I took a spontaneous pilgrimage to Kirtland to see and experience the Temple. We were blessed by the space and the hospitality of church members who provided room and board with little notice. The Temple and the community it shaped and continues to shape are inseparable.
Since then, I have visited the Temple many times. Each time the place, the space, and the story interact to draw me ever more deeply into God’s presence and redemptive work in the world. The place, the space, and the story continue to shape my understanding of the mysterious ways of the Spirit and the nature of the church and its message to the world.
In today’s increasingly skeptical secular societies, the place, the space, and the story call us to the deeper communion with the Spirit for which our souls desperately hunger. Most of us don’t know how spiritually famished we are. We have become insulated and distracted from the spiritual dimensions and possibilities of life.
If we can help ourselves and others pause long enough in places like this to listen, to see, to begin, to experience the sacred, our souls will be stirred to seek deeper spiritual connection with God.
The Kirtland Temple story continues to care for us by telling us we need to pay more attention to our spiritual lives individually and as a faith community. Genuine discipleship and effective ministry always are rooted in and sustained by spiritual formation and renewal.
The Kirtland Temple story also challenges us to prepare better as disciples, priesthood, and leaders to share the gospel story with the world. The Saints of the Kirtland era felt others took advantage of them because of their lack of education.
Besides spiritual preparation and worship, a primary job of the Kirtland Temple was ministerial education. To use an adage, “if these walls could talk” they would echo with lectures and discussions focused on mastering skills to better tell the gospel story to the world.
Community of Christ’s first seminary was on the third floor of the Kirtland Temple. It was called the Kirtland, Ohio, Theological Institution. It was among the first five seminaries in Ohio. Having a Community of Christ seminary today is not a novel development in the church’s life. Rather, it’s a continuation of a rich tradition of serious scriptural, theological, and language study that began here. In fact, students had classes in Latin, Greek, and, for more-advanced students, Hebrew grammar.
As we talk about priesthood faithfulness and development today, we continue to stress the importance of pre-ordination and continuing education to magnify one’s calling and effectiveness as a minister. This includes enrichment through scriptural and theological studies as well as practical ministerial skills. When we participate in these endeavors, we are in step with our spiritual ancestors who gathered here to learn by “study and by faith.”
We also are reminded that as we engage in human and community development throughout the world, access to education and creating more opportunities for education are essential to empowering people to free themselves from poverty and oppression.
The Kirtland Temple story continues to care for and form the church. It reminds us of the importance of education for members and ministers and for the work of proclaiming Christ and promoting communities of peace and justice throughout the world.
One of the most-familiar and compelling pieces of the Kirtland Temple story is the sacrificial living and giving that made the construction possible.
Quoting from Mark Staker, in Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations (page 436) we read:
The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive….—Barry Lopez, The Crow and the Weasel
A sacred story that reaches beyond time and place to bless lives in many generations is truly a powerful story and a blessing of God’s grace!
As a young boy, growing up in the church in Tennessee but not traveling much beyond my home area, I felt the Kirtland Temple story spiritually cared for me. It enriched my faith long before I could visit this sacred space. I repeatedly heard that story in Sunday school classes, sermons, testimonies, and offertories. I saw pictures in history texts and slide shows.
It was only after I was in college that a friend and I took a spontaneous pilgrimage to Kirtland to see and experience the Temple. We were blessed by the space and the hospitality of church members who provided room and board with little notice. The Temple and the community it shaped and continues to shape are inseparable.
Since then, I have visited the Temple many times. Each time the place, the space, and the story interact to draw me ever more deeply into God’s presence and redemptive work in the world. The place, the space, and the story continue to shape my understanding of the mysterious ways of the Spirit and the nature of the church and its message to the world.
In today’s increasingly skeptical secular societies, the place, the space, and the story call us to the deeper communion with the Spirit for which our souls desperately hunger. Most of us don’t know how spiritually famished we are. We have become insulated and distracted from the spiritual dimensions and possibilities of life.
If we can help ourselves and others pause long enough in places like this to listen, to see, to begin, to experience the sacred, our souls will be stirred to seek deeper spiritual connection with God.
The Kirtland Temple story continues to care for us by telling us we need to pay more attention to our spiritual lives individually and as a faith community. Genuine discipleship and effective ministry always are rooted in and sustained by spiritual formation and renewal.
The Kirtland Temple story also challenges us to prepare better as disciples, priesthood, and leaders to share the gospel story with the world. The Saints of the Kirtland era felt others took advantage of them because of their lack of education.
Besides spiritual preparation and worship, a primary job of the Kirtland Temple was ministerial education. To use an adage, “if these walls could talk” they would echo with lectures and discussions focused on mastering skills to better tell the gospel story to the world.
Community of Christ’s first seminary was on the third floor of the Kirtland Temple. It was called the Kirtland, Ohio, Theological Institution. It was among the first five seminaries in Ohio. Having a Community of Christ seminary today is not a novel development in the church’s life. Rather, it’s a continuation of a rich tradition of serious scriptural, theological, and language study that began here. In fact, students had classes in Latin, Greek, and, for more-advanced students, Hebrew grammar.
As we talk about priesthood faithfulness and development today, we continue to stress the importance of pre-ordination and continuing education to magnify one’s calling and effectiveness as a minister. This includes enrichment through scriptural and theological studies as well as practical ministerial skills. When we participate in these endeavors, we are in step with our spiritual ancestors who gathered here to learn by “study and by faith.”
We also are reminded that as we engage in human and community development throughout the world, access to education and creating more opportunities for education are essential to empowering people to free themselves from poverty and oppression.
The Kirtland Temple story continues to care for and form the church. It reminds us of the importance of education for members and ministers and for the work of proclaiming Christ and promoting communities of peace and justice throughout the world.
One of the most-familiar and compelling pieces of the Kirtland Temple story is the sacrificial living and giving that made the construction possible.
Quoting from Mark Staker, in Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations (page 436) we read:
In addition to the costs in dollars, members also paid a high cost in terms of effort and sacrifice. Many parted with “even the necessities of life” to build the edifice. When John Taylor commented on the subject in 1855, he noted:
It cost the martyrd (sic) Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum, and their revered and honred (sic) father and hundreds of dead and living Saints, many many days of toil, labor, and anxiety, who labored on its walls in the midst of poverty and reproach and almost the lack of everything—the widow, the orphan, the halt and lame, all contributing their mite to build a Temple to God of Israel, that there might be a place for him to communicate with the children of men. Stalwart men labor’d (sic) on that Temple with nothing but mush and milk to live upon and in many instances, barely bread and water until their knees trembled with weakness.
While greatly inspired and challenged by this account, I am not sure I am worthy to sit in the Temple their calloused and raw hands built! Yet, I know they would delight in our presence here 175 years later and selflessly would urge us to receive abundantly from their dedicated sacrificial giving.
I yearn for the church today to regain a sense of mission and calling that will inspire such commitment and generous, even-sacrificial giving. So much of our discipleship is shallow and compartmentalized.
We need to recover a sense of the imperative that establishes the gospel in our lives as the cause that is greater than life itself. Then, and only then, will we learn the truth that to truly have life we must lose our lives in Christ and his mission.
The Kirtland Temple story also tells us that local and worldwide church mission walk hand-in-hand.
This is the place where Joseph Smith, Jr. turned to Heber C. Kimball in June of 1837 and called him to go on the first overseas mission for the church. Kimball was set apart a short time later in the Sidney Rigdon home across the street for that mission. He was soon on his way to England to open the work of the church in Europe.
It was expressed again in 1847, when Joseph F. McDowell organized an RLDS branch in Kirtland and called it “Tiona”—Tahitian for "Zion"—to honor the newly established church in Tahiti.
In 1959 at a High Priests Conference, Roy Cheville stood in the same pulpit and commissioned Blair Jensen and Charles Neff to take the gospel to Asia. Cheville recognized the power of sacred story and place. He intentionally connected the beginning of the Orient Mission—which was transformative in the Church’s life—to the beginning of the Europe Mission 122 years earlier.
It was also here, several years ago, following the approval of Doctrine and Covenants 163 and its guidance calling for closer association of the Council of Twelve and Quorums of Seventy in holistic evangelism, that I had the privilege of meeting with the Presidents of Seventy to explore how to implement the intent of the counsel. I have no doubt the power of the place, the space, and story, plus the opportunities afforded by the new Kirtland Temple Visitor and Spiritual Formation Center, enriched our discussions and the unfolding vision.
The Kirtland Temple story is still caring for the church by challenging us to renew our sense of vision, calling, and commitment to take the gospel story to all nations.
The Temple in Independence is dedicated to the pursuit of peace as an important element of the church’s mission. Some have resisted this emphasis for various reasons.
Let us be instructed by the fact that when the beloved hymn “The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning” was sung, the text included the following verse: “How blessed the day when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together without any ire.”
The call to work for the “blessed” day of peace and justice envisioned by the ancient prophets, and embodied in Christ, was reaching us from the earliest days of the movement.
When we challenge the church to share the peace of Jesus Christ and to promote communities of peacefulness throughout the world, we are calling the church to be faithful to an important piece of divine vision for the church from its inception.
Spiritual formation and renewal; increased ministerial education; sacrificial living and giving to accomplish divine purposes; promoting Christ’s mission throughout the world; and the call to work for peace locally and globally are among ways the Kirtland Temple story continues to care for the church today. If we heed these themes, we will accelerate the work of effectively telling the gospel story.
In closing, I want to express appreciation to the church history and historic sites staff members who helped plan this weekend and shared their reflections as I prepared this address.
I also am grateful to the Community of Christ Historic Sites Foundation for helping to ensure the preservation and interpretation of the places and spaces that contribute so much to the rich spiritual landscape of the church today.
We are aware the church’s historic sites’ impact extends far beyond members and friends of this church. Up to 45,000 people from different Latter Day Saints traditions and the public-at-large visit the Kirtland Temple each year. They are enriched by what they learn and experience.
We view key historic sites as a special stewardship of the church. I encourage church members, families, and friends to make the historical sites part of your spiritual formation and to support the work of Community of Christ Historic Sites Foundation.
Now, in response to the history and spirit of this place, let us go forth in our day to tell the story of Jesus and his love as we have come to know it as a people of faith in a world of great need.
—President Stephen M. Veazey, Kirtland Temple, March 27, 2011
I yearn for the church today to regain a sense of mission and calling that will inspire such commitment and generous, even-sacrificial giving. So much of our discipleship is shallow and compartmentalized.
We need to recover a sense of the imperative that establishes the gospel in our lives as the cause that is greater than life itself. Then, and only then, will we learn the truth that to truly have life we must lose our lives in Christ and his mission.
The Kirtland Temple story also tells us that local and worldwide church mission walk hand-in-hand.
This is the place where Joseph Smith, Jr. turned to Heber C. Kimball in June of 1837 and called him to go on the first overseas mission for the church. Kimball was set apart a short time later in the Sidney Rigdon home across the street for that mission. He was soon on his way to England to open the work of the church in Europe.
It was expressed again in 1847, when Joseph F. McDowell organized an RLDS branch in Kirtland and called it “Tiona”—Tahitian for "Zion"—to honor the newly established church in Tahiti.
In 1959 at a High Priests Conference, Roy Cheville stood in the same pulpit and commissioned Blair Jensen and Charles Neff to take the gospel to Asia. Cheville recognized the power of sacred story and place. He intentionally connected the beginning of the Orient Mission—which was transformative in the Church’s life—to the beginning of the Europe Mission 122 years earlier.
It was also here, several years ago, following the approval of Doctrine and Covenants 163 and its guidance calling for closer association of the Council of Twelve and Quorums of Seventy in holistic evangelism, that I had the privilege of meeting with the Presidents of Seventy to explore how to implement the intent of the counsel. I have no doubt the power of the place, the space, and story, plus the opportunities afforded by the new Kirtland Temple Visitor and Spiritual Formation Center, enriched our discussions and the unfolding vision.
The Kirtland Temple story is still caring for the church by challenging us to renew our sense of vision, calling, and commitment to take the gospel story to all nations.
The Temple in Independence is dedicated to the pursuit of peace as an important element of the church’s mission. Some have resisted this emphasis for various reasons.
Let us be instructed by the fact that when the beloved hymn “The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning” was sung, the text included the following verse: “How blessed the day when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together without any ire.”
The call to work for the “blessed” day of peace and justice envisioned by the ancient prophets, and embodied in Christ, was reaching us from the earliest days of the movement.
When we challenge the church to share the peace of Jesus Christ and to promote communities of peacefulness throughout the world, we are calling the church to be faithful to an important piece of divine vision for the church from its inception.
Spiritual formation and renewal; increased ministerial education; sacrificial living and giving to accomplish divine purposes; promoting Christ’s mission throughout the world; and the call to work for peace locally and globally are among ways the Kirtland Temple story continues to care for the church today. If we heed these themes, we will accelerate the work of effectively telling the gospel story.
In closing, I want to express appreciation to the church history and historic sites staff members who helped plan this weekend and shared their reflections as I prepared this address.
I also am grateful to the Community of Christ Historic Sites Foundation for helping to ensure the preservation and interpretation of the places and spaces that contribute so much to the rich spiritual landscape of the church today.
We are aware the church’s historic sites’ impact extends far beyond members and friends of this church. Up to 45,000 people from different Latter Day Saints traditions and the public-at-large visit the Kirtland Temple each year. They are enriched by what they learn and experience.
We view key historic sites as a special stewardship of the church. I encourage church members, families, and friends to make the historical sites part of your spiritual formation and to support the work of Community of Christ Historic Sites Foundation.
Now, in response to the history and spirit of this place, let us go forth in our day to tell the story of Jesus and his love as we have come to know it as a people of faith in a world of great need.
—President Stephen M. Veazey, Kirtland Temple, March 27, 2011